Zamara Fuentes, a former marine geologist researcher and wife of a former green suiter, is proud to use her extensive scientific background to serve Soldiers as a team lead technical writer/editor with the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command Integrated Logistics Support Center’s Logistics and Technical Support Directorate, Publications Services Division. She is matrixed to Project Manager C2 Transport.
Fuentes has been with CECOM since March 2020 and currently serves as acting branch chief. Her civilian career began with sustainment efforts that included revisions and changes to authenticated technical manuals. Similar to a vehicle or appliance operator manual, Soldiers also receive manuals that help them train on and use new equipment safely. Fuentes began working on the sustainment side, supporting technical manual updates for fielded equipment and converting PDF manuals to extensible markup language. Once converted, manuals can be viewed using the Interactive Authoring and Display Software, a government-owned software that allows Soldiers to read manuals digitally instead of using paper copies while in the field.
Fuentes also had the opportunity to train several new employees on XML and helped increase knowledge in the workforce, something she finds very rewarding. She later applied for a team lead position while at the same time matrixed over to PM C2 Transport as a technical writer.
Fuentes said she is thankful for the opportunity to have experienced both spectrums of the lifecycle logistics. Transitioning the equipment to sustainment can present its own challenges. Replacement of parts to equipment in the field, for example, can be hindered by obsolescence. While challenging, it is also rewarding to receive feedback from the field on the equipment and work along with the Weapon System Directorate to provide a better product for the user.
In her new role, Fuentes delves into earlier phases of the acquisition cycle, including the development of in-house technical data, technical manual validation and verification, while also reviewing contractor deliverables. This exposure has allowed her to develop technical manuals from the ground up by working closely with other subject matter experts on the team such as logistics managers, engineers, and provisioners.
Soldiers are able to gain experience with the equipment through different events, such as verifications in which Soldiers perform hands-on procedures and review all sections in the manual to verify that steps are safe and accurate. In support of the Army’s modernization process, Fuentes travels to critical engagements, such as Soldier touch points where service members provide direct feedback on prototypes and technologies.
“When Soldiers interact with the equipment, you find out what works and what doesn’t,” Fuentes explained. This is extremely helpful to identify procedures that might need to be re-written or safety warnings, she added. When instructions aren’t clear, “accidents can happen.”
When parts need to be replaced in the field, Soldiers rely on the Repair Parts List section of the TM, which includes all the provisioning information needed to order the correct part. That all comes into play when a technical writer develops a TM from scratch.
“As tech writers, we make sure the information is clear and concise for the Soldier, so when they take the training and they are basing the training on the TM, it makes sense and they can learn how to use their equipment proficiently in the field,” she said.
Technical writing in transition
Fuentes said technical writing is in transition. The pace is faster due to the Department of War Acquisition Transformation Strategy, which prioritizes “speed, flexibility, and rigorous execution.” To keep up with transformation, technical writers are turning to artificial intelligence to aid this process, Fuentes said. ILSC, working with the Army Software & Innovation Center, developed the Artificial Intelligence Assisted Maintenance, or AIAM, an application that uses official technical manual information supplied by technical writers in XML.
“Technical writers are still very much part of the process. That application, what it does, makes it easier for the Soldier to be able to troubleshoot any problems they have with the equipment because what they are using is accurate data from the technical manuals themselves,” she said.
Fuentes said using AI required a change of perspective. At first, she was resistant, but now she sees it as a tool for improved efficiency.
“I started thinking, how can I use AI to do my job faster? AI helps me move things along, that’s the way I am seeing it, I am seeing it as a conveyor belt,” she said.
PRISE program helped Fuentes adjust to change
Fuentes said she became more adaptable as a result of the training she received in the Practical Introduction to Supervising Employees program she attended last year. PRISE is a nine-month CECOM program designed to develop supervisory skills of GS-13 equivalent employees who are interested in applying for supervisory positions in the future.
Transition in the workforce and the adjustment to using AI were frequent topics during her PRISE sessions. Fuentes described being able to talk about it with her cohort during the transition as “therapeutic.” It allowed her to deal with the uncertainty while processing change.
“I don’t know what I would be doing today without PRISE,” she said. “I didn’t know it would have that effect, because I didn’t know all those changes were coming.”
Fuentes said she recommends that other employees take PRISE. In addition to discussing how to be more adaptable to change, she also learned how to hold people accountable effectively. This is an important skill if you want to be a leader, she said.
“I was able to apply what I learned in PRISE immediately,” she said.
Scientific background
Fuentes holds a Ph.D. in marine sciences from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez and a master’s degree from the University of Connecticut in oceanography. Her bachelor’s degree is in geology from the UPRM.
At the beginning of her career, Fuentes studied the hazards posed by tsunamis in the Caribbean by analyzing sediment records. In this role, she conducted field work and lab work, wrote papers, and had them published.
Fuentes said she transitioned to a career in technical writing after her family moved from Puerto Rico to Maryland. She found out about job opportunities with CECOM through a job fair she attended.
Fuentes said the technical aspects of her career as a marine scientist helped prepare her for her current role. This includes writing publications, learning about equipment, and XML.
“It is a certain way of thinking, the skills you attain while you are in research,” Fuentes said about how her previous career experience helped prepare her for her current role.
“During research you identify a methodology, obtain results, have a discussion, and provide conclusions, in a technical manual you develop steps and procedures, receive provisioning data, provide general information, and create troubleshooting to maintenance procedure dependencies while not in the same order,” she said.
Fuentes said the most successful tech writers are good communicators and have high emotional intelligence. You need to be able to work as a team, be open to other people’s points of view and respect their expertise. This is essential, she said, as part of her job is transferring sometimes complicated engineering information to technical manuals in a way that is easily understood by the user.
Fuentes said what she likes most about her job is solving problems, which appeals to her scientific background.
“You have to go the extra mile, or else you are going to be stuck,” she said. “But it is fun, I love it.”
Fuentes said she is motivated to do her best for the Soldiers, as she has always wanted to serve her country.
She explained that when her husband served in the Army, he said a well-written TM “saved” him, as it was the only resource he was provided to learn a new equipment and teach it to his Soldiers.
“That always made an impact on me,” she said. “There is a way to help the Soldier even if you are not a Soldier.”
Social Sharing