SPOTLIGHT: Sgt. 1st Class Twillie L. Curry III, 678th CCT, 410th CSB, Expeditionary Contracting Co

Sgt. 1st Class Twillie L. Curry III is a contingency contracting team noncommissioned officer- in-charge and contract specialist with the 678th Contingency Contracting Team, 410th Contracting Support Brigade, Expeditionary Contracting Command, stationed at the Regional Contracting Office, Miami, Florida. After serving 12 years as an automated logistics supervisor, Curry was among the first selectees to transition into the contracting noncommissioned officer career field, 51C. "I was very pleased when this career field finally became an MOS in January 2007," Curry said. "I felt it was a great opportunity to continue the journey of making me a better Soldier and person, as well as acquire valuable skills and training that could be used when I decide to take off the uniform." Curry recently volunteered to support the U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Command in executing urgent year-end actions from 12 July 2009 through 2 October. He was placed on the Common Hardware Systems team due to his previous acquisition experience. The CHS program provides commercial ruggedized and near military specification hardware versions of computers, peripherals, and networking devices, as well as logistics services in support of the war fighter in theatre. This fast-paced, highly-visible program required Curry to work on several actions to support the pre-award of the next CHS contract (CHS-4). Some of these duties included: building a competitive 5-year indefinite delivery indefinite quantity firm-fixed price solicitation with an estimated value of $3.7B; compile supporting CHS-4 documents for peer, legal, policy, and PARC reviews; coordinating with the PM in drafting & revising applicable documents supporting CHS-4 documents; incorporated outstanding engineer change proposals in support of the CHS program; and supported resident contract specialists in the completion of open FY09 (expiring) actions. Curry is on track to achieve Level II Contracting Certification early next year while continuing to pursue his master\'s degree. At his current duty station in Miami, Curry provides contracting support for SOUTHCOM and Special Operations Command South missions and exercises. He is getting ready to deploy to Belmopan, Belize, in April 2010 for an upcoming mission.