REDSTONE ARSENAL, Alabama (July 31, 2023) – The commanding general of Army Contracting Command was inducted into the Ancient Order of Saint Barbara by officials of the Huntsville Air Defense Artillery Association and the North Alabama Chapter of the U.S. Field Artillery Association July 29 in Huntsville, Alabama.
Brig. Gen. Christine Beeler received the Ancient Order of Saint Barbara that is reserved for those members of the artillery community who have achieved long-term, exceptional service to the artillery surpassing even their brethren in the Honorable Order of Saint Barbara.
The Order of Saint Barbara is a military honor society for both the Army and Marine Corps artillery, including field artillery and air defense artillery. The award is named for Saint Barbara, the patron saint of artillerymen. The approving authority for this award is the U.S. Army Field Artillery Center commanding general.
Throughout her 32-year Army career, Beeler embodied the spirit, integrity, sense of sacrifice, and commitment epitomized by Saint Barbara and made invaluable contributions to air defense artillery, field artillery, and missile defense mission. She was a distinguished military graduate and commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Ordnance Corps through the Army ROTC program at Boston University. Beeler was a 1994 inductee into the Honorable Order of Saint Barbara.
Beeler began her Army Acquisitions career in 2001, and served as a logistics officer, assistant product manager, professor and course director for the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Procurement, and currently commands the 6,000-strong ACC workforce at more than 100 locations. She leads ACC’s global mission delivering the power of Army contracting to win every day, anywhere, every time. This includes responsibility to Fort Sill Fires Center of Excellence in Oklahoma, Redstone Arsenal’s Program Executive Office Missiles and Space in Alabama, and Picatinny Arsenal’s Joint Program Executive Office Armaments and Ammunition in New Jersey.
Air and missile defense is one of the Army’s top modernization priorities. Systems critical to the U.S. Air and Missile Defense future force structure are Iron Dome System and the Maneuver Short Range Air Defense system, called M-SHORAD. The ACC-Redstone Arsenal staff developed an acquisition strategy and utilized a unique statute to exempt the requirement from the Federal Acquisition Regulation and procure the Iron Dome system directly from the Israeli government; thus, expediting the acquisition process and obtaining the system in an accelerated schedule to support operational testing at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
In fiscal 2021, despite a global pandemic, ACC-New Jersey personnel awarded 616 contract actions that equated to $1.39 billion in support of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center at Picatinny Arsenal. The Joint Program Executive Office Armaments and Ammunition is an innovative and empowered team committed to rapidly fielding dominating capabilities to the Soldier. The JPEO is responsible for development, procurement and fielding lethal armaments and ammunition, providing joint warfighters and allied partners overmatch capabilities.
Beeler also oversees ACC’s efforts toward several Army modernization priorities. Examples include the precision sniper rifle, which supports the Soldier lethality priority; the extended range cannon artillery, XM1299 and XM1155 integration, which supports the long-range precision fires priority; and an armament and protection system XM915 fire control aviation advanced rotorcraft, which supports the future vertical lift priority.
About Army Contracting Command
The Army Contracting Command is headquartered at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. From food and clothing to bullets and bombs; from tanks and trucks to boats and aircraft; from Soldiers' weapons to the installations where they work and live with their families, ACC ensures Soldiers have what they need to be successful. As the Army's principal buying agent, ACC supports Army readiness and modernization by using best practices and expert-level oversight to provide warfighters with premier contracting support. The command accomplishes its global operational missions with a professional workforce of Soldiers, Department of the Army civilians, foreign local nationals and contractors at more than 100 locations worldwide.
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