ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, Ill. -- The U.S. Army Sustainment Command filled two major staff positions in January. Patty Perrigo is the new deputy chief of staff, G-1 (Human Resources), and Cheryl Vincent is the new deputy chief of staff, G-8 (Resource Management). Their promotion ceremony was held here, Feb. 29.
Perrigo and Vincent both served as interim in their current positions for several months and were selected after an extensive application and interview process.
Vincent first met Perrigo in 2008 when she took a job as the military personnel team lead in the G-1, but was soon placed as the Manpower Division lead. Perrigo was the civilian personnel team lead at the time.
"I wanted to spend some time in the G-1," said Vincent. "I needed to understand the personnel aspect of the organization."
In 2014, the Manpower Division was moved back from G-1 to G-8.
Vincent said she believes it is important for the G-8 to have a good understanding of how personnel works, given the close connection between manpower and personnel.
Vincent said she was impressed with Perrigo.
"Manpower is the connection between G-1 and G-8; you need the positions and the funding for those positions," she said. "I had the 'spaces,' and Patty had the 'faces.' I had immediate respect for her; it was quite obvious she had a wealth of experience. She is an extremely knowledgeable individual.
"You listened to her in meetings, and you listened because you could tell she knew her stuff."
Perrigo said she is pleased to be working with Vincent at the G-staff level.
"She's absolutely the perfect person for the job," she said. "The nice thing about working with people who really understand each other -- it's not seen as someone trying to push work onto someone else. It's more of a process-oriented and effective relationship focused on finding improvements."
As the Army downsizes, Vincent said it is important for the G-1 and the G-8 to be working closely together.
"Especially in an environment of declining financial resources, the G-1 and the G-8 are involved with everything happening in the command," said Vincent. "It's important for us to have everything in place… we are a huge support to the operational side of the command.
"I am excited about the one and the eight working together in the future. I think we can do great things," she said.
The following are overviews of their careers and their visions for the future.
Patty Perrigo, G-1
As a military spouse and veteran, Perrigo said she spent the first 20 years of her career following her husband from base to base, sometimes even changing her job series.
"It was a lot of experiences, although sometimes it was frustrating," she said. "I would make progress, and then we would transfer due to another military assignment. I would have to accept jobs at a lower grade."
She said that while her constant moving was difficult, she now sees the benefits.
"At the time it didn't feel like I was getting to where I wanted to go," she said. "But, when I look back all those extra steps -- that zigzag path that I had -- really were the things that helped prepare me for this job."
Perrigo was the human resources lead when the Directorates of Logistics transferred from Installation Management Command to become Logistics Readiness Centers with ASC. She said that experience also helped to prepare her for the new position.
"It was a very big task," she said. "Some of it was purely HR, stuff I knew inside out. Some of it was not stuff I knew… definitely outside of my comfort zone. I learned so much more than in a normal assignment."
Perrigo said the transfer was a key broadening experience for her career. About 5,500 people were transferred to ASC.
"I saw the whole transfer from start to finish, and it was pretty exciting," she said. "It was a once in a career opportunity to do something that big on that scale."
Perrigo said she hopes the G-1 will continue in the right direction under her leadership.
"I think it is really important that we are seen as honest and ethical, and that we are providing good customer service," she said.
She said she has a lot of faith in the skills of the G-1.
"The people in the G-1 are very knowledgeable," she said. "I want ASC personnel to be able to trust the advice that they get because it is technically correct and ethical. Personnel rules are often very complicated, and sometimes the people don't know the questions to ask."
She said she hopes the G-1 will continue to be a good resource for commanders and managers.
"We really have to understand what it is they are trying to accomplish, and then offer legal, ethical, appropriate solutions for them," she said. "They can't be expected to know all of the personnel rules, just like we wouldn't know all the rules in their areas."
She said she was very grateful for her predecessor, Norbert Herrera, for his mentorship and guidance. Herrera is now the G-1 for Joint Munitions Command, which is also located on Rock Island Arsenal.
"He's a tough act to follow," she said. "I have the most respect for him in the world. He was a great G-1, and I learned a lot from him.
"He's right next door, and we think a lot alike, so it's nice to have someone close to bounce ideas off."
Perrigo said she is focused on the command's Human Capital Strategic Plan. She said the plan will pull together the G-1's vision and how the section will achieve its goals within the next five to 10 years.
"We need to share what we are doing and get input from the rest of the command," she said. "We are just the caretakers, we are making sure the rules are followed. We make sure [personnel] have the information they need to make decisions, and we tell them what the tools are -- that's our job."
She said the plan will help personnel understand the G-1's goals to revitalize the workforce in a fiscally constrained environment. She said that as more ASC personnel become retirement eligible, it is important to encourage younger people to apply for positions.
"I understand the challenges managers face with recruiting positions now and for the future," she said. "We in the G-1 are actively looking for innovative ways to address those challenges."
Perrigo said she wants ASC to know more about what the G-1 does and how they can support the workforce.
"When you think about it, our job is managing human capital, the whole lifecycle of human capital in a way," she said. "We do more than just management; it's more profound than that. It's important, important work. Without people, we could not accomplish our mission."
Cheryl Vincent, G-8
A Quad Cities native whose dad worked for John Deere, Vincent said she was hired as an intern on the arsenal 27 years ago after graduating college.
"Not having experience with the military, I didn't really understand what the Army did at the arsenal and the significance of the organization -- the support the organization gives to the warfighter," she said. "That was all new to me."
But she said she quickly realized how important the work actually was.
"It took me no time at all after being hired to realize what we do and how important it is, even though it does not tie directly to the Soldier," she said. "That indirect support is just as important as being right there next to that greensuitor. That was quite clear to me early in my work, and it gave me a passion for my work and what we do.
"It wasn't just a job," she said.
Vincent has only worked at Rock Island Arsenal, but she said she was still able to gain the diverse experience she needed to further her career.
"I was told early on that I needed to move around and that no one finishes their careers in the same place, and here I am today, 27 years later and I am still at Rock Island Arsenal -- never been anywhere else," she said.
Despite never moving geographically, Vincent said she has gained a wealth of diverse experience.
"What Rock Island brings is so much diversity that you can move around and still be in one geographic location," she said. "You can move around and still gain the skills you need to move up and advance -- to understand the bigger picture. Fortunately I was able to move around a lot."
She said she started her career in resource management where she worked the budgets for different mission areas. She immediately began to learn about the other sections of the command.
Vincent said she experienced the financial resourcing patterns of the Army first-hand while she worked in the Strategic Planning Office. She witnessed the funding to the Army as it increased for Desert Storm, decreased after Desert Storm, increased after 9/11, and is now decreasing again.
"Strategic planning is probably one of the best things that happened to me, because I could start looking more future focused and broader at where the command needs to go and how Army structure was changing over the years," she said. "You ride those waves and you see how the mission changes… I was at the forefront of a lot of things."
Vincent said she helped to set the concept plan for ASC's seven global brigades.
"That set a stage for me to really get into broader, bigger Army," she said.
Vincent said she was strongly influenced by three mentors in her career: Cara Schay, Diana Balmer and Lee Hansen.
Schay was her supervisor for more than a decade, and Vincent said she was a great role model and gave her a lot of development opportunities.
"She trusted in me, she empowered me, and likewise, I watched her and how she operated as a supervisor," she said.
Balmer was ASC's chief of staff until she retired in 2010. Vincent said she learned a lot about leadership by emulating Balmer and watching how, "she operated and how she dealt with people in situations."
Hansen was Vincent's predecessor in G-8, and is currently the deputy to the executive director of the Acquisition, Integration and Management Directorate. Vincent said she admires Hansen for his management skills and his ability to bring people together during difficult times. Hansen was the G-8 from 2013 to 2015, and he led the organization during sequestration.
"Lee, as a former military colonel, had a whole lot of tricks in his bag for me to learn from," she said. "What he did to bring this organization together … was amazing. I was lucky enough to be teamed with him in the leadership of this organization, and I credit a lot of where I am today because of what he's done in the last couple of years."
Vincent said she hopes to continue what Hansen started. She said she wants to continue building workforce morale and to further develop her employees' careers.
She also said she promises to keep providing a monthly birthday cake for the floor and to keep using the popcorn machine for special events.
"Sometimes those little things mean the world to the workforce," she said. "They give us an opportunity, as leadership … to go spend time with the individuals and bond with them. It helps people see that you care."
Vincent also said she wants to improve resourcing processes as funding continues to decrease across the Army.
"Resources are declining. Obviously, in the G-8 we know that better than anyone," she said. "It is important for us to utilize every member of the team in the most efficient way possible. We have to layout processes -- how we do things.
"We have to ask, is there a better, smarter, quicker, faster way to do manage the commands' resources."
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