Courtesy Photo | Lt. Col. Michael Pope speaks after receiving an award for professional achievement at...... read more read more
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WASHINGTON — Growing up as a self-described simple country boy in Anderson, South Carolina, Lt. Col. Michael Pope spent many summers on his grandfather’s farm, where something always needed fixing.
There, he worked on tractors, car engines and a wide variety of other pieces of machinery. It was here that his passion for engineering began.
“I always had a desire to understand how things worked and if they broke, how to fix them,” he said. “That [desire] carried over in what I wanted to do in my career.”
That ‘simple country boy’ received a professional achievement award during the the 38th annual Becoming Everything You Are (BEYA) Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Conference last week.
"It's great to receive the award,” he said. “I really believe it's a recognition to all of the people that have mentored me and supported me to this point.”
That list of people included his family, teachers, mentors and peers. His family had a history of military service with his father enlisting in the Army as a mechanic and his grandfather serving in the Korean War. He also had several aunts and uncles who served.
Despite the deep ties to the military, Pope initially went into the workforce after high school to help his family financially. He worked at local grocery store as a meat cutter until one of his former Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps instructors helped him get an ROTC scholarship to South Carolina State University, where he majored in mechanical engineering.
“I was able to receive that scholarship and that really turned my life around,” he said. “Going to college allowed me to broaden my outlook on the opportunities that I had in life.”
After commissioning in 2003, Pope spent the first five years of his Army career as a field artillery officer before using the Voluntary Transfer Incentive Program to become an engineer officer.
His first assignment was with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District. There, he served as a project manager overseeing work to improve flood mitigation including widening the canals as the city handled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He also worked in the emergency operations center during Hurricane Isaac in 2012 partnering with community groups.
"That [assignment] really reenforced that I made the right decision to switch to the engineering branch,” he said. “I was able to not only utilize my technical degree as a project engineer, but also support emergency response operations to help the local communities."
Throughout the next several stops of his career, Pope was able to experience many aspects of being an engineer officer by working with civil affairs, being a battalion executive officer and then serving as a senior U.S. engineer to a foreign partner general.
“I think that the engineer branch is one of the most diverse branches because you can be the tactical Soldier supporting maneuver elements all the way to working in USACE utilizing your technical skills,” he added. “I think you get that full spectrum.”
In 2020 near the height of COVID-19, his experience with hurricane relief came in handy. He was assigned to Joint Task Force-Bravo in Honduras as the director of engineering. Only days out of his mandatory quarantine period entering the country, alerts started coming in for a potential hurricane.
He quickly acclimated himself to the area, his unit, and the local community. He worked to identify any potential facility damage and started tracking lines of communication for impacted transportation routes throughout Central America.
Back-to-back Category 4 Hurricanes Eta and Iota then hit the region. For the next 45 days, he and his team worked to find available routes to deliver aide to the affected areas.
“Being able to go to those developing countries and provide that [emergency] support is one of the reasons why I stayed in the military,” he said thinking about his experience.
The Army also challenged him with his assignments. The biggest being his current role as the deputy commander for the USACE Far East District and the design and construction agent for the Yongsan Relocation Program with the Republic of Korea.
The $10.4 billion program included relocating U.S. military personnel from the Yongsan Garrison in Seoul to the U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys near Pyeongtaek. Pope is overseeing the final phases of the program.
He ensures that the proper facilities are built and works with senior Republic of Korea officials on high-level agreements between the two countries.
“It’s been the most challenging and rewarding job because I’ve had to utilize both my tactical and [interpersonal] skills in order to move the program forward,” he said.
The team recently finalized a major construction project on a new 24,000 square-foot chapel for multi-faith religious services.
For more than 20 years, Pope has crafted a career within the Army and been able to pursue his passion for engineering. He said his time in service has been both a duty and an honor and one that sets him up for success when he retires later this year.
"There are few professions that give you the level of responsibility and authority at such a young age and at the same time provide you with the mentorship to be successful,” he explained. “I believe that the military is the reason I'm successful now and as I transition to the civilian world, taking those skills over to be successful in the future.”
| Date Taken: | 02.23.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 02.26.2024 15:48 |
| Story ID: | 464733 |
| Location: | DC, US |
| Hometown: | ANDERSON, SC, US |
| Web Views: | 22 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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