REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – When Jonathan Hardage found out he was a recipient for Army Materiel Command’s Headquarters 2021 Louis Dellamonica Award he was surprised to have been nominated – and even selected.
Hardage, a Huntsville native, serves as an attorney-advisor in AMC’s office of command counsel. In his position, he serves on a team of three within the command counsel, who all lead counsel for the Army on bid protests with the Government Accountability Office and involving AMC or its subordinate commands or contracting activity procurements. The team also runs the AMC-Level Protest Program.
“There certainly are other fields that have a more direct impact on the mission,” Hardage said. “I just hope that the work that I do in handling bid protests on behalf of AMC and the Army helps in at least some small way to make a difference in ensuring that the Soldiers and other Army customers get the goods and services they need as quickly as possible – given the inherent delays associated with the acquisition and bid protest process.”
Senior leaders within AMC’s Office of the Command Counsel nominated Hardage – without his knowledge – because his work does have a direct impact on AMC’s mission. The Dellamonica Award was established to recognize outstanding work accomplishments that have significantly contributed to the AMC mission and overarching goals and objectives. Each year, AMC selects employees, both military and civilian, below the rank of general officer and Senior Executive Service level, who meet the established criteria.
“Hardage led the Army’s successful defense against three GAO protests that challenged Army Contracting Command – Redstone Arsenal’s award of three separate task orders in support of the Aviation and Missile Center, to provide various support services, including: aviation and missile modeling and simulation; development, integration and testing; and unmanned platforms and targets and other similar modeling and simulation services,” according to the Dellamonica award nomination packet.
Hardage, who calls himself a naturally competitive person, says despite the pressure of the deadlines and the seriousness of what is at stake, his job can often be fun and rewarding. He credits his mother, who was a contracting officer, for his awareness and respect of the hard work and dedication that contracting officers and specialists put into their procurements.
Hardage has Redstone Arsenal embedded in his roots. Besides his mother’s longtime career as a contracting officer at Redstone, his grandfather also worked at Redstone as an Army Civilian in the 1960s.
“I’ve been around Redstone and government contracting my whole life,” Hardage said. “Before I made the switch from private practice to the government, my mom always emphasized to me how great it was being an Army Civilian and encouraged me to pursue a career in government service. I know how much she enjoyed it and how much pride she had in her career. She was a huge influence on my decision to leave the private sector to come work for the Army.”
After graduating from the University of Alabama Law School in 2003, Hardage landed a job as an associate attorney in the Huntsville Office of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, where he practiced commercial litigation, and labor and employment litigation. In 2009, Hardage decided to follow his mom’s advice and join federal service. But, with no prior military experience or government contract experience, he says the switch wasn’t easy.
“It was a whole new world for me when I left the private sector for the government,” Hardage said. “Even though I had six-plus years of private litigation experience at a big firm, I basically had to start from square one again in 2009 in a developmental assignment in the Aviation and Missile Command Legal Office.”
With dedication and determination, Hardage soon found himself enjoying serving as an Army Civilian, just as his mother once did. He was promoted in 2012, started handling more complex procurements, and then became a GS-15 when he accepted his current position at AMC in the Office of Command Counsel in 2017.
“I wanted to find something a bit more personally fulfilling that had a much better work-life balance,” he said. “After being with the Army for almost 13 years now, I really do love what I do. I’m so much happier working for the Army than I ever was in private practice. This is my career now; I love it.”
What he most enjoys about his career is the research and writing and building a case in defense of AMC’s and the Army’s acquisition process.
“We often work on some extremely important and high dollar value procurements,” he said. “These procurements mean a lot to AMC and the Army. It also feels very rewarding when we do win to be able to share that good news with the field attorney and contracting officer who have invested so much time and effort since the beginning.”
One of his career highlights is from this year when he defended at the GAO level a high visibility, billion-dollar contract award for next generation squad weapons. He’s also led joint teams of contracting officers, specialists and attorneys in defending contract awards for modeling and simulation, affecting the Armed Forces.
Hardage says although attorneys are only a small part of the Army, he hopes his work and accomplishments have made a significant difference for AMC and Army missions.
“I think that there is sometimes a misconception about attorneys as obstacles that first must be overcome to accomplish the mission—that we are just there to say “no” or to slow things down,” Hardage said. “To the contrary, we really are there to help. We very much want to help our leaders and clients accomplish all the things that they hope to accomplish, but we also want to ensure that it is done the right way and in a manner that will not create legal problems down the road for our leaders.”
Shifting his career from private practice to government law was a life changing decision that continues to inspire and challenge Hardage. He is grateful for the ability to have a positive impact on the Army procurement process.
“Instead of representing multiple clients who come and go, I now have one permanent client – the Army. And can dedicate myself fully to helping the Army’s mission,” Hardage said. “That makes it much more of a career to me, than just a job. I feel like I have a real sense of purpose and take a great deal of pride in defending contracting officers’ award decisions and ultimately ensuring that the Soldiers get the goods and services they need to perform their mission.”
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