Colonel pins on as engineering office pushes forward

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. C. Michaela Walrond
  • 66th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
HANSCOM AFB, Mass. --  When it comes to leadership opportunities, Col. Russell Kurtz doesn't shy away from the difficult or challenging. 

An aeronautical engineer by trade, the colonel's career has afforded him many unique opportunities. He has led flight test teams on missions to both the North and South Poles, taught at the US Air Force Academy, and even briefed the likes of the Secretary of the Air Force during his tour at the Pentagon. 

So when Colonel Kurtz took the role of deputy director of Engineering for the Electronic Systems Center, with the job of helping build an in-house engineering capability, he hit the ground running. 

Hanscom's Directorate of Engineering, currently led by Dr. James Cunningham, was reestablished two years ago when then-ESC Commander Lt. Gen. Chuck Johnson opted to create a government-led organic engineering directorate. Since 1999, the ESC Chief Engineer Function had been led by the MITRE Corp., a federally funded research and development center, whose non-profit operations are chartered directly by Congress. 

The decision supported a two-pronged, long-term strategy. It created a much-needed government capability to enhance the overall level of engineering support for ESC programs, and it helped to unlock MITRE's full potential by reducing some of the management and administrative burdens. 

The colonel, who was promoted to the grade of 0-6 Dec. 3, said MITRE has done a great job in assisting during this transition. 

"MITRE personnel are at such a high caliber that every one of their employees tends to be a subject matter expert in their chosen specialty. Because of this, there are usually not enough of them to go around, so we need to draw from other resources." 

These resources include developing what the colonel said is the "right mix" between organic engineers, both military and civilian, MITRE, and engineering and technical acquisition support services, known as ETASS, to ensure the success of all programs across the ESC Enterprise. 

"Between these three sources of engineering there needs to be a balance," Colonel Kurtz said. This balance, he said, would allow the military and civilian engineers the ability to set the vision, policies and effectively perform all inherently governmental tasks.
Building this type of directorate, the colonel said, is a challenge and could take a number of years to get where the EN team wants to be. Since arriving at Hanscom, however, Colonel Kurtz said he has already seen progress, and the team is achieving successes every day. 

"Even in the three months that I've been here, I've seen us start to tackle some key challenges. It's exciting because we are building a government-contractor team -- and our team is solidifying," the colonel said. 

One of the challenges that the directorate is facing head-on is designing systems so that they are net-centric. 

"We are no longer looking at just a 'systems of systems' approach -- we are looking at an enterprise approach. In essence, we are trying to engineer all the systems to a common set of standards, so that they all work seamlessly together. This will drastically reduce decision times, allowing us to get the cursor on the right target and defeat it before the enemy can react," the colonel said. 

However, just as the systems need to be net-centric, in the same sense, center engineers have to be thinking net-centric too, the colonel said. 

"If we are all going to get there together, engineers have to think not only about what's happening in their own specific programs, but they also have to understand how it's going interact with other systems across the enterprise. The ultimate goal would be to have a flexible and agile architecture that we can quickly reconfigure to support warfighter requirements," said Colonel Kurtz. 

One way of spreading the word, the colonel said, is through the Chief Engineers' Forum, which is the primary venue for face-to-face coordination and discussion between the center's chief engineers. "During these forums, we are pulling all the engineers together and discussing center-level problems. We are then developing comprehensive solutions, deciding on standards and publishing those standards on the ENweb. This allows us to go in and look at cross cutting issues and, from a technical standpoint, share lessons learned. The focus is always on 'one team, one fight,'" he said. 

In addition to the CE Forum, the colonel said that engineering training-related opportunities, including classes offered during Integration Week, continue to ensure that the center's engineers are on the same page. "It is critically important to grow our engineering and technical work force. Instilling and developing strategic vision is not something that can be bought; we have to grow it locally." 

"It's not very often that you get to come into an organization and help build it from scratch. At ESC, we are literally doing just that, building a brand new, much needed capability," the colonel said. 

"If we succeed, we will succeed as the EN team and as part of the broader center team. The future looks bright; this will be a big win for everyone." 

Part of building this team included hiring 11 engineers within the last year, bringing EN's total number of organic personnel to 15. "Each one of these individuals is taking on a key role within EN, a striking contrast compared to two years ago when there were only four people," he said. 

While it is a relatively new team, the colonel said, they are maturing rapidly and becoming more effective every day. "It's all about the people. They are our most critical asset, because we can't do any of this without the right individuals with the right skill sets." 

The center is currently trying to hire civilian directors of engineering for each of the wings. 

"The hope is that we will eventually have organic lead engineers down to the squadron level," the colonel said. 

By providing subject matter experts in the engineering field for each area, there is someone at each level to offer assistance no matter where or when it is required, the colonel said. 

In addition to staffing the functional levels, ESC is currently seeking a Senior Executive to fill EN's top position, director of engineering. The current director, Dr. Cunningham, is retiring in January of 2008. 

"We have been pretty lucky to have Dr. Cunningham. He has laid a great foundation. Fortunately, I've been able to learn a lot over the past few months. He'll be sorely missed," Colonel Kurtz said. 

Colonel Kurtz said his time here so far has been a great adventure. "We are certainly a directorate in transition. I feel extremely blessed being part of this ESC team, working with the nation's best and brightest to build up engineering at the center while doing our small part in making sure that this country remains safe and secure."