AMRDEC recognized for exemplifying Army standards

By Nikki Montgomery, AMRDEC Public AffairsOctober 9, 2015

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REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. (Oct. 9, 2015) -- The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center, one of six U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command centers, awarded its employees for their diligence and preparation at an assembly Oct. 1.

Personnel from the Operations Branch, Intelligence and Security Division, and Information Management and Technology Division received Achievement Medals for Civilian Service after an Inspector General visit conducted Sept. 28 through Oct. 1.

The Department of the Army Inspector General inspection encompasses a full range of security disciplines including physical security, information security, personnel security, information assurance, foreign disclosure, operations security, industrial security, research and technology protection, and counterintelligence support.

The inspection began with a briefing from the IG team delivering the agenda to those involved. Over the course of their visit, the three part team evaluated compliance with laws, regulations, and directives that seek to identify the root causes of problems which may contribute to deficiencies in regulations and directives. Organizations are held accountable for findings in specified areas including major deficiencies, minor deficiencies, and observations.

After four days, IG Team Leader Robert Jones provided an out brief to the participating divisions and AMRDEC's leadership.

Jones stated, of the previous 275 inspections he had performed, AMRDEC's inspection was the second organization to only receive a one page findings report compared to the typical multiple paged document. Stating in the findings report, the organization did a commendable job in demonstrating their compliance with Army policies, an excellent accomplishment for such a large organization.

Roark Washington, AMRDEC security branch chief, expressed the vast amount of work and preparation required to verify compliance within the center.

"At AMRDEC, we have upwards of 10,000 personnel, roughly 100 open storage areas, and over 400 security containers that hold classified information that we are responsible for within the security branch," said Washington. "It's a lot. Hundreds of thousands of classified documents. All we could do was prepare the best we knew how."

AMRDEC divisions, including Washington's team, have been preparing for the inspection since the beginning of fiscal year 2015. Part of that preparation included routine audits of AMRDEC's security containers performed by the security division, as well as contacting those managing the containers to ensure maintenance was being practiced.

Organizational IG inspections assess 20 percent of classified holdings within an organization and are generally performed every three years.

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The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to ensure decisive overmatch for unified land operations to empower the Army, the joint warfighter and our nation. RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.

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