Julie Frederick
AMCOM Public Affairs
Maj. Gen. Doug Gabram, commander of the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, held his 14th Town Hall meeting on Aug. 22. Communicating with and taking care of his people remains high on Gabram’s priorities.
In keeping with that priority, the Town Hall focused on recognizing new senior leaders across the organization, presenting members of the workforce with Civilian Service and Most Valuable Player awards and providing an update on AMCOM’s approach to the Army Materiel Command Shape the Fight initiative.
AMCOM has welcomed eight new directors across the command in the last four months. The most recent additions being Joyce Myers as the Secretary to the General Staff and Craig Northridge as the G-4 Director for Logistics. Another new director, Dale Smith, is slated to join the team Sept. 4 as the G-8 Director of Resource Management.
As new leaders bring a fresh perspective to individual organizations, Gabram highlighted the change AMC’s Shape the Fight effort will bring to the command. The purpose is to take a hard look at the internal structure of the command and identify areas where it can be better task organized to accomplish the mission of supporting the Soldier.
During the Town Hall, Gabram presented three Service Awards for 30 and 35 years of service, respectively; four Army Achievement Medals for Civilian Service; and seven Most Valuable Player Awards.
“Giving out awards is, I believe, the main effort here today,” Gabram said. “Supervisors need to keep sending them up the chain. We will get them done. Everyone here is doing a fantastic job.”
Currently, Gabram considers AMCOM to be in Stage 2 of the Shape the Fight execution which is applying the prescribed business rules and developing courses of action to achieve efficiencies. There are two more phases of the process to work through, but the desired end-state is for AMCOM to be reorganized to best synchronize, integrate and deliver aviation and missile materiel readiness today and in the future. “Our intent is the same as [Army Materiel Command], but we will approach the task to continue providing the best support to the aviation and missile communities.”
Gabram and Bill Marriott, AMCOM Deputy to the Commanding General, both reiterated that this is an opportunity to shape our organization for the future.
“All of AMC is going through the same effort,” Marriott said. “This is not a reduction drill, it is a realignment to task organize for output to the Army. No one is going to lose a job as part of this.”
Both leaders also emphasized that supervisors play an integral role in communicating to the workforce the changes that AMCOM is currently experiencing, and that includes the successful implementation of the Department of Defense Performance Management and Appraisal Program for civilian personnel counseling.
“This is about the human dimension and helping people,” he said.
A new element to the AMCOM Town Hall was an update from the new Redstone Arsenal Garrison Commander, Col. Kelsey Smith. During his update he discussed changes coming for gate access to Redstone and upcoming Morale, Welfare and Recreation events like the annual Oktoberfest, which will be held Sept. 13-16.