Photo By Misha King | Abrams road wheels, part of the tank’s suspension system, are assembled at the Joint...... read more read more
Subscribe
DETROIT - Similar to their counterparts across the globe, Lima team members support armaments production and sustainment. It is not their objectives that separate them from their colleagues, but their distinct facility and the added responsibilities it creates.
Alone in its uniqueness, Joint Systems Manufacturing Center Lima sits on the southwestern edge of a Rust Belt city that served as an industry boomtown and Midwestern rail hub for nearly a century.
The rich blue-collar history here does not make JSMC Lima — a Defense Contract Management Agency Detroit tertiary — unique among the agency’s commands. What makes this government-owned contractor-operated plant special is its interrelationship with the facility, the contractor and TACOM.
The manufacturing center is an Army installation run by TACOM Life Cycle Management Command headquartered in Warren, Michigan. This reality leaves Army Lt. Col. Matthew Hodge, the agency’s commander here, with a series of atypical responsibilities. He is both a DCMA commander and TACOM executive agent since JSMC is really not a pure agency organization.
“Lt. Col. Hodge belongs to DCMA, but he also wears a different hat in reporting to TACOM as their lead agent on-site,” explained Army Col. William Robare, the agency’s Detroit commander. “He is responsible for providing all of the facility’s management functions to ensure the installation is maintained. He is also charged with providing physical security and anti-terrorism force protection, and ensuring environmental concerns are addressed correctly.”
According to Hodge, JSMC maintains the agency’s sole environmental engineer, and its safety representative also serves a distinctive role in monitoring both contract and installation safety.
While their facility is unique, Lima’s men and women arrive at work each day and assume the same warfighter support mission practiced across the agency. Hodge and his team work alongside the on-site contractor, General Dynamics Land Systems, to ensure the Abrams Main Battle Tank’s on-time, cost and performance goals are met.
“It is the single most important government-owned contractor-operated facility in terms of providing the land combat capability to the warfighter,” Robare said. “If you go down there and see what it takes from start to finish to manufacture an Abrams Main Battle Tank, it would just open up your eyes of the capabilities of what we have at our disposal,”
Those manufacturing capabilities support the production and sustainment of the principal main battle tank of the Army and Marine Corps — the Abrams, which has played a key role in America’s mechanized battlefield dominance for more than 30 years.
David Hobbs, an Army retiree and quality assurance specialist here, embraces that oversight responsibility and takes great comfort in knowing his work can positively impact service members’ safety.
“Come on now, who wouldn’t love this?” Hobbs said, before explaining the ribbing he receives from coworkers regarding his active-duty assignment on the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. “Now I am a civilian working for the United States government. I inspect tanks, and I know I want to feel comfortable and confident knowing the crew that is going to be using the tank I inspect is going to survive and is going to be effective out on the battlefield. That in itself is rewarding, I mean, who wouldn’t love doing that? I just love it every day.”
Although working at JSMC presents team members with additional responsibilities and unique challenges, Hobbs is not alone in his enthusiasm.
Michele Dickerson, an administrative contracting officer on Lima, manages facilities contracts most DCMA contract administrators would never see, including production equipment, roof maintenance, landscaping and snow removal.
“I love my job,” echoed Dickerson. “I started out in the government as a GS-2 so I’ve held a lot of positions, but I feel like I’m in a position now where I can really make a difference. When I have a contract in front of me and I need to make sure that the end item is exactly what our customer wants, I just feel like I’m in a position to say, ‘That’s not it. Go back and start over,’ or ‘Go back and fix it.’ I feel that’s what a lot of people here believe. Our heart and soul is in this place.”
Many of JSMC Lima’s people enjoy their uncommon place in the agency, a sentiment leadership echoes.
“Why do I love my job? It’s because of the uniqueness of the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center,” Hodge said. “Not only does my team support the warfighter within DCMA’s traditional roles of quality assurance, contract management and industrial surveillance, but I’m also the facility’s landlord, which means I’m the Army’s face in the community. Whenever I get an opportunity to attend a community meeting, give a speech, or be part of a parade, it’s actually quite exciting. This is a patriotic community and my family loves it here.”
| Date Taken: | 09.18.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 09.18.2015 14:46 |
| Story ID: | 176556 |
| Location: | DETROIT, MI, US |
| Web Views: | 170 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, JSMC Lima executes exclusive role within familiar mission, by Thomas Perry, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT