The Operations Research & Systems Analysis Hall of Fame Celebrates New Inductees

By Shannon L. RussNovember 7, 2016

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(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

ARLINGTON, VA (November 7, 2016) -- The annual Army Operations Research Symposium (AORS) Banquet includes the induction of historically distinguished U.S. Army operations research practitioners into the Operations Research & Systems Analysis (ORSA) Hall of Fame. The ORSA Hall of Fame was chartered in March 2004 by Mr. Walter W. Hollis, the former Deputy Undersecretary of the Army for Operations Research and is intended to honor persons who have made significant contributions to U.S. Army Operations Research and Systems Analysis.

The ORSA Hall of Fame is located at the U.S. Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. It is governed by a Board of Directors representing the leadership of the major analytic bodies of the Army. The 2016 ORSA Hall of Fame Inductees, Mr. Robert W. Young and Mr. Ronald G. Magee, will be honored at the Hall of Fame Banquet on 1 November at the Maryland Golf and Country Club.

Mr. Robert W. Young, the first of the 2016 inductees, has served in many capacities within the U.S. Army in which he had the opportunity to contribute greatly to the Army Operations Research community. Mr. Young retired from Federal Service in 2004 as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Cost and Economics under the Assistant Secretary of the Army Financial Management and Comptroller. Mr. Young's impacts on the Army are abundant, and he is well respected by his colleagues and the entire ORSA community. Mr. Mort Anvari, the Director of Programs and Strategy within the office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Management shared his respect for Mr. Young, saying: "Mr. Young is a visionary leader that built the Army cost community from the ground up, and now Army cost analysts and their works are a key component of the Army resource informed decision process."

Mr. Young's accomplishments in cost analysis have provided the Army with a reliable analytical basis for making decisions on Army wide programs resulting in savings, cost reductions and cost avoidance of billions of dollars. His focus on process improvement and transformation has had lasting impacts on the cost analysis field today. He both conceived and established the Cost Review Board process for development of the Army Cost Position that served as the single estimate for major weapon and information systems for milestone reviews. Mr. Young lead the change in Army management culture from managing budgets to managing costs and services, developed Force costing models to estimate operations/special missions, and was responsible for the development of cost models for military and civilian pay future budget requirements. Further, Mr. Young took on the improvement of Analysis of Alternatives cost estimating, leading the development of performance and effectiveness-based cost relationships to allow for cost trades and centralized Army cost research, cost tools, and models to maximize benefits of research resources.

Mr. Ronald Magee is the second 2016 inductee to the ORSA Hall of Fame. Mr. Magee, an expert in motorized infantry brigades, is widely acknowledged for his part in redefining modern warfare. Mr. Magee studied at the United States Naval War College and at the U.S. Army War College, received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder and his Master's Degree from American University. Mr. Magee retired with forty years of distinguished Federal service, including ten years as the Senior Executive Service (SES) Director of the TRADOC Analysis Center (TRAC) - Fort Leavenworth (FLVN).

Mr. Magee's talents went to good use during his time serving at TRAC, where he led the mission to update the Army's fighting and command strategies, as well as implement modern technology to combat successfully combat the enemy in urban environments all over the world. From his work on the studies that led to the Army's decision to reorganize under the Army of Excellence force design in the early 1980s, to his leadership of TRAC-FLVN's successful conduct of the Task Force Modularity studies that underpinned the CSA decision to transform our Army into a modular brigade-based force, Mr. Magee's accomplishments as an operations research analyst have made a lasting impact on our Army.

Mr. Magee recognized his assembling of a "truly talented bunch of leaders and analysts at TRAC Fort Leavenworth" as his primary contribution to Army Operations Research. Under his leadership, this team of civilian and military analysts made TRAC-FLVN one of the most widely respected analytic organizations in DoD.

Congratulation to the 2016 ORSA Hall of Fame inductees, and thank you for your enormous contributions to the U.S. Army.