Maj. Gen. Mari K. Eder Awarded Distinguished Service Medal

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, UNITED STATES

08.24.2012

Courtesy Story

76th Operational Response Command

FORT DOUGLAS, Utah – In September, Maj. Gen. Mari K. Eder will be awarded the Distinguished Service Medal at her retirement ceremony in Washington. Eder receives the award for distinguished and exceptionally meritorious service to the United States Army from May 31, 2001 to May 31, 2011.

“In 1977 I came into the Army because I wanted to have a major challenge, I did not want something that would be easy,” said Eder. “I wanted to test myself, and I wanted to see just where I could go.”

Eder concludes more than 35 years of exemplary service culminating in her assignment as the Commanding General, United States Army Reserve Joint and Special Troops Support Command; and Garrison Commander, Fort Douglas, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Eder’s command was the first of its kind for the United States Army Reserve. This type of innovational work was extremely typical for Eder’s career.

“When I was told I would command the Joint Special Troops Support Command (JSTSC), it was very small,” said Eder. “JSTSC had a great potential, but it did not start out with much.”
“The day I took command, the name changed from the 96th Readiness Command to JSTSC,” said Eder. “The announcement was made it would move from Fort Jackson to Salt Lake City, the switch turned on and they began to hire civilian personnel, and there were two people assigned to JSTSC,” said Eder. “The Deputy Commander who was already on the ground in Salt Lake City and me,” added Eder.

“The transformation then began with all of the units coming in. We had 18 wheelers roll down the road with boxes of files, and we closed out everything at Fort Jackson,” said Eder.

“We had Army Reserve Elements come into the unit and we did not have them all, so I asked, why not?” said Eder. “During that transformation time, this is what the force structure folks said at United States Army Reserve Command (USARC), some of them went to other units,” said Eder.

“I asked why they are not with us, if this is not the mission then tell me,” said Eder. “The other units that seemed to be with units because of physical locations,” said Eder of how she built the JSTSC command.

“I built the command, but I never thought of it. A lot of this work is tight wire, you do not look down,” said Eder. “It is fun as long as you do not look down and see where you are at,” said Eder.
Eder readily accepted challenging novel missions to forge new ground for the Army. Eder’s present status as the only female two-star General currently serving in the United States Army Reserve is proof of her ability to move forward on all fronts.
Eder exhibited superior leadership, professionalism, initiative, and dedication, along with a sincere concern for the welfare of soldiers, civilians, and their families. As a result, Eder made significant and enduring contributions to the overall strategic development of the Army.

Eder has performed with consummate distinction throughout her extraordinary career, serving in positions from Company command to Brigade command.

"She is an inspiration to all the Soldiers in her command. Her legacy of leadership will last long after Maj. Gen. Eder has retired,” said Col. Sanford Artman, Deputy Commanding Officer, Joint and Special Troops Support Command.

Eder was a great influence on Lt. Col. David Spess, 450th Civil Affairs, Branch Chiefs career and inspiration, according to Spess.
“She (Eder) is a true warrior and has shown me that not everybody was meant to kick in doors and shoot bad guys in the face,” said Spess in an email to Eder.

“She showed me, not told me but actually showed me that real, positive leadership and honest selfless service to this nation can be rendered from an office or a Bradley Fighting Vehicle,” said Spess.

In the last 10 years, Eder served in numerous distinguished assignments. Two of her primary assignments include the Deputy Chief of the Army Reserve and the Department of the Army’s Deputy Chief of Public Affairs.

As the Deputy Chief of Public Affairs for the Department of the Army, Eder greatly influenced the shaping of policies for the Army’s strategic communication field.

Eder became the expert advisor for strategic communications at the secretariat level from doctrine to crisis communication. For the first time in the Army’s history, it would measure the success of its communication field.

“When I first came to Army Public Affairs in the Pentagon my then boss said ’we are sending you to Qatar. CENTCOM is having issues with how strategic communications should be implemented’,” said Eder.

“Should it (STRATCOM) be run at the G-3, or should it be in their public affairs shop,” said Eder.

“Certainly they are sending me thinking I will not have a pre-determined outcome, but my views were much more down the middle as to what should be done and how it should be approached,” said Eder.

“You have a position and you are here for a reason, and so I wrote an article about strategic communications that was published in Military Review magazine,” said Eder.

Eder was the key factor in creating realistic metrics for the Army’s communication enterprise which resulted in numerous alliances between the United States Army and some of the top leading international communication firms.

Under Eder’s influence, they also forged a strategic vision to create a communication centric knowledge portal for the Army communication system. Although it was a new horizon for the communication community, it propelled the Army’s communication system into one central network.

Eder’s efforts as the Department of the Army’s Deputy Chief of Public Affairs, were noted by the Secretary of the Army when he described her as “One of the key individuals who moved the Army forward in communicating more effectively.”

“There are many moments in which you can witness history, and certainly if you are there at that time, you get to meet people who have done remarkable things for the Army and for the Army Reserve,” said Eder.

“I got to meet one of our young warriors who received the Silver Star for his actions in Afghanistan, and see the award ceremony,” said Eder. “At the award ceremony which he was presented with the Silver Star and you could just see his humility, and to be there to witness all of the other peoples reaction,” said Eder.
‘There are many of those moments. The first day I was in the Pentagon in Public Affairs I came to my office which is on the first floor and it was near the Pentagon Memorial, the chapel,” said Eder.

“I am watching the tour groups come by and listening to the young soldiers from the Old Guard describe the events of 9/11, “said Eder.

“Where Army Public Affairs is now it was the first group to move back into the Pentagon after 9/11, into those offices right beside that memorial. I would go into the chapel every morning as I came in and that would get my mind set right away for the day,” said Eder. “That is why I am here, this was my motivation,” added Eder.

“Even though we called it the ‘reverse laundry’, instead of in by 9 and out by five, it was in by 6 in the morning and out by 6 or 7 at night,” said Eder of her working hours at the Pentagon.

“I would watch people be irritated with the tour groups, because they would be in there way and trying to get to a meeting, and I would always come up behind them and join them and talk to them,” said Eder of her desire to help them understand what happened on that day.

“I would continue to meet people who were in the Pentagon during the attack and did different things on that day. I was in Germany so my perspective of the attack was different than theirs,” said Eder.

“I talked to someone who worked in G-1 who worked there during the time frame of the attack, and they showed me ‘I was in this office on that day and what it meant to me’, said Eder. “He took me out into the hallway and showed me the chart that indicated the path of the plane, ‘Here is where I was, it knocked me out of my chair, and we started going this way to pull people out and bring them out’,” said Eder.

“The then Chief of the Navy Reserve, John Connor, an American Airlines pilot as a civilian, I watched him many times take a group of Navy officers down that same hallway where I worked and say ‘This is where the wingspan was, my friend was piloting the plane that day’, so it is real,” said Eder.

“If you hear the tour guides, the 18 year olds in the Old Guard, they have memorized this and it will sound to you like it was a hundred years ago, like talking about the Civil War and American Airlines flight 77,” said Eder.

Eder was constantly reminded of the attack from a continuing variety of perspectives.

“I was here this day and I have not slept the same way since, I was over here this day and I helped people come out, I was lucky that day I was not there, I went out to get a coke and I would have been injured,” said Eder. She heard the stories daily from 2004 through 2007 while she worked in Army Public Affairs.

Due to the exposure she got while working in the Pentagon about 911, the event got inside her and became part of who she was as a person, according to Eder. “It is important to me,” said Eder.

In addition, Eder was chosen to serve a concomitant assignment as a member of the Army Reserve Forces policy board. This board was directly responsible for advising the Secretary of Defense on the Army Reserve components strategic role within the Department of Defense. As a member of this board, Eder directly influenced strategies, policies and practices designed to improve and enhance the capabilities, efficiencies and effectiveness of the Army Reserve components.

“I had already been in the Pentagon several years when Lt. Gen. Jack Stultz, the United States Army Reserve Commander at the time, selected me to be his deputy,” said Eder.

“I was the Deputy Chief of Public Affairs and I had experience on how things work as part of the Army Reserve, and how the Army Reserve worked as part of all the Reserve components,” said Eder on why she was picked as the Deputy Chief of Army Reserve.

Eder then took the task of serving as the Deputy Chief of Army Reserve. In this role, Eder managed policy, plans, strategy and congressional budgets for the United States Army Reserve.

This encompassed more than 1,200 employees and more than 206,000 soldiers in the Selected Reserve and their families. Eder once again took the challenge of shaping the Army Reserve and forging a strategic vision for years to come.

Eder’s ability to synchronize resources and efforts, with the ability to maintain focus on the soldier, was evident when she provided oversight to the Employer Partnership Program.

Under Eder’s guidance, the program grew from 100 partnerships to over 500 within a six-month period. Eder knew this effort would not only benefit the 206,000 Army Reserve soldiers but would be beneficial for all soldiers of the United States Army.
Eder’s efforts, as the Commander of the United States Army Reserve Joint and Special Troops Support Command, will have a long-lasting effect on the Information Operations, Joint and Legal Milieus of the United States Army Reserve.

“I built the command, but I never thought of it. A lot of this work is tight wire, you do not look down,” said Eder. “It is fun as long as you do not look down and see where you are at,” said Eder.
“Some of the units were directed, some of the units I had to go to USARC and say this unit needs to be at JSTSC, and some units say ‘ we want to be over there with them’,” said Eder. The reason units wanted to be with JSTSC was because they were with another unit and did not support them correctly, according to Eder.

Some of the units that were directed to be with JSTSC had pushback, according to Eder.

“At least initially they resisted, until they began to see the value. Initially they pushback is why should we change something when it seems to work OK, because you created this unit and gave it this mission,” said Eder. “Now let’s do it the way you are supposed to.”

“I also activated to theater level IO groups, there are two in the Guard and two in the Reserves,” said Eder. “With the joint elements, we also have Information Operations, the cyber in Space Missile Defense with U.S. Strategic Command and also with the Defense Information Systems Agency,” said Eder.
“It is still in so much tumultuous development it should not be with any one type of unit or another,” said Eder. “It is a great community, it is a true enterprise, it needs to be right where it is,” said Eder.

As commander, Eder was responsible for a command that grew from 1,400 troops to over 6,000 within her tenure.

Eder’s vision to structure the Army Reserve to support the soldiers in the most efficient and productive manner was a direct result of this growth.

Eder’s ability, to communicate the needs of her uniquely skilled Soldiers, allowed her to push for her soldiers to play the right role in the Global War on Terrorism, which included Army Reserve soldiers serving six of the nine Unified Combatant Commands and Army Reserve soldiers supporting the new frontier of “cyber warfare.”

“The transformation then began with all of the units coming in. We had 18 wheelers roll down the road with boxes of files, and we closed out everything at Fort Jackson,” said Eder.

“We had Army Reserve Elements come into the unit and we did not have them all, so I asked, why not?” said Eder. “During that transformation time, this is what the force structure folks said at United States Army Reserve Command (USARC), some of them went to other units,” said Eder.

“I asked why they are not with us, if this is not the mission then tell me,” said Eder. “The other units that seemed to be with units because of physical locations,” said Eder of how she built the JSTSC command.

Eder’s ability, to push forward with ground breaking strategies, was also felt in the legal community.

Eder developed and looked out for a field without a solid structured role in the Global War on Terrorism. Eder Studied the needs of the legal community in communion with the Army Reserve legal commander, she set forth to meet with the Army’s Judge Advocate to pursue a more active role for the Army Reserve’s legal soldiers.

Eder’s efforts, to support the Army Reserve legal commander, resulted in a more structured role of the Army Reserve’s Judge Advocates and its legal support system.

“The future of this command is extraordinarily important for the future of the Army Reserve,” said Eder. “We need to get to a point where we can manage it well,” added Eder.

“The inroads we have into the joint organizations are what can build opportunities for Army Reserve Soldiers in the future to get joint tours, joint experience, joint credit, and joint schooling,” said Eder.

“My vision for it all along is for this command to be the center for joint excellence in the Army Reserve,” said Eder. “I have spent more time in the joint community than anywhere else looking at how we better supports the combatant commander in the future,” added Eder.

Providing focused management for the joint force and our joint partners is the ultimate goal, according to Eder.

Eder’s legacy, as a leader in the United States Army Reserve, can be summarized in one word, soldier.

Eder’s foresight of the Army Reserve’s direction and the future needs of the Soldier were expanded to strategize for every aspect of the Soldier’s needs. Eder simplified a seemingly multi-faceted labyrinth and enhanced it into an orchestrated, focused service component that produces first-class soldiers.

Eder’s contributions will impact the Army for years to come. Eder has guided her command and the United States Army Reserve to unprecedented heights.

Eder’s exceptionally outstanding service and myriad contributions, coupled with a diligent devotion to duty, a resounding love for this country, and the soldiers who protect it, will have a lasting, comprehensive positive impact and reflects great credit upon herself, the United States Army Reserve Joint and Special Troops Support Command and United States Army Reserve.

Eder will receive the Distinguished Service Medal for her unparalleled performance, dedication and leadership in an era comprised of peace and war at her retirement ceremony will be at the Army/Navy Club in Washington on Aug. 31.

• Date Taken: 08.24.2012
• Date Posted: 08.24.2012 16:29
• Story ID: 93760
• Location: SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, US