Col. Gale Harrington (left), the Project Manager, Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems, makes remarks before presenting the charter to Maj. Jake Crawford III (right) for his new assignment as Assistant Project Manager, Vehicular Inter...

FORT MONMOUTH, N.J. - Maj. Jake Crawford III received the charter for his new assignment as the assistant project manager, Vehicular Intercom Systems in a ceremony here Nov. 16.

As APM VIS, Crawford will provide vehicle intercom systems and tactical headsets that save Soldiers' lives by allowing them to communicate in the high-noise environments of combat vehicles and protect them from hearing damage or loss from high-decibel vehicle noise and explosion blasts.

To date, APM VIS has provided more than $1.2 billion of VIS materiel for Army, Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy units.

Crawford replaced Maj. Ron Claiborne as APM VIS. Claiborne will retire on Feb 29, 2008 after 20 years in the Army to become a consultant to the VIS program.

Crawford previously served as the assistant product manager, Defense Wide Transmission Systems for Southwest Asia Operations and deployed to Iraq, from Sept. 2006 to Aug. 2007. Prior to that, he served as assistant product manager, software integration, for the Project Manager, Future Combat Systems at Ft. Monmouth, N.J. from July 2004 to July 2006; as Assistant Training and Doctrine Command System Manager for the All Source Analysis System with the U.S. Army Intelligence Center at Ft. Huachuca, Ariz. from 2003 to 2004; as chief of the Military Intelligence Transformation Cell, Futures Directorate and Integration Command with USAIC at Ft. Huachuca, Ariz. from 2002 to 2003; and in various other command and staff positions in CONUS and Germany.

Crawford graduated from the U.S. States Military Academy at West Point in 1993 with a bachelor's degree in management. He also earned a master's degree in business management from the University of South Carolina at Columbia in 2001. His awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal (two oak leaf clusters), the Army Commendation Medal, (two oak leaf clusters), the Joint Service Achievement Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, the Iraqi Campaign Medal and the Parachutist and Air Assault Badges.

Crawford and his wife, Nicole Yep-Crawford, they have three sons: Jake IV, Dimitri and Gabriel.

APM VIS is part of the Project Manager, Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems, which reports to the Program Executive Office, Enterprise Information Systems.

Stephen Larsen is with the U.S. Army's Project Manager, Defense Communications & Army Transmission Systems.