in the New Jersey Shore area, achieved his lifelong ambition to follow his forbearers into military service, described the scene in an interview. “It was the proudest moment of my life.” But that interview also made it clear that Ferrell doesn’t spend a lot of time looking backward. The career path he’s blazed kept him far too busy for that.
Ferrell, who holds Master of Science degrees in administration from Central Michigan University and in strategy from the Army War College, has served at several Army posts, including the United States, Korea, Europe, Bosnia and Iraq.--At each assignment, Lt. Gen. Ferrell met challenges head on, and has served in a variety of leadership roles from platoon leader to Army major subordinate commander. His unique assignments have given him the opportunity to travel across the globe to Africa, Afghanistan, Russia, China, Vietnam, Australia, South America, and other places many people only dream of traveling to.
Giant Steps in His Career
Among other accomplishments, the young officer Ferrell earned his master parachutist wings and served as operations officer and communications-electronics officer, second Battalion, seventh Special Forces Group (Airborne); and captain assignments officer with the Signal Branch Army Personnel Command before stepping up as aide-de-camp to the Secretary of the Army. Ferrell went on to become assistant division signal officer at the 82d Airborne Division; executive officer of the 82nd Signal Battalion; operations officer of the seventh Signal Brigade, fifth Signal Command; aide-de-camp to the commanding general, V Corps, U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army in Germany before he returned to the Pentagon to serve as military assistant to the executive secretary, Office of the Secretary of Defense. During the Iraq war, Lt. Gen. Ferrell served as military assistant to the director of the Coalition Provisional Authority’s program management office for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Ferrell bounced back to the Pentagon to be chief of the programs division of the Office of the Chief Legislative Liaison. After serving as an Army senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, he became director of Army modernization, and strategic communication for the Army Capabilities Integration Center-Forward, Army Training and Doctrine Command. Following that assignment, Ferrell served as director for C4 Systems (Command, Control, Communications and Computers) for the U.S. Africa Command.
Medals and Ribbons and Then Some Decorations followed all that heavy-duty service: The Distinguished Service Medal, two awards of the Defense Superior Service Medal, three citations for the Legion of Merit, a Bronze Star, six Meritorious Service Medal citations, six Army Commendation Medal citations, and two Army Achievement Medal citations.
His vast experiences prepared him for the incredible mission that lied ahead: Overseeing $10 billion worth of investments in information technology at a time when the United States--especially its military arms--is under intense assault by foreign agencies attempting to penetrate the Pentagon’s
www.blackengineer.com
Lt. Gen. Robert Ferrell, chief information officer, United States Army, at the BEYA STEM Conference.
deepest secrets and prise out the capabilities of the most modern weapons systems, strategic plans, and tactical operations the world has ever seen.
Priorities for the New CIO Army public affairs officer Andricka Thomas put it this way: “With cyber defense and the network being a top priority for Army and DoD, the work that gets done out of the general’s area of responsibility is truly vital to the Army’s future. Building the Army’s network capacity in IT and cyber defense; educating and training a new generation of cyber and IT professionals within our military and civilian ranks; and identifying and reducing network vulnerabilities to strengthen the security of our network . . . in all those mission areas, I expect the young people of today will support as they take our Army into the future. “There is much work to be done. The Army is consolidating data centers, increasing bandwidths at our posts, camps and stations and looking at moving services to the cloud using our Defense Information Systems Agency’s services. It’s a joint effort.” Interviewed by phone from a post in Hawaii during a whirlwind tour of units in the Pacific theater, Ferrell listed his priorities:
• Maintain support to our deployed forces and set conditions to transition to a regionally aligned Army;
• Providing Signal capabilities to the force; building an integrated and unified trained and ready military and civilian cyber/signal workforce that will meet today’s and tomorrow’s requirements;
• Enhancing the Army’s cyber capabilities. This includes assisting the Army with standing up a cyber career field, establishing a Cyber Center of Excellence at Fort Gordon, Georgia, setting up a Cyber & Signal School, and establishing Cyber Protection Teams, all of which open up a whole new realm of career opportunities;
• Expanding enterprise capabilities and improving information sharing from posts, camps, and stations down to the tactical edge;
USBE&IT I SUMMER 2014 9
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