PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. (October 31, 2014)--Imagine receiving a phone call from an employee who has moved abroad, telling you that the employee's new house has no sinks or bathtubs.
"Apparently it's custom in Germany that if someone moves out of a house they take all of the sinks and bathtubs," said Terry McGahan, who acts as the first point of contact for participants in the Engineer and Scientist Exchange Program once they are overseas.
"My main contribution is solving problems and providing advice," McGahan said, who works at the Enterprise and Systems Engineering Center, or ESIC, and is the operations officer. McGahan advised the caller to contact the country host, who took care of the problem and installed new sinks and tubs.
BUILDING A STRONG WORK ETHIC
Born in Motherwell, Scotland, McGahan previously worked in an office that was equivalent to the Internal Revenue Service in the United Kingdom. He later relocated to New Jersey after meeting his wife, who is from the state.
When he became an American citizen in 2008, he thought it would be interesting to work for the government again. So, he applied for jobs at Picatinny and eventually landed one. For the first six years of his career, McGahan worked as the Executive Assistant to Barbara Machak, the current Executive Director of ESIC.
"Working for someone at that level, you begin to understand the dedication to the job, the attention to details, commitment and getting feedback on the work you do," McGahan said. McGahan's strong work ethic led to his nomination for the International Program Award for the outstanding performance of duties in support of ESEP for the past three years.
The program operates throughout the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which is the parent command of the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center at Picatinny. The nomination came as a surprise to McGahan.
"My involvement began around 2009, when Lu Ting, head of International Office, had been having a lot of problems with people going on these assignments and not understanding all the rules," McGahan recalled. "He wanted someone to understand the relocation issues, so he asked me to look into it. I read through all the regulations, did as much as I could, and produced a guide for people to read."
McGahan prepared the permanent change of station/temporary change of station travel orders for all ESEP participants and drew up an estimated budget for each person's assignment.
He worked closely with the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Defense Exports and Cooperation and RDECOM headquarters to ensure that all steps were in place before a participant began an assignment.
FIRST POINT OF CONTACT
Once travelers were overseas, he acted as the first point of contact for any questions regarding process and allowance aspects of the assignment.
"The main thing I enjoy is you never know what's coming next," McGahan said. "There is always a challenge and that is why I enjoy it."
To improve his support, he developed a new RDECOM-wide competency for TCS OCONUS travel when he and Merrill Keenan from Financial Management initiated new a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Project to prepare a civilian PCS/TCS/Deployment Travel Guide.
As part of this project, he built a MilSuite page to provide advice and information relating to PCS/TCS. McGahan's project is expected to provide results with significant efficiencies and cost-savings in TCS program delivery, as well as in daily operational costs of the organization. McGahan previously received an achievement medal for civilian service in June 2013 for service to the Engineer and Scientist Exchange program.
To the person who will eventually fill his position, McGahan's advice is that Rome wasn't built in a day.
"It took me easily three years to have an understanding of all this," McGahan said. "So if you don't understand something, that's a part of the job. It just takes time. You can read all of the books and guides but you still won't know everything until you experience it."
McGahan credits Lu Ting for his success on the job, adding that anything he does that might be considered great is due to his training.
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The U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to develop technology and engineering solutions for America's Soldiers.
RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command. AMC is the Army's premier provider of materiel readiness--technology, acquisition support, materiel development, logistics power projection and sustainment--to the total force, across the spectrum of joint military operations. If a Soldier shoots it, drives it, flies it, wears it, eats it or communicates with it, AMC provides it.
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Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center
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