REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- A 46-year combined military and civilian career focused primarily in resource management is quite a calling card if you are looking at opportunities to serve the Army overseas.
For Bill Fowler, that calling card has landed him his seventh overseas tour.
Fowler, who has served as the Aviation and Missile Command's program director for audit readiness, is preparing for a move to Korea, where he will serve three years as the deputy chief of staff and comptroller J84 for U.S. Forces Korea.
"When I return, I will have completed 50 years total service with 20 of those years overseas," Fowler said. "I've served in every theater the Army has been in during the past 50 years. I've served with every Army command -- the Army Materiel Command, the Training and Doctrine Command, and the Forces Command -- and with seven of the 11 direct reporting units."
An Airborne Ranger and Special Forces Soldier with the Infantry, Fowler spent most of his military career on the operational side of the Army. Toward the end of that career, he transferred to a sustaining role in resource management that has carried over into his civilian career.
"Nine of the first 11 years I spent overseas," Fowler said. "Since I had a business degree, I ended up being the budget officer with every unit I was assigned to."
Those duties caused Fowler to expand on his degree from Southern Mississippi by adding a master's degree in accounting from the University of Alabama in 1987, which led to such assignments as director of Resource Management for the Army Special Security Group and the JFK Special Warfare Center and School, and then as assistant chief of staff for Resource Management for the 1st Special Forces Command, both in Fayetteville, N.C
"That's when I started single tracking as a comptroller on the sustaining base side of the Army," Fowler said. "My Special Forces operational background helped a great deal with understanding the mission and being able to justify the funds to sustain the mission. Because I understood the mission, I had the ability to persuade leadership for more money or more manpower. It was easier for me to articulate the mission impact for acquiring resources."
Fowler then applied his experience as a comptroller in his next assignment as chief financial officer and deputy commander for Administration and Logistics with the Pacific Stars and Stripes in Tokyo.
"That gave me experience with revenue generating organizations within the Army because it involved non-appropriated funds to support the military newspaper," Fowler said. "At the time, the Pacific Stars and Stripes was the only source of English literature for Soldiers in Guam, Korea, Japan, Okinawa, Kwajalein, Diego Garcia and Hong Kong."
His final assignment as an Army officer was as the chief of Budget and Program Prioritization for Department of the Army headquarters at the Pentagon. After leaving uniformed service, Fowler continued to pursue resource management positions in the private sector, including serving as the audit manager for TriWest Healthcare Alliance Corp. in Phoenix, Ariz.
"TriWest Healthcare was the largest TriCare contractor providing managed healthcare for military families. It provided basic and specialty healthcare services to the military community and retirees in 17 states," Fowler said.
Fowler was selected as a DA civilian to serve as the chief of Budget Integration at the Installation Management Agency in Rock Island, Ill., which supported 33 posts, camps and installations across 17 states. He then went again overseas to serve as the director of Resource Management for the Installation Management Command in Japan and the deputy chief of staff G-8 for Resource Management at Camp Zama, Japan.
Fowler's decision to take on the resource management tasks for U.S. Forces Korea satisfies a habit that he grew up with as a military kid and that he pursued by joining the Army in 1972.
"I grew up moving from place to place. The opportunities to serve and the opportunities to learn are there if you are willing to move. It's one of the best educations you can get," he said. "I've been able to visit 39 different countries. I've climbed the Matterhorn in 1972 and Mount Fuji in 1992. During my time in Japan, I got my third degree black belt in Aikido (Sandan) and my first degree black belt (Shodan) in Iaido. I've gotten two master's degrees, and am one of the very few Airborne Ranger-Special Forces resource managers that is a certified and licensed Public accountant as well as a level three certified defense financial manager."
Now, with his wife deceased, and his three sons and daughter grown and having children of their won, it is a good time for Fowler to take on what will probably be his last overseas assignment. He will join a leadership team he already knows -- he has previously worked with the current USFK commanding general and command sergeant major.
"I've not gone anywhere in the last 10 or 15 years where I haven't known somebody," he said. "I have friends in Korea already."
In his new assignment, Fowler will serve as the comptroller overseeing budget and manpower for the USFK and 8th Army in Korea. He will take with him the audit readiness experience he gained at AMCOM to assure his new command is ready for the Army-wide audit in 2017.
"At AMCOM, I did as much as could be done to institutionalize the audit response protocols," said Fowler, who is fondly known as the Audit Readiness guru among those he's worked with.
"We went to a 96 percent pass rate for the general fund. I helped to lay the ground work for the working capital fund audit response protocols and documenting process. Now, it's up to the business process owners to make audit readiness part of their everyday processes. I feel good that what we have accomplished in this area will benefit AMCOM now and in the future."
Even with 23 years as a DA civilian, Fowler doesn't consider retirement an option anytime soon.
"I've enjoyed my entire career, regardless of where I went and what I did," he said. "I will continue to serve as long as I can. I need to have a cause to be happy. Serving the Army is what I've done and what I will continue to do. I've got more adventures in me. I'm not ready to retire."
Editor's Note: A farewell luncheon in honor of Bill Fowler is set for Wednesday, June 8, at 11:30 a.m. at Carrabba's on South Memorial Parkway. For more information, call 876-2993.
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