Fort Huachuca, Arizona--A telecommunications specialist with the U. S. Army Information Systems Engineering Command (ISEC) has earned Fort Huachuca Civilian of the Month (CoM) honors for February.
Steven Walzer, a civil servant for seven years, six months, is a project lead for modernization of enterprise terminals (MET) for the Transmission Systems Directorate, Enterprise SATCOM Group. His responsibilities include installation, evaluation, integration and testing of satellite earth terminal systems. He was nominated by ISEC Commander, Col. Wendy L. Rivers.
Prior to his civil service tenure, Walzer spent 22 years in the Army as a satellite communications repairman. He was also a government contractor in the same field before he entered civilian service and works with some of the same people he met in the military. "It's a small world," he said.
ISEC is the lead government engineering agency for the Acquisition Category I Major Defense Acquisition Program (MDAP) for the life cycle modernization of enterprise satellite communication and network control systems. These terminals are being deployed worldwide with nearly 90 planned installations supporting strategic communications infrastructure, presidential communications, the Defense Information Systems Network, Army LandWarNet, the Ballistic Missile Defense System, and tactical reach-back for deployed forces, according to the nomination packet.
"ISEC has employed 16 nearly full-time personnel for six years supporting the project manager with engineering, planning and implementation. The effort is currently in a full deployment mode and one individual stands out among his peers and other stakeholders as performing more temporary duty than anyone else on the program at ISEC or at other agencies. Furthermore, that person's expertise, motivation and dedication to the success of the entire MET program has been instrumental to the success of the overall program -- Mr. Steven Walzer," the justification read.
"Walzer has now performed as the Site Implementation Lead for several MET sites. Currently, he is nearing the completion of a dual MET implementation at Fort Buckner, Okinawa. This effort encountered numerous technical problems that Walzer was able to efficiently resolve. The inability to react quickly to these unplanned problems threatened a delay to the schedule into [typhoon] season, which would have resulted in an instant crisis.
"Walzer took the testing to a new level … [and] was able to mitigate three weeks of schedule slip by introducing test optimization, saving … the government $75,000 in labor and personnel travel costs. More important, the monumental impact is that the second terminal is now projected to be on line with its radome installed before [typhoon] season, preventing immeasurable negative impacts crucial to command and control," the justification stated.
When not traveling, Walzer calls Sierra Vista home. His daughter, a Phoenix resident, gave birth to twins, Peyton and Parker, on Dec. 31. The new grandfather had the opportunity to meet them when they were five weeks old.
Outside of work, Walzer enjoys fishing, which he does when he is in Okinawa. His hours are demanding, and he spends off-duty time relaxing and bowling.
He advises those who work to "find a job that you enjoy doing and enjoy the work that you do.
"When this happens, it's not work -- it's a passion," said the February CoM who has been in the same line of work since 1976.
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