REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- Forty-eight years ago, when attorney Fred Allen moved to Huntsville to work for the Missile Command it was like he had flown to the moon.
Born and raised in Tallapoosa County in southeastern Alabama, the move represented more than the nearly 190 miles it took to drive to Huntsville. To a young lawyer, it also represented opportunity, financial stability, federal employment, challenging work in a science and technology community, and a path to a future far better than what the Tallapoosa County seat of Dadeville or its largest city, Alexander City, had to offer. To the young lawyer's parents and other family members, Huntsville, the space capitol of the world, seemed symbolically as far away as the moon.
"I'm proud to be an American, a Southerner and an Alabamian. I've spent my whole life right here in Alabama," Allen said. "What Redstone Arsenal had to offer me back then and still today has made all the difference in the world. In many ways, Huntsville is a world away from where I started."
Today, Allen, a member of the senior executive service, is at the height of his career with the Army, serving as chief counsel for the Aviation and Missile Command since 2003, and following in the footsteps of three distinctly different chief counsels who all had a hand in developing his capabilities as a government lawyer and supervisor of 45 attorneys. He recently was named the top Department of the Army civilian in the Management/Executive category by the Redstone-Huntsville Chapter of the Association of the U.S. Army.
"I think my career sends the clear message that hard work will be rewarded one way or another," he said. "First, hard work is rewarding in and of itself. And, second, people who put themselves into their work are obviously recognized and acknowledged by their leaders.
"I was always content to pursue my law career here at Redstone Arsenal. My brother's career took him to Washington and the Senate Select Committee on Small Business. But I was happy to be here in my home state and have the opportunities I had."
Allen is a graduate of Auburn University. But, his three-year stint as a student at the University of Alabama School of Law during football star Joe "Willie" Namath's tenure as Alabama's quarterback made Allen a Roll Tide fan.
"Those were great times for Alabama football. I was easily converted," he said.
Allen's law career was put on a course for Redstone Arsenal during law school when he worked as a summer clerk at MICOM for then chief counsel Frank Buckley.
"It gave me a little insight into what was going at MICOM," he said. "After law school, we were at the tail end of the Vietnam War and I had a high draft number. The law firms in Birmingham and Huntsville where I would have liked to work told me to come back after I fulfilled my commitment with the draft. So, I went back to my hometown of Alexander City and worked in private practice.
"I was waiting to take my draft physical for active duty when Frank Buckley called out of the blue and asked me if I had passed the bar. I told him 'Yes' and he asked me if I'd like to come to Redstone Arsenal and work in the legal office."
Allen's draft number was never called. Instead, he came to Redstone, and began a career with the MICOM Legal Office, which later became the Aviation and Missile Command Legal Office and that today is the Army Materiel Command Legal Center.
"I knew right from the beginning of my time here that there's nowhere a young person can come in and shortly thereafter have responsibility at the level you can have with government at a low grade," Allen said. "Once I got past being overwhelmed by acronyms, and I had gotten familiar with the Federal Acquisition Regulations and the Armed Services Procurement Regulations, I started gaining legal experience with primarily contract work in sustainment, working with project offices and the acquisition center to buy repair parts.
"As a young attorney, I got to do some pretty significant things. It didn't take long for that responsibility to increase."
Allen worked in adversary proceedings and acquisition law divisions, getting experience with litigations and protest proceedings. He also worked in international law, learning from more experienced MICOM lawyers as he wrote memorandums of understanding for cooperative development programs for missiles involving NATO partners Italy, Germany, England and France. He did a lot of international traveling during negotiations with ministries of defense from NATO countries.
"These were opportunities I never would have had if I had stayed in my hometown in private practice, even if I had been successful with that practice," Allen said.
"And, personally, Huntsville was such a different place than anywhere else in the state. The Army was here, in the middle of thousands of acres of cotton, and it was just the beginning of the growth we've had over the last three decades."
After Buckley -- Allen's first mentor -- retired, the still young attorney found a new mentor in chief counsel Verbon Black.
"He was a lot more than a mentor to me. He was very much a friend. He was very hospitable to me both at Redstone and in the community. He introduced me to a lot of people here," Allen said.
From 1975 to 1979, Allen's work as the Pershing Project counsel and with missile programs such as Lance was reflected in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, resulting in two rounds of international treaties in 1972 and 1979 that involved the issue of armament control between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. He then served as the Multiple Launch Rocket System Project counsel before being tapped to serve as an Acquisition Law branch chief. His work in Acquisition Law continued as MICOM became AMCOM and in 2000 he was promoted to division chief of AMCOM's Acquisition Law Division by his third mentor, then chief counsel Bob Spazarini.
"Each of those three mentors -- Mr. Buckley, Mr. Black and Mr. Spazarini -- led with different styles. I have tried to emulate their good qualities in my own style," he said. "You don't have to be cookie cutter in your approach.
"Mr. Buckley and Al Muller, chief of procurement, were smart and knew their business. Mr. Buckley got a lot accomplished on strength of personality. He was influential and relied on by the commanders. Mr. Black was more academic and knew how to manage a legal office. He was more involved in the overall integration of lawyers into the projects and programs we were building. He wanted us to be engaged and involved with our clients, and build relationships. Mr. Spazarini was an acquisition lawyer and, as his deputy, I had the benefit of working alongside him. He did his research, and had a great ability to manage people and get the best out of them."
Throughout Allen's career, MICOM and then AMCOM have been the largest legal office on Redstone Arsenal. As such, its attorneys were involved with every aspect of Arsenal growth, from participating on the Army Community Relations Committee with Huntsville area leaders to assisting with the development and funding of the Sparkman Center to setting the stage for Redstone Arsenal to be a big recipient in the Base Realignment and Closure movements of 1997 and 2005.
"All those things we did in those early years set the stage to keep Redstone Arsenal's gates open. Our goal was to make sure Redstone didn't close up. There have been significant changes in the environment, atmosphere and the level of significance of what's going on here. Today, the product of all that is the tremendous growth we've seen in making Redstone the second largest area for federal employees outside of Washington, D.C. and the Pentagon," Allen said.
Now, as AMCOM's chief legal counsel, Allen is responsible for providing legal and fiscal advice to AMCOM leadership, the program executive officers, numerous project managers, the Garrison, and the Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center in support of the development, production, fielding and sustainment of the Army's largest and most critical weapon systems and in support of the Army's largest Foreign Military Sales program. In fiscal year 2015, under Allen's leadership, the legal office performed legal reviews and counsel for about 5,000 contract and acquisition actions. More than 92 percent of AMCOM's contracts have been awarded without meritorious protests.
In late 2014, Allen's career began a new chapter when he was named to participate in the consolidation of the legal offices of AMCOM and the Army Contracting Command/Expeditionary Contracting Command to stand up what is known as the Army Materiel Command Legal Center-Redstone Arsenal. The office provides support to all AMC organizations at the major subordinate command level, as well as the Garrison, program executive offices and other tenant activities at Redstone. The consolidation brings together both acquisition law and policy for AMCOM and ACC/ECC in one directorate, creating an acquisition law "center of excellence." It also combined litigation missions and functions to enable AMC litigation attorneys to effectively manage the increasing challenges of contract disputes and protest cases.
Although he has reached the top of his career and has been recognized by both AUSA and with such honors as being named the Army Materiel Command Attorney of the Year in 1997 and an Achievement Medal for Civilian Service in 1998, Allen does not see himself retiring immediately.
"I want to continue to be involved in something that is important," he said.
"Since 2003, I probably have realized how much more important what we do here is in providing for the defense of our nation and in ensuring our Soldiers are ready and equipped with the best we can provide. As our then commander, Maj. Gen. Jim Pillsbury was the first commander I worked for who made us realize that what we were doing here was important to the fight."
It's important to Allen that AMCOM's lawyers add value and have a direct impact on AMCOM's success. In a field where bureaucratic aspects of the job can take over, Allen wants AMCOM's lawyers to have a positive impact on the projects and programs they are working on, and on all aspects of law -- from contract and labor law to ethics and grievances -- that affect the AMCOM mission.
"We're supposed to be problem solvers," he said. "We have to be team players and take the time to help people understand the law. It's a balance. We can't just be smart and have the capability to handle legal problems. That doesn't do us any good if people aren't willing to listen to and accept our advice."
Looking back on his career, Allen is proud of what he has been able to accomplish and on the opportunities -- both professional and personal -- that have enriched his life. He and his wife have raised two sons -- a lawyer and an artist -- and now have four grandchildren. After all these years, Allen enjoys looking out of his fifth-floor office window at the wide breadth of Redstone Arsenal and seeing how it has grown during his lifetime.
"This was an active, energetic place when I came here in 1968, and it still is. All the research and development, the scientists and engineers and logisticans here, have all made it significant nationally. Back then, no one knew what we meant by calling ourselves the Rocket City. That's not the case anymore," he said.
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