RICHMOND, Va. - Charlie Williams Jr., Defense Contract Management Agency director, presented Chris Brust, DCMA Quality Assurance Engineering Division director, the Air Force Exemplary Civilian Service award at the recent leadership forum.
This award recognizes employees who perform assigned duties for at least one year in an outstanding manner or who perform a single service that significantly contributes to the accomplishment of the mission. Service must clearly demonstrate specific examples of how the employee exceeded service expected of an individual with similar responsibilities.
Brust was recognized for his distinguished performance as a member of the Nonconforming Titanium Task Force with the Air Force Materiel Command. The task force effectively responded to a safety of flight risk to Air Force aircraft caused by the alleged widespread illegal use of nonconforming titanium. The team’s significant accomplishments enabled programs to perform accurate risk assessments and take proper mitigation actions to avert potential catastrophic failures due to poor titanium properties, completely eliminating the risk on fifty mission design series and stay on track to mitigate the risk on all Air Force systems.
The task force formed a strategic partnership with DCMA and included its personnel on the task force. The task force was able to leverage DCMA expertise in supplier management, quality and raw materials. DCMA also provided outreach to defense contractors to gather information vital to the team’s efforts and to formally request responses from industry. The joint initiatives were undertaken to improve supply chain management within the Department of Defense and two essential titanium military standards were identified for reinstatement.
Other DCMA personnel on the team included Tom Leeper and Jeff Herman, both quality assurance members; Navy Capt. David Johnson, Boeing St. Louis CMO commander; and Kathy Berti, Boeing St. Louis.