Soldier Center employee recognized among outstanding AMC personnel of the year

By Jane Benson, Soldier Center Public AffairsSeptember 4, 2018

Robert Bernazzani Louis Dellamonica Award
During a recent town hall at the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, Douglas Tamilio (pictured here, left), the director of NSRDEC, officially presented Robert Bernazzani (pictured here, right) with the Louis Dellamonica Awar... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

NATICK, Mass. -- Robert Bernazzani has been named one of 10 recipients of the Louis Dellamonica Award for Outstanding Army Materiel Command Personnel of the Year for 2017.

Bernazzani is a supervisory mechanical engineer and the team leader for the Joint Food Service and Engineering Team in the Combat Feeding Directorate, or CFD, at the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command Soldier Center.

Douglas Tamilio, the director of the Soldier Center, officially presented Bernazzani with the Louis Dellamonica Award during a recent town hall. During the town hall, Bernazzani also received the Superior Civilian Service Award from the Department of the Army and a congratulatory letter from General Gustave F. Perna, commanding general of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.

The Louis Dellamonica Award is given to employees who have contributed significantly to AMC's mission to develop and deliver materiel readiness solutions. Dellamonica was a general engineer at Hawthorne Army Depot, Nevada. His 65-year career exemplified integrity, innovation, leadership and outstanding dedication to Army Materiel Command's mission.

Bernazzani was recognized for his exceptional professionalism, technical competency, exemplary leadership, and ongoing commitment to excellence in support of the warfighter.

Along with his team members, Bernazzani provided the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard with cutting-edge field-feeding equipment and systems, as well as exceptional engineering and technical support.

Under his skillful leadership, Bernazzani's team provided operational and acquisition guidance to the user community, ensuring that the systems were provided in a timely manner and that the users had the ability to sustain and operate the equipment effectively and efficiently.

"Bob's team truly epitomizes the joint service nature of the DOD Combat Feeding Research and Engineering Program, and has consistently received the accolades of his transition partners in the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Army logistics and foodservice communities," said Stephen M. Moody, director, Combat Feeding.

"All four services have different missions and require different approaches," said Bernazzani. "One of the goals of our research and development is to enable the services to perform their mission without negatively impacting logistics."

One of the project efforts supported by the team and Bernazzani during fiscal year 2017 was a Navy project to address the needs of Navy Aircraft Carriers that may have to operate in a communications-denied environment.

CFD's Joint Food Service and Engineering Team worked with the Navy to evaluate its list of food items for resupply for 30-day, 45-day, or 60-day time periods, and to determine if the items can be stored in the ship's refrigeration systems, freezers, chill box or dry storage. The goal is to prevent the need for the ship to be re-supplied before the end of the designated time period -- which would interrupt the mission.

Bernazzani explained that he and his team, in conjunction with another team, developed a test plan and observed the at-sea operation during two ship deployments. The results of the evaluation were used to determine how well the storage spaces worked and how well the crew accepted the changes to the existing menu.

In a separate effort, Bernazzani and his colleagues in CFD are hard at work on a project making improvements to recipes developed by the Armed Forces Recipe Service.

"The team is working to improve nutrition in dining halls for all the Armed Services," said Bernazzani. "We are looking at all the recipes that are used by all the military services every day. The end goal is provide better nutrition to all warfighters to improve performance and health. This work will have a significant impact."

As a winner of the Louis Dellamonica Award, the supervisory mechanical engineer feels honored to be in such accomplished company.

In particular, Bernazzani mentioned Betty Davis, who is a CFD supervisory food technologist and Science and Technology branch chief. Davis is a previous Top Ten AMC Employee and also a member of the Research & Development Associates for Military Food and Packaging Systems Hall of Fame.

"To be in the same group as someone like Betty Davis is an incredible honor," said Bernazzani. "The fact that people I hold in high esteem in Combat Feeding have won this award and now I'm included with them is incredible. I'm still not at their level but I'm very proud. "

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The U.S. Army Soldier Center is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to provide innovative research, development and engineering to produce capabilities that provide decisive overmatch to the Army against the complexities of the current and future operating environments in support of the joint warfighter and the nation. RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.

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