Legacy in Motion: 2025 MG Greene Innovation Awards honor the visionaries reshaping the force

Photo By Amanda Ligon | Brig. Gen. Chris Hackler, deputy commanding general for the Combat Capabilities Development Command, speaks to awardees at the 2025 Maj. Gen. Harold 'Harry' J. Greene Innovation Awards ceremony at Natick Soldier Systems Center on May 18, 2026. U.S. Army photo by Alec O'Rourke  

NATICK, MASSACHUSETTS, UNITED STATES

05.21.2026

Story by Amanda Ligon 

U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command

NATICK, Mass. (May 21, 2026) – Honoring a legacy of disruptive thinking, the Army presented the 2025 Maj. Gen. Harold 'Harry' J. Greene Innovation Awards on May 18, celebrating the visionaries who are turningpioneeringconcepts into the tactical realities required to dominate the modern battlefield.

The Maj. Gen. Harold “Harry” J. Greene Innovation Awards recognize groundbreaking technologies, techniques, procedures, and methodologies that enhance the Army’s overall readiness and positively impact Soldier performance.

“Today, under the strategic vision of Transformation & Training Command and the empowerment of Futures & Concepts Command, we are accelerating Army Transformation at a pace we have never seen before – because the shifting character of war demands it,” said Brig. Gen. Chris Hackler, deputy commanding general for the Combat Capabilities Development Command and host of this year’s awards ceremony.

“To meet the demands of this new era, we need exactly what Harry Greene championed: out-of-the-box processes, unorthodox methodologies, and disruptive technologies, and that’s why we are here today,” he said.

Maj. Gen. Greene was commissioned as an Engineer Officer in 1980 and spent nearly half of his 34-year career revolutionizing the Army's intelligence and reconnaissance systems. Through key leadership roles in acquisition and materiel development, he successfully championed and fielded critical assets like the Distributed Common Ground System-Army (DCGS-A) and a mix of manned and unmanned aerial platforms.

A fierce advocate for integrating operations with timely intelligence, Greene profoundly impacted the Army's tactical capabilities prior to his untimely death in Afghanistan in 2014. He is laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery and remains the highest-ranking officer killed in combat since the Vietnam War.

The Army’s Greatest Invention program was renamed in 2015 to posthumously honor Greene and his legacy. Today, the Maj. Gen. Harold “Harry” J. Greene Innovation Awards are sponsored by T2COM and executed by the Futures and Concepts Command. The awards ceremony is held at Natick Soldier Systems Center, where Greene concurrently served as senior mission commander and DEVCOM (then known as RDECOM) deputy commanding general from 2009 to 2011.

“Congratulations to all the award winners in helping us carry forward this legacy of innovation that’s so badly needed in this country and to make our Army better every day,” said Dr. Sue Myers, Greene’s spouse. “And thank you for honoring Harry.”

The Innovation Awards span three distinct categories: innovations related to Science, Engineering, Acquisition and Technology; innovations outside Science, Engineering, Acquisition and Technology; and innovations specifically designed for deployed personnel downrange and/or operations.

“You did not just identify a problem; you built the solution,” Hackler said to the awardees. “Like Maj. Gen. Greene, you looked at the way things have been done and boldly said, ‘we can do better.”

“Greene once proved that taking a chance on an innovative idea could change the shape of the battlefield,” Hackler continued. “You are all fulfilling that exact mission… Congratulations.”

FY25 Innovation Award Winners:

• Science, Engineering, Acquisition & Technology FY25 Innovation Award (Individual) – Chief Warrant Officer 2 Virginia Avila, 2D Military Intelligence Battalion, 66th Military Intelligence Brigade, for developing tracking systems and dashboards that provide real-time visualization using power business intelligence.
• Science, Engineering, Acquisition & Technology FY25 Innovation Award (Team) – 513th Military Intelligence Brigade Integrated Geospatial Intelligence Division, for their development of the Target Workbench, a plug-in that eliminates the need for manual input, accelerating the targeting process. The team comprises: Sgt. Eric Stripes and Spc. Brandon Cooke.
• Non-Science, Engineering, Acquisition & Technology FY25 Innovation Award (Individual) – Mr. Daniel Denormandie, Fort Campbell, Installation Management Command, for his innovative update to the range facility management support system.
• Non-Science, Engineering, Acquisition & Technology FY25 Innovation Award (Team) – Army Recruiting Enterprise Transformation Implementation Team, for the accessions document reduction effort. The team comprises: Brig. Gen. Caroline Pogge, Col. Marco Bongioanni, Lt. Col. James Chester, Lt. Col. Robert Reidel, Lt. Col. Mark Rice, Maj. Paul Weiss, Maj. Leicia Grant, Capt. Katherine Maffey, Capt. Roshan Thapamagar, Sgt. Maj. Cesar Duran, Master Sgt. James Perez, Sgt. 1st Class Justin Winebrenner, Mr. John Sheehy, Mr. Ryan Razon, Mr. Martin Stubeda, Mr. Russel Stinger, and Mr. Kenneth Kispert, all with the U.S. Army Recruiting Command.
• Warfighter FY25 Innovation Award (Individual) – Sgt. Ray Needham, 5-7 Cavalry Battalion, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3D Infantry Division, for his development of the long-range mesh tactical network.
• Warfighter FY25 Innovation Award (Team) – The Picketline Team, Combat Capabilities Development Command C5ISR Center. The team comprises: Ms. Kait Kuzela, Mr. Nate Nahm, Mr. Mark Fitch, Mr. Antwaan Thomas, Mr. Robert Lutter, Mr. Adam Green, and Mr. Jeff Bergan.

The Maj. Gen. Harold Greene Innovation Awards are sponsored by the U.S. Army Transformation and Training Command and executed by the Futures and Concepts Command, home to the Army’s conceptual and intellectual foundation for concepts, experimentation, requirements development, and scientific research. Under one command, T2COM ensures operational needs inform how the Army trains, develops leaders, and experiments with emerging capabilities, accelerating how innovation reaches Soldiers.

• Date Taken: 05.21.2026
• Date Posted: 05.21.2026 10:23
• Story ID: 565868
• Location: NATICK, MASSACHUSETTS, US