Photo By Julianne Sympson | At a farewell luncheon held on March 7, U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Bret Batchelder (left),...... read more read more
NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, Va. – Chris Shepherd will officially retire on March 21 after spending 11 years as the Joint Enabling Capabilities Command’s (JECC) Executive Director. Shepherd also served 24 years in the U.S. Army, retiring as a colonel in 2002, before beginning his career as a government civilian and ultimately a member of the Senior Executive Service.
Early Military Days
Upon graduation from high school in Beaverton, Ore., Shepherd chose to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, largely due to the fact that his parents would not have to pay his tuition. Additionally, Shepherd had a strong desire to assist the U.S. Army and serve his country.
“At the time I graduated from high school, Vietnam was still fresh in everyone’s minds,” Shepherd said. “The Army was ‘unloved’ and I thought they could use some help.”
Shepherd traveled across the country to enroll at the U.S. Military Academy; the first in a series of life choices which have shaped his professional career. Following graduation, Shepherd moved through the Army ranks with duty assignments in a variety of disciplines and locations, although his favorite was serving as the Battalion Commander in the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.
“I enjoyed working with the troops and seeing their progress and accomplishments,” said Shepherd. “They took pride in what they were doing and I had the authority to remove obstacles to allow them to be successful.”
That important leadership trait is something that Shepherd carried with him throughout the remainder of his military career, and also applied to his follow-on work as a government civilian.
Entering the ‘Joint’ Environment
Shepherd’s final assignment in the U.S. Army also served as the foundation for his civilian career and the next 11 years of his life. As a Colonel, Shepherd was assigned to the former U.S. Joint Forces Command’s (USJFCOM) J9 Experimentation directorate where he served as the chief of the Plans, Programs and Policy Division. Among other tasks, Shepherd was heavily involved in a concept – the Standing Joint Force Headquarters (SJFHQ) – which promoted a more deliberate way to form a joint task force (JTF) headquarters for crisis or contingency operations.
“We could not make command and control work in an ad hoc fashion,” Shepherd explained. “We realized that to influence the outcomes of battle, we needed something like the SJFHQ.”
The idea of the SJFHQ began to grow and after validating the concept in a series of wargames – Unified Vision 2001 and Millennium Challenge 2002 – USJFCOM developed a prototype SJFHQ and began building the necessary policies and procedures to implement the concept and gain buy-in from senior Department of Defense (DOD) officials.
“We had already proved to USJFCOM that employing the SJFHQ led to drastic improvements in the outcomes,” Shepherd said. “Next, we needed to convince DOD that the SJFHQ was important so we could gain manpower and funding.”
It was at this point that Shepherd retired from the Army, although he was almost immediately detailed back to the USJFCOM J9 Experimentation directorate through employment with the Georgia Institute of Technology. Shepherd, who had enormous insight into the initial concept of the SJFHQ, was asked to join those persons who comprised the initial SJFHQ prototype and assist them in making this concept a reality.
“Because of the way my military assignments and civilian employment worked out, I had the unique opportunity to follow the SJFHQ idea through several organizations as it grew from a preliminary concept into a legitimate organization,” Shepherd said.
Transition to the JECC
After more than four years invested in the SJFHQ, Shepherd officially became the Executive Director of the SJFHQ in 2004 and just four years later, played a major role in the transition of the SJFHQ into the JECC.
In addition to the joint planning and operations expertise provided by the SJFHQ; other capabilities, such as public affairs and communications, were also being requested on a regular basis. U.S. Marine Corps General James Mattis (retired), the then-Commander of USJFCOM, envisioned an organization which would include all the capabilities typically requested by a joint force commander. The result was the JECC, established in 2008, which combined joint communications and public affairs capabilities, with the joint planning expertise resident in the SJFHQ.
The JECC, as it’s known today, consists of three subordinate joint commands – the Joint Communications Support Element (JCSE), the Joint Public Affairs Support Element (JPASE) and the Joint Planning Support Element (JPSE) – which provide critical capabilities to combatant commands across the full spectrum of joint operations. Since its establishment, the JECC has consistently validated its value to the joint warfighter and has continued to endure despite DOD’s sometimes uncertain fiscal environment.
“The JECC’s most significant achievement has been building excellence in the three subordinate commands which make our combatant command customers value JECC forces,” Shepherd said. “If they didn’t get vital capabilities, the JECC would not have survived this long.”
Shepherd’s role was never more imperative, than during the disestablishment of USJFCOM. His extensive knowledge and familiarity with the challenges of joint task force-forming was extremely important to laying the groundwork and making a case for the future value of the JECC. Once again, Shepherd focused on removing the obstacles in the path of those contributing to the command’s growth and success; ultimately, leading the JECC into its next evolution.
“Helping to put together the small team of dedicated professionals who created the SJFHQ/JECC from nothing, saved it when USJFCOM disestablished and made sure it remains a value-added capability today, has been one of my most rewarding experiences,” Shepherd said.
While the JECC has been deployed and employed during almost every major military operation since its initial establishment, Shepherd likes to think that the most valuable contribution the JECC has made is something we can’t tangibly measure.
“We’ll never be able to document the value the JECC has on the deterrence of our adversaries,” Shepherd explained. “However, it is my belief that the enabling capabilities provided by JCSE, JPASE and JPSE enhance the reputation of U.S. Forces and therefore, raise the bar our adversaries have to meet in order to challenge us. The JECC makes U.S. forces better and that’s the real value of this organization.”
Thoughts on the future
Shepherd’s corporate knowledge and robust experience will be sorely missed as the JECC continues its mission; however, he is confident that the leadership we currently have in place combined with the command’s future leaders; will ensure this organization continues to thrive.
“If the JECC is to remain relevant in a changing world there must be a constant flow of new ideas and innovative approaches,” he said. “Bringing in a new set of eyes is the best way to make that happen.”
As Shepherd’s journey with the JECC comes to an end, he offered some advice for the future of the JECC and how the command can persevere in this realm of dwindling budgets and cuts to defense programs.
“Training, training and more training,” Shepherd urged. “The operational level of joint warfare is tough and it’s a difficult skill to build. Therefore, the more realistic the training we participate in, the better we will be. We must be the experts in our fields. If not, we will lose the credibility that makes us so valuable.”
Shepherd’s main focus as the JECC Executive Director was to remove institutional obstacles to ensure the continued success of the organization and its people, something he learned early on in his career. The JECC is more than grateful for Shepherd’s years of guidance and insight and will strive to fulfill his legacy by ensuring the command remains successful far into the future.
| Date Taken: | 03.12.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 03.13.2014 08:24 |
| Story ID: | 121935 |
| Location: | NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 191 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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