Col. Tim Strange speaks with participants in the 2013 contracting exercise at Fort Bliss, Texas. Soldiers and civilians from the Mission and Installation Contracting Command, or MICC, were among the more than 380 participants in the 2013 exercise. Ap...
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas (Jan. 3, 2014) -- Approximately 100 Soldiers and civilian members from throughout the Mission and Installation Contracting Command are among the more than 500 taking part in the Operational Contract Support Joint Exercise 2014, scheduled for Jan. 7-31, at Fort Bliss, Texas.
The purpose of Operational Contract Support Joint Exercise 2014, or OCSJX-14, is to train and assess operational contract support capabilities for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Joint Staff, U.S. Northern Command, Army North and service components against a variety of exercise scenarios that have been developed during workshops over the past several months. Mission and Installation Contracting Command, known as MICC, members supporting the exercise also will train and assess operational contract support, or OCS, capabilities.
"OCSJX-14 core themes are to train OCS and warrior tasks for Department of Defense contracting officers and to improve OCS capabilities to include contract support integration, contracting support management and contractor management," said Col. Tim Strange, commander of the 412th Contracting Support Brigade at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, and the executive director of OCSJX-14. "This exercise also focuses on growing the next generation of contracting leaders from all services and to develop the next generation of military leaders who are well versed in all aspects of OCS."
OCSJX-14 is the premier OCS exercise designed to prepare uniformed and civilian operational contract support professionals to deploy and support any contingency, humanitarian or operational mission. Officials anticipate approximately 530 OCS professionals will participate in OCSJX-14. The exercise also provides DOD contracting and support professionals training on joint skills and warrior tasks that include control of contracting operations and contract planning, execution and administration.
The Expeditionary Contracting Command is Army Contracting Command's lead organization for operational contract support and designing and guiding the exercise. The 412th Contracting Support Brigade is ACC's lead to execute the concepts for the OCSJX-14.
Additional MICC organizations providing personnel in support of the exercise include the 418th Contracting Support Brigade at Fort Hood, Texas; 419th Contracting Support Brigade at Fort Bragg, N.C.; MICC Field Directorate Office-Fort Eustis, Va.; and MICC-Fort Belvoir, Va.
Training has evolved from a multi-service annual exercise, to now include participants representing various services and agencies throughout DOD, other federal agencies and foreign coalition partners. They include the Defense Contract Management Agency, Joint Chiefs of Staff Logistics and Directorate for Joint Force Development, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Procurement, Army Sustainment Command, Army Contracting Command, Mission and Installation Contracting Command, Expeditionary Contracting Command, and the Contingency Acquisition Support Model Program Office. Air Force participants include representatives responsible for contingency and functional area management, contracting instruction and business systems.
More than 380 trainees and cadre participated in the 2013 exercise. Among them were MICC Soldiers, as well as civilian personnel who supported the joint event as teachers, mentors or coaches.
The MICC is responsible for providing contracting support for the warfighter at Army commands, installations and activities located throughout the continental United States and Puerto Rico. In fiscal year 2013, the command executed more than 43,000 contract actions worth more than $5.3 billion across the Army, including more than $2.1 billion to American small businesses. The command has also managed more than 780,000 Government Purchase Card Program transactions this fiscal year valued at an additional $880 million.
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Mission and Installation Contracting Command
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