FORT BELVOIR, Va. – Electronics engineer Vincent Wong, with the U.S. Army Information Systems Engineering Command (USAISEC), has earned the command’s December employee of the month honors for his exemplary work as the project lead for USAISEC National Capital Region Engineering Directorate (NCRED) in November 2021.
While serving as the project lead, Wong supported the Product Manager Global Enterprise Modernization outside the continental U.S. (OCONUS) in Southwest Asia. As the overall Global Enterprise Network Modernization – OCONUS (GENM-O) Technical Team lead, he coordinated with a team of Project Managers and contractor support to modernize the outside plant/inside plant and the audio/visual system upgrades in Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq and Bahrain.
Wong began as an intern in 2010, and his focus at USAISEC was working on new HVAC system projects in Germany. He has now been with the organization for 12 years. His career has taken him from HVAC projects to system center configurations manager (SCCM) and system center operations manager (SCOM) projects, then to audio/visual, testing, quality assurance, voice modernization, and inside and outside plant work.
“You can learn so many different things as you progress through your career with ISEC, you pick up so many different skills,” Wong said. “There are a lot of different opportunities, you just have to ask leadership to see where you can and want go.”
After earning his Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Arizona, Wong began a private-sector engineering job. He was contacted by a representative at USAISEC asking if he was still interested in a job minutes before his lunch break, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“It turns out, I had dropped my resume off during a career fair my sophomore year. I said yes to that opportunity and that was 12 years ago this month,” Wong said.
During his time with USAISEC, Wong has been able to travel all over the United States and the world for work, an opportunity that probably would not have been afforded to him in a private-sector engineering job. He encourages new engineers to look at U.S. Army careers if they are interested in traveling for their work.
His pride in working for USAISEC extends far beyond career growth and travel, however. Wong realizes that through his work, he is able to provide crucial networking support for the Army.
“I may just be a small grain of sand on the whole length of beach that is the Army, but I feel like I make a difference. Without electronic engineers, the Army wouldn’t have the systems and the networks and everything they need to do their day-to-day work,” Wong said.
The impact he makes to the Army was not missed by leadership at USAISEC. Critical thinking was one of the key factors that led to Wong’s selection, as his citation detailed: “He is very creative in his problem-solving, constantly looking for and communicating ways to improve upon the status quo and to meeting the mission and goals to provide exceptional support to GENM-O.”
It is this ability to think critically and creatively that leads Wong to recommend aspiring engineers to finish those engineering degrees. He believes there are essential skills and critical thinking learned through college that may be missed through experience alone.
“There’s a shortage of engineers because the older generations are retiring and taking their skills with them,” Wong said. “There is definitely a need for engineers who have learned the technical skills and the critical-thinking necessary to be able to solve the unique problems faced in the engineering field.”
U.S. Army Information Systems Engineering Command, a subordinate of the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command, and headquartered at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, provides engineering and associated support of Information Technology (IT) at Army posts, camps, and stations; interconnection between installations, and extension to deployed forces. USAISEC empowers the Army to succeed now and in the future by embodying the Army’s priorities of readiness, future capabilities, and employee development. Our mission is to provide cyber engineering, integration, implementation, evaluation, and cyber security engineering to the joint Warfighter worldwide.
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