Photo By Mark Abueg | Maj. Sean Powell, departing executive officer of the 579th Engineer Detachment...... read more read more
VICKSBURG, Miss. – A U.S. Army active unit based in Vicksburg held an award ceremony for a departing soldier honoring his time as the first assigned member since its two-year reactivation.
Maj. Sean Powell, executive officer for the 579th Engineer Detachment (Forward Engineer Support Team - Main), received a send-off from his unit during the ceremony inside the FEST-M office. Powell was a leading force in the development of the unit.
“I’ve had a great time here,” Powell said. “I’m really appreciative to have been a part of history with Corps of Engineers in being assigned to the FEST-M. I’ve had a lot of assignments, and I’ve never once been a part of helping create a new Army unit.”
This was no easy task for Powell as he was initially given limited resources to structure the unit.
“As the first person on board, I showed up and didn’t even have a place to sit,” he said. “I ended up sitting in a small, tiny, little office down the hall.”
Office space was the least of his troubles. Powell needed to figure out what to do next in order to push the FEST-M initiative to the next level.
“I sat here for the first three days with my little green book and I had about five pages of goals that I needed to make happen,” he said. “Among them was that I needed the unit to get money, acquire office space, and figure out how to hire personnel.”
Appointing the right employees was essential for the FEST-M to accomplish its mission Powell explained.
“I knew we had to have a really great team to make this work,” he said. “Basically, I took that approach because with the type of operations we potentially faced to globally perform, this team needed highly specialized people that can get the job done. This is exactly what we have in place. A really great team.”
As the FEST-M awaits orders for an upcoming mission, Powell is torn about leaving the unit.
“I’ve been across the globe on many, many missions,” he said. “But it would have been something really special to be with this talented pool of individuals on a FEST-M operation.”
Powell is relocating to a staff position in Fort Meade, Md., for his next assignment.
| Date Taken: | 01.12.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 11.12.2010 08:48 |
| Story ID: | 59993 |
| Location: | VICKSBURG, MS, US |
| Web Views: | 17 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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