REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- As the new deputy commander for the Aviation and Missile Command, Bill Marriott's expectations of the organization's 8,000-plus employees can be summed up in a creed that should be familiar to every Army employee.
The Army Civilian Corps Creed -- with its focus on dedication to the organization and its Soldiers and mission, the Constitution and the Army values -- clearly sets a high standard for Marriott and AMCOM's employees.
For Marriott, it's a creed worth revisiting throughout a civilian career.
"I expect every employee to live up to the Army Civilian Corps Creed and the Army values," Marriott said. "We need to work hard together to create a culture of dignity and respect. We need to work together as a team to deliver resiliency, to communicate issues and to live the Army values outlined in our creed."
That creed along with a desk copy of the U.S. Constitution are part of the décor in Marriott's new office on the top floor of AMCOM headquarters in the Sparkman Center's building 5300. He came to AMCOM about two months ago, taking on responsibilities as the top senior civilian in an organization that is responsible for the worldwide mission to support Army aviation and missile systems throughout their life cycles.
"In everything I do, I focus the most on integrity. The more senior you get, the more people look to you to do the right thing, to make the right choices. Integrity sets the foundation for everything else," Marriott said.
Marriott, a Senior Executive Service member, is living the Army Civilian Corps Creed as he gets more familiar with the AMCOM mission, employees and work environment. In the short time he has been with the organization, he has been involved in several initiatives, including AMCOM 101 for Aviation and the Leader Investment for Tomorrow program.
"It is an opportunity and an exciting challenge to come to an organization like AMCOM, an organization with such a great reputation for supporting our Soldiers. It's really humbling and an honor," Marriott said.
Marriott has a unique perspective in that assessment as his prior assignment had him serving as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel and G-1 at the Army Materiel Command, an assignment that gave him an "across the pond" view of subordinate commands like AMCOM.
"From an AMC perspective, the leadership has always been proud of the work AMCOM has done. From my perspective with an aviation background, I could admire the work AMCOM did to meet requirements and to be ready to provide support to Soldiers when needed," he said. "AMCOM is constantly meeting challenges in a resources restricted environment."
Marriott's responsibilities involve supporting the Commanding General's priorities and integrating all the staff elements in line with those priorities to ensure the right products are getting to Soldiers in the field.
"My job is coordinating, integrating and synchronizing those efforts in support of the Commanding General's priorities," Marriott said.
"As the senior civilian, this is an opportunity to apply many lessons I have learned over the course of my career to ensure we are focused on the CG's vision, our mission and our goals. We have an opportunity to responsibly reshape and realign AMCOM to support the Army of 2025 while also taking care of our people."
Despite the possibility of future Department of Defense budget cuts, Marriott is determined to ensure that employees are provided opportunities and a supportive environment in which to meet their work goals.
"I am committed to workforce development," he said. "We have to be creative and innovative in providing opportunities for our workforce to broaden their skills. We also must focus on delivering useful training and the right tools to enable our supervisors to be successful."
By providing supervisors with the right tools and right support, Marriott believes the health of AMCOM as an organization will endure. By integrating all aspects of employee health -- physical, spiritual and mental -- and involving the different organizations that support employee health -- Safety, Equal Employment Opportunity, Employee Wellness, for examples -- the end result will be a command driven by highly motivated and innovative employees.
"We want to provide a climate of dignity, respect and trust," Marriott said.
"This is basic, but impactful. Supervisors need to know what their employees are doing every day, and what issues they may have. They need to know their employees at work, but they also need to know about personal and family situations, and how those can impact the job. It's like a house of cards. You pull one out and they are all intertwined in some way. So, to understand an employee, a supervisor needs to know their employees, what motivates them, what frustrates them, what makes them proud."
Marriott jokingly described his 36 years of military and civilian service as a "Forest Gump-type career," leading to assignments that gave him a close-up view of leaders and leadership. His 26-year career as a Naval aviator officer included serving as the aide-de-camp to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Commanding Officer of the Patrol Squadron Sixteen "War Eagles," Congressional Analyst to the Secretary of the Navy in the Office of Program Appraisal, Commander of Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing Ten at Whidbey Island, Washington, Military Assistant to an Assistant Secretary of the Navy and in his last assignment as the Executive Secretary for two Secretaries of Defense. After retiring from the Navy, Marriott continued serving as the Executive Secretary for the Department of Defense before going on to AMC and then to AMCOM.
"There have been a lot of positions that really did help me get ready for this," he said. "Even as an ensign in the Navy, I spent two months in the Naval Aviation Depot in Jacksonville, Fla., which does work similar to what's being done at Corpus Christi Army Depot in Texas. I was assigned every week to a different part of the aviation depot on the shop floor. Now, 36 years later, I find myself thinking about those experiences while working issues with CCAD and Letterkenny Army Depot.
"As an aviator, I never really focused on where parts came from or what it took to deliver them on time. As a result of that earlier assignment, I can better relate to the challenges that the employees at the depots work with every day."
In those later Naval assignments, Marriott worked at the strategic level in support of two Secretaries of the Navy, two Secretaries of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and leadership within the Navy and then at AMC, first for Gen. Ann Dunwoody and then for Gen. Dennis Via.
"Those assignments gave me the opportunity to see some great leaders in action, how they view issues from a strategic perspective and how they make difficult decisions. The experience has helped me in forming my own strategic perspective, one that I can use to help AMCOM and AMC support our national strategy," Marriott said.
One assignment in particular, in April 2001 when he served as a Wing Commander for Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing Ten, gave Marriott a glimpse of what it takes to lead in difficult times.
"We had an aircraft on patrol that was struck in mid-air by a Chinese fighter and was forced to make an emergency landing in China. The 24-member crew was held against their will. At the time, the Bush administration was fairly new to office and this was one of their first international incidents," he said of the incident that occurred on China's Hainan Island.
"I found myself in front of the cameras and dealing with the families while the crew was held for 11 days. You never know what life is going to bring your way. You've got to be prepared for whatever happens."
Marriott encourages employees to be willing to get out of their comfort zone, and to volunteer if they want to take on new opportunities and obtain promotions. It's a philosophy he has followed in his career.
"I had a fairly normal career in the Navy up until I went to Washington, D.C. in 1992," he said.
"At the time, I was working for a two-star admiral in Navy Personnel. They were looking for a naval aviator to interview for the aide-de-camp for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and I was asked by the branch manager 'Can I put your name down?' I said 'Sure' and I became one of two people from each of the four services to be interviewed for the job."
Marriott got the assignment.
"That job was a stepping stone for other opportunities, including working for the Secretary of the Navy and then being the Executive Secretary from for both Donald Rumsfeld (Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006) and then Robert Gates (Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011). That assignment gave me a lot of experience working with leadership but it also gave me a lot of confidence to go for it, to be willing to volunteer," he said.
"Don't be afraid to volunteer for something that could start a new career or give your career a jump start. You never know where it will take you. Volunteer and take chances to maximize opportunities and broaden your career."
Marriott can pinpoint the turning points in his career that stretched his abilities, and tested both himself and his family.
"A great family allows you to do great things," he said. "We moved 24 times. I was a geo-bachelor three times and was also separated from my family on six deployments. It takes a strong marriage and strong individuals to make it through that. It was a definite strain on the family. But I believe our two children grew up stronger because of it."
In his first couple months on the job, Marriott has been collecting information so that he can have an overall view of AMCOM, its strengths and weaknesses, and its capabilities and opportunities.
"I am proud and honored to be here, and I really am looking forward to making a difference," he said. "I want to work with AMCOM employees and help the team strive to deliver readiness at the point of need, and to transition the organization to be postured to support the Army of 2025 and beyond. I value the service of AMCOM employees more than anything. I respect them and have an even greater appreciation for wha
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