Editor’s note: The Army’s People Strategy focuses on the entirety of human performance, developing leadership and optimizing performance for all components of Army readiness. Faces of TRADOC supports the Army's People Line of Effort by highlighting exceptional TRADOC team members through their stories. The campaign highlights the Army’s greatest asset, our people.
JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. – Nearing four decades of federal service, Judith King is U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command’s Administrative Officer for the Command Group and Special Staff. Her government service began at NASA Langley Research Center, where she worked as an administrative intern after school each day. After graduating, King started an administrative job at NASA. Realizing the lack of promotion opportunities, she decided it was time for a change.
After her time at NASA, she worked at the Fort Monroe post headquarters and U.S. Army Cadet Command headquarters before joining TRADOC in 1988. As the administrative officer, King is responsible for budgets, personnel, logistics, supplies, and the internal workings of the facility management. King says she loves what she does, even if it may not seem like an interesting job to most.
"I don't want a job that isn't busy, and I have a variety of things that I do in my job. It's not boring and no two days are alike," King said.
Among her many accomplishments, she is proud of her role in implementing the Defense Travel System. Throughout her career, she has worked with Army specialists to four-star generals. Being exposed to so many different people, she stresses the importance of treating them how she would like to be treated.
“If you are a specialist in the Army, having trouble with your DTS or you’re a four-star general, I'm going to treat you exactly the same. I'm going to help you both the exact same way,” King said.
Due to her extensive knowledge, combined with her respect for people, she has been considered the go-to person on just about anything. Not only is she a subject matter expert for her field, but she has also forged relationships with people across the organization. Even when she does not know the answer, she searches for the right person to deliver it.
King has witnessed many changes over the course of years at TRADOC. She encourages young people to "be a part of the change” that makes TRADOC the workplace that everybody wants to work at. She said, by bringing in new ideas, the younger generation will be able to improve the current process.
Why do you serve?
I love our military and I want to support what they do each and every day…I love working with people and helping people.”
Why continue to serve?
I love my job. …It’s not boring and no two days are alike. There's something new to work on every single day.
How have you seen yourself grow in your career?
I've seen myself grow a lot since I was in my 20s. I've seen a lot of things change over those years. Those changes are things I've learned from…I don't ever stop learning.
• One of the biggest things is to treat every single person the same and that’s how you want to be treated.
• Be the go-to person. Educate yourself, take initiative. Those are big areas that I think I've grown along the way.
• Also, don't ever be too high ranking you can't get your hands dirty anymore. You’ve got to be able to jump right in and do the hard work again.
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