Carolyn Farmer's aspirations as a mechanical engineer and team lead at Aviation, Missile, Research, Development and Engineering Center, and as a student of AMCOM's Advanced Leader Investment for Tomorrow program stem from an immigration story that has truly been about living the American dream.
Farmer's parents and two older sisters immigrated to America in 1978. Her father, a South Vietnamese Naval officer who worked alongside the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, was a prisoner-of-war after the fall of Saigon. After being released from the POW camp, he fled the country and navigated a boat with more than 100 refugees seeking freedom at the U.S. refugee camps in Malaysia. Farmer's mother and sisters joined her father, and settled in Madison County, where Farmer was born a few months later.
"They came to America to live the American dream," Farmer said. "As a U.S. citizen, I have been afforded many opportunities for education and employment that would have never been possible for me had my family stayed in Vietnam. For this reason, I am so inclined to selflessly serve this nation in any way I possibly can. In a way, I see my job as a small opportunity for me give back to the U.S. military that gave so much to my family."
Farmer is AMRDEC's team lead for Cargo and Special Projects, Reliability, Availability, Maintainability Engineering and System Assessment Division, Engineering Directorate, Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center. She is responsible for leading a diverse team of engineers and former Army aviators and maintenance professionals to execute a strategic engineering approach for aviation system reliability, availability and maintainability while developing technology advances for product and process improvements.
"I have been in this position for three years; however, I have been in this organization for 15 years," she said.
"I absolutely love that each day brings a new challenge. It is imperative for me to see that I am making a difference."
After graduating from Auburn University, Farmer worked for Boeing in its Mechanical Design department in support of the International Space Station. Following the tragedy of 9/11, she began working with AMRDEC's Stockpile Reliability Program for the HELLFIRE missile system.
"I collaborated with various organizations to conduct testing and analysis in an effort to evaluate the reliability, safety and shelf life potential of the Army's HELLFIRE missile system," Farmer said.
Besides the Army, the AMRDEC SRP-HELLFIRE program also supports the Navy and Air Force, and nearly 30 Foreign Military Sales customers.
"The demand for our organization to provide a similar service to these customers quickly escalated over the 12 years that I worked with that program," she said.
Farmer became AMRDEC's Joint SRP Subject Matter Expert-HELLFIRE, leading diverse teams of engineers, technicians and ammunition surveillance inspectors throughout the world to evaluate both U.S. and FMS HELLFIRE missile stockpiles.
"It was a tremendously rewarding position to work directly with our Soldiers and build lasting relationships with so many FMS customers," Farmer said. "My team and I would spend weeks at military bases to inspect HELLFIRE missiles. We were able to tell them which missiles were unserviceable and could not be used for a tactical purpose. My team educated the personnel at each base on storage, handling and use of these elaborate missile systems. I felt we contributed to their readiness potential and enabled the units to do their job better."
Farmer led SRP-HELLFIRE teams on three separate deployments to support the Army at Camp Arfijan, Kuwait.
"I learned something intangible during each deployment," she said. "There is no substitute for working alongside our U.S. Army Soldiers, sharing meals with them in the mess halls, educating our U.S. Army leaders on our mission, and seeing the stack of 'bad' missiles we were able to test and inspect set aside for return and repair. Due to our efforts, these missiles would not be loaded on a helicopter to likely fail at supporting a tactical mission. We removed these missiles from the stockpile before a Soldier could use them."
In her current AMRDEC leadership position with Cargo and Special Projects, Farmer's team optimizes aircraft maintenance records and transforms data into actionable information to enhance readiness and fleet management decisions.
"We are able to provide root cause analysis for problematic components and initiate Reliability Improvement Projects to support Aviation Program Managers in delivering solutions to the field," she said. "We can see our products flying on aircrafts and know we are the organization that initiated the solution. That truly shows we have made a difference."
Farmer's career hasn't focused solely on engineering. She has also served as the first executive officer to Patti Martin, director of AMRDEC's Engineering Directorate. She participated in directorate-wide strategic planning initiatives and developed relationships with leaders across the entire Directorate.
"It was an eye opening experience to see how decisions were made at that level and helped me hone leadership skills that I carry with me today," she said.
Her leadership skills are being further developed as a member of this year's Advanced LIFT class.
"This is an opportunity to take the time to invest in myself," she said. "In my day-to-day work, I support up 10 different organizational customers. It can be overwhelming at times focusing on providing world class technical support to my customers and I know I do not carve out enough time to focus on developing myself.
"The Advanced LIFT's curriculum will prepare me for areas of greater responsibility while also allowing me to build relationships with personnel across Team Redstone, and to work with Senior Level mentor Lisha Adams (executive deputy to the AMC commander) to develop an enterprise perspective across the Department of Defense."
Farmer is the program manager for the Advance Lift's class project to build a mobile app for Team Redstone employees that focuses on security, safety and quality of life. The team has developed a strategic plan to deliver the mobile app to the workforce by December 2016.
Although Farmer values several leadership qualities, she believes building trust is the foundation of good leadership.
"With trust, leaders are able to gain the respect needed to influence change, build relationships/coalitions, lead team members and mentor others," she said.
"Our Advanced LIFT program has allowed me to work with senior leaders from AMC, AMCOM and Garrison and actually implement many of the leadership competencies taught in the curriculum. I believe I will take many of these lessons on building trust, extending influence beyond chain of command, leading by example and communicating with team members and organizational leaders at all levels back to my home organization and continue to implement them in my daily activities."
Farmer has dedicated her professional career to what she believes all government employees should exhibit -- "a passion, pride and desire to provide selfless service to our nation. Specifically, for a DoD civilian, that selfless service aligns with providing our warfighters and taxpayers with products that represent a total commitment to excellence. It is imperative that a U.S. Army civilian demonstrates, by their actions, how they will 'Put the Welfare of the Nation, the Army, and Subordinates Before Their Own.'"
Farmer will continue her development as an Army leader with her recent acceptance into the Naval Post Graduate School for a master's degree in Program Management. She begins the two-year distance learning program in September.
Not all of Farmer's life is focused on her career. She has been married for 15 years and her husband, Chris, is also an AMRDEC employee. They have a 2-year-old son and are expecting another child in January. Growing up a dancer, Farmer has also taught at a Madison dance studio and enjoys judging dance auditions, judging Distinguished Young Women Scholarship programs across Alabama, and assisting with local charities that support our soldiers. She would eventually like to travel for leisure and introduce her children to the world's amazing cultures.
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