A commitment to not letting people down- especially a young mentor- has guided Brig. Gen. Ed Barker throughout his nearly four-decade Army career, which began in 1988 and culminated in his role as the Program Executive Officer for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare & Sensors.
On July 24, Barker retired from the Army during a ceremony hosted by Lt. Gen. Robert Collins, Principal Military Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics & Technology), in front of a packed house on Aberdeen Proving Ground.
To understand what kept Barker in uniform for so long, rewind nearly 40 years to his time as a student at University of Rio Grande in the late 1980s. There, he was taken under the wing of J.D. Merritt, a fellow fraternity member and cadet in the university’s Reserve Officer Training Cadet program.
“J.D. used to drag us to PT as part of pledging,” Barker recalled. As he considered a future in the Army, Barker spent countless hours picking Merritt’s brain- learning that Merritt had first enlisted before returning to college and earning a commission through the ROTC. Barker would ultimately follow the same path, enlisting as an artilleryman before receiving a Green to Gold scholarship and attending Marshall University.
Tragically, Merritt passed away from leukemia during that time. At the funeral, Merritt’s father shared how proud his son had been of Barker’s path and how much confidence he had in him.
“After hearing those words,” Barker said, “I knew I never wanted to let him down when it came to being a Soldier and a leader.”
He carried that mantra throughout the rest of his career, beginning with early assignments as an infantry officer and then military intelligence officer.
Following those foundational assignments, when an opportunity to join the acquisition corps presented itself, Barker jumped at the chance because it afforded him exposure to industry and commercial best practices, which would bolster his skill sets and set him up for a post-Army career.
With a contracting stint within the special mission arena under his belt, Barker was selected for a Product Manager position with the National Reconnaissance Office. The catch was he didn’t have any PM certifications at the time. So, Barker became a Defense Acquisition University fanatic, achieving more than 800 continuous learning points in seven months, so that he could serve as a PM.
As he stepped into an acquisition role, Barker utilized his prior experiences in operational units to influence his approach to the new job.
“Going back to the infantry days, that was when you gain an appreciation to take care of your battle buddy to your left and your right,” noted Barker. “After the transition to the MI side of the house, that really exposed me to the fact that there's a team of things that must happen to accomplish the mission. There are stakeholders that have to all pull together to accomplish the mission, so being a part of a team is a much larger focus.”
In between that first PdM job and becoming PEO IEW&S, Barker served as the executive officer for the ASA(ALT), PM Soldier Warrior at PEO Soldier, where he led the modernization of the Army’s integrated tactical network. He then returned to ASA(ALT) to become the Chief of Staff. Following this, Barker served as the Assistant PEO Enterprise Information Systems and oversaw the integration of the Army’s Enterprise Resource Planning systems.
In reflecting on the approach that allowed him to have a successful career, Barker stated “be an agent of change, there will be new challenges at each step along way, so push the envelope and do things differently.”
Instead of highlighting any one fielding or new start program regarding his time with PEO IEW&S, Barker stated, “ the thing I'm most proud of is the reputation that we have built with senior leaders across the Army and across the DoD and other services. The level of trust that we have achieved when it comes to delivering capabilities, advising, helping take care of Soldiers, and getting them the kit they need while being agile enough to adjust to changes in the environment is amazing.”
Barker a lifelong New York Yankees fan, compared the experience of having PEO IEW&S being his last assignment in the Army to Hall of Famer Derek Jeter retiring with a walk off hit in his last at bat. “If you're going to go out, you might as well go out on top.”
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