JWAC WarfighterSupport Award

Mark B. Williams won the JWAC Warfighter Support Award, which recognizes an employee for his or her dedication and excellence in directly supporting the combat mission of the U.S. military. A civilian analyst, Williams voluntary deployed to Afghanistan for four months last year. There, he worked very long hours, providing superb specialized analysis, according to his citation, sharing knowledge with other less experienced analysts, and building working relationships with other agencies. Then, before returning home, he created a training plan for his replacements to ensure there would be no break in JWAC’s analytical support to its military customer. His work was praised by both military commanders and the intelligence community. Williams was cited for his teamwork, positive attitude, dedication to JWAC’s mission, willingness to help others, and customer support.

Excellence in Service Award - Individual

Joshua J. Hauck won the Excellence in Service Award, which recognizes an individual for their dedication, customer service, process streamlining, and overall excellence in providing support. Hauck’s combination of exceptional technical expertise and strong leadership skills allowed JWAC to provide several advanced capabilities that directly impacted its support to the military. A computer scientist, Hauck worked both as a project lead and a software developer. In this role, he led efforts to release two software products that improved the ability of JWAC’s customers to access one of its web sites where it posts its products, while at the same time, reducing the software and system maintenance costs. In addition, he oversaw or made upgrades of four other software products that directly benefited JWAC’s customers. One of these upgrades was described as an ‘‘ideal model” that was used daily by a customer, while anther was released three months ahead of schedule. In each instance, Hauck’s efforts were critical to making it happen, according to his citation.

Spirit of JWAC Award

Jody J. DesRoches received the Spirit of JWAC Award, a peer-nominated award that honors an employee who consistently demonstrates JWAC’s core values of integrity, courage, and service both at work and within the community. DesRoches is a computer scientist who has become JWAC’s expert on semantic or encoding technology. Moreover, he taught himself this technology and shared his knowledge with others by coordinating in-house training, establishing study groups, and providing demonstrations. His efforts allowed other to develop and improve their analytical skills.

Additionally, DesRoches volunteered as a counselor at a camp for children grieving the loss of a parent, brother, or sister. He was also a community development officer with the Virginia Jaycees, helping with causes such as a program to fight childhood brain tumors and a summer camp for special needs children.

Excellence in Service Award - Group

JWAC’s Software Maintenance Review Team received the Excellence in Service Award, given to a support group in the command whose dedication, customer service, and process streamlining contributed significantly to JWAC’s mission. Members of this team were Robert Aftel, Curtis C. Badgett, Lisa R. Bertz, Deborah F. Bright, Sherry L. Brillhart, Mary Ann Gordon, Cathy A. Hoover, Paige H. Morgan, Jill S. Morrissett, Hattie Norris, R. Neil Raines, Allison D. Sanford, Paul D. Schneider, Jennifer L. Sisco, Karen H. Sizemore, Andrew G. Van Sant, and Trip A. Wiggens. Team members included employees from all of JWAC’s departments. They conducted a complete review of all of the command’s software applications with the conflicting goals of cutting the budget while meeting mission requirements. They reviewed 85 software applications in four weeks, working with each of the 85 software representatives, and succeeded in saving JWAC nearly $1 million by retiring some applications and ending or reducing maintenance on others. Thus, the team contributed significantly to JWAC current and future success.

JWAC Award of Merit for Group Achievement

The Black Pearl & Text Analytics Development Team won the Award of Merit for Group Achievement, given to a group that significantly contributes to JWAC’s charter, mission, strategic goals, and objectives. Its members were James C. Allewelt, Kevin J. Biondi, Donald Colvin, William Dollins III, Lawrence G. Fess, Charles F. Garbutt, Jeffrey P. Harris, William Huffman, Ryan C. Jones, Jeffrey M. Kent, Stacy L. Kibler, Kimberly A. Lewis, Chad M. Mason, Michael L. McHale, Matt C. Mead, Mark R. Murway, Joshua L. Ramsey, Kevin R. Roach, Kendall T. Roberts, Michael T. Sayre, Paul D. Schneider, Williams S. Shaw, Jr., Mike Smith, Philip C. Summerson, Derek E. Tracy, Robert A. Weisbeck, Sr., Todd N. Wilbourne, and Kaden P. Yealy.

Team members worked three years to improve one of JWAC’s web interfaces. This required overcoming major installation, configuration, and compatibility issue; close cooperation with other employees and branches in the command; and evaluating, designing, testing, and deploying many technologies. When they finally finished, they ‘‘directly and positively impacted JWAC’s mission success and greatly accelerated the command’s ability to keep JWAC analysis relevant in a rapidly changing information environment,” according to their citation.

Executive Civilian of the Year Award

Daniel B. Burcher received the Executive Civilian of the Year Award, which honors a supervisory-level employee whose performance and contributions were clearly above and beyond his expected job performance. A deputy department head, Burcher oversaw 140 military, civilian, and contract employees and a large budget supporting JWAC’s human resources, training, facilities, and information technology divisions. He had previously worked as a chief engineer and, so understood how these supporting roles impacted JWAC’s operational needs. This knowledge allowed him to develop a management plan that ensured the right people with the right skills were placed in the right job at the right time. Thus, he ensured that all hiring, training, and compensation supported the command’s mission. Burcher’s plan was so successful that JWAC’s parent command, U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., adopted its outlines for itself.

Civilian of the Year Award

Philip C. Summerson received the Civilian of the Year Award, which recognizes a non-supervisory employee whose performance and contributions to JWAC were above and beyond what was expected of him. A computer scientist, Summerson led a team that developed a new capability to process and use certain kinds of information that JWAC analysts need. His team’s efforts in this regard directly improved the delivery time and quality of the products that customers received. He also represented JWAC in the intelligence community to develop services for many Defense Department agencies. In all his work, Summerson consistently displayed excellence in technical knowledge, innovation, teamwork, and superb leadership skills.

JWAC Joint JuniorOfficer of the Year

Marine Corps Capt. Theodore J. Mugnier received the JWAC Joint Junior Officer of the Year Award, given to an officer in the grade of O-3 or below who showed leadership, devotion to duty, and professional competence. Mugnier voluntarily served a four-month deployment as a JWAC military representative in Afghanistan to the Marine Expeditionary Brigade and International Security Assistance Force Regional Command South, coordinating JWAC’s support to more than 4,000 Marines assigned to that area. Among his accomplishments, he ensured that JWAC’s ability to provide analysis to the Marines and others was effective. He led efforts to bring information technology employees and equipment to Afghanistan, thus ensuring that analysts had the right tools and support to do their jobs. When he returned home, he oversaw the production of more than 50 analytical products, developed several basic foreign language skills, and served as an honor guard funeral detail leader for local funerals.

Senior Military Member of the Year

Navy IS1 Anthony Blanco received the Senior Military Member of the Year Award, given to an enlisted member, E-4 through E-6, who shows outstanding performance, leadership, devotion to duty, and professional competence. An analyst, Blanco answered several hundred requests for support of ongoing operations in his area of responsibility and more than 30 products used in just one annual military exercise. He also displayed strong leadership qualities for junior sailors, ensuring that they received recognition for their achievements and overseeing their work to ensure they completed it professionally and on time. He kept his own skills sharpened by using ever opportunity JWAC provided and he served on Dahlgren’s Auxiliary Security Force.

Junior Military Member of the Year

Navy IS2 Lisa A. Lacross received the Junior Military Member of the Year Award, given to an enlisted member, E-1 through E-4, who shows outstanding performance, leadership, devotion to duty, and professional competence. Lacross worked as an analyst supporting several of JWAC’s customer teams. In this role, she made more than 100 products, receiving praise for her timeliness and efficiency and strengthening JWAC’s reputation for support with its customers. In addition to her work, she volunteered with the Navy and Marine Corps Relief Society and the Enlisted Association; was head coach of an area girls lacrosse team; and studied for her college degree, while maintaining 4.0 grade point average.

Reginald T. Gray Technical Excellence Award

Andrea L. Limbago received the Reginald T. Gray Excellence Award, named for a senior research physicist at the Naval Surface Weapons Center whose technical vision helped lay much of the foundation for JWAC’s analytical approach to warfare. A research analyst, Limbago has significantly impacted JWAC’s approach to analysis in the two years since she was hired. She developed a whole new analytical method in one instance, helped in the development of another, and made a third method of analysis operational. In these regards, her work ‘‘had a significant and long-term impact on U.S. military operations,” according to her citation. Limbago also solved the technical and policy issues involving the use of 70 new sources of information. In doing so, she made these sources available to JWAC’s analysts, which not only strengthened their final products, but also reduced the amount of time that was necessary to make the products in the first place. These and other accomplishments helped JWAC establish close working relationships with other government agencies and with customers and helped determine decisions effecting how millions of dollars were spent on future capability development.

Bob Hudson Leadership Award

Kevin J. Sweeny received the Bob Hudson Leadership Award, named for JWAC’s first executive director and given to an employee whose ongoing leadership and vision assures that JWAC will continue to serve the needs of political and military leaders into the 21st century. As the technical lead on one of JWAC’s largest projects, Sweeny was instrumental not only in inspiring his team members with his passion and zeal, but also with advising JWAC’s senior leaders and, as his citation read, with advancing ‘‘the vision of JWAC to every combatant command to ensure the most effective and efficient alignment of support to the warfighter.” In so doing, he displayed leadership skills very much like those of Bob Hudson. He also guided the direction of several key initiatives, co-wrote a study on guiding JWAC into the 21st century, and led an effort to establishing partnerships with two top universities.

‘‘It was obvious that everyone who stood up here was uncomfortable with the recognition of their accomplishments,” said Army Lt. Gen. Keith M. Huber, USJFCOM’s deputy commander, speaking to employees and guests. ‘‘In my profession, people are willing to follow you to their death....You directly connect to that, whether from here or when you are forward based. Your intellect, courage, candor, and different way of looking at problems directly leads to the killing and capture of evil people.”