DETROIT – The US Army has a problem. About a fifth of the employees who work for the Army in its Materiel Command are eligible for retirement, including many of the 7,500 civilian and military employees who work at the TACOM Life Cycle Management Command in Warren, the home of the old Detroit Arsenal.
On Wednesday, at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, TACOM, as it is more commonly known, hosted an Academia Day for more than 100 university, college and high school teachers and counselors to tell them about the civilian job opportunities available for graduating students because of these looming retirements.
Gen. Dennis Via, Commanding General of Army Materiel Command (AMC), was scheduled to brief the educators, but because of a scheduling conflict, the presentation was instead conducted by Lisha Adams, executive deputy to Gen. Via and senior civilian within the Materiel Command.
“We can not take these reductions without bringing in new people for refresh capabilities,” Adams said. “We need to recruit to bring in talented people. Academia Day is how we make people aware of opportunities in the federal government and how they can bring students in. We are looking for civilian employees who want to make a career in the government. At AMC we have multiple career opportunities, including engineers, information technology, cyber security projects and more.”
Academia Day is part of the 1000 Intern Program established by Gen. Via to recruit civilian replacements. Last year, 1,200 interns joined the program. Adams said 153, or 12 percent of the total, came from Michigan. The goal is to recruit another 1,000 interns this year, and then again for the next three years for a total of 5,000.
Adams herself started as an Army maintenance civilian intern in the 1980s and moved up the ranks to become the highest civilian position in Materiel Command – equivalent to a three-star general.
“I’ve been doing it over 30 years,” she said. “I have enjoyed it. I’ve seen a lot of the world. I’ve met a lot of people. But it’s been helping others that’s the highlight of my career.”
Also briefing the professors and counselors was Maj. Gen. Gwen Bingham, who runs TACOM. She is the first women to lead the $6.3 billion global enterprise that comprises more than 19,000 people. Maj. Gen. Bingham, the daughter of an Army First Sergeant, said she also “fell in love with this vocation called the U.S. Army and haven’t looked back for 34 years.”
At the Academia Day she told the counselors about Army Materiel Command and TACOM, the only active duty Army organization in the state. She said the Detroit Arsenal actually began in 1942 in the Guardian Building in downtown Detroit. So nearly 75 years later, she wanted the public to know the command is still relevant today, even if it isn’t building tanks for the troops like it did during World War II.
“Secondly, academia day will show college and universities professors how their students can become part of something bigger than themselves and give back to this nation,” Maj. Gen. Bingham said.
Adams said TACOM is unique within the Materiel Command because of the close collaboration that takes place within the academic and business worlds in metro Detroit.
“We’re set up to take advantage of the military auto industry, and the commercial auto industry” through the National Automotive Center, Adams said. NAC, in cooperation with TACOM, performs basic research on parts and products then works with the automakers to develop these products for use by both the military and civilian sectors, thus reducing the Army’s costs.
For instance, TACOM has developed sophisticated autonomous driving capabilities that the military could use soon to program trucks to deliver supplies without any drivers on board. The technology is in the final stages of testing. Automakers also are pushing hard to develop driverless cars that they hope will be on the road by the end of this decade.
Adams said she met with representatives from General Motors, Ford Motor Company and the Fiat Chrysler Alliance during the auto show this week to discuss this driverless technology and other technologies they could develop together.
“We don’t have that relationship with any other facilities in AMC,” Adams said.
For more on the 1000 Intern Program, click on http://www.amc.army.mil/amc/interns.html#students
