KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany - German local National Carmen Kaufmann, a contracting professional for more than 26 years, recently made a trip to Saudi Arabia to train a team from the Office of the Program Manager Saudi Arabian National Guard Modernization Program.
The trip, along with the accompanying training classes, was the result of a request made by Ophelia McCarroll, the director of contracting at OPM-SANG.
As the enterprise business system manager at the 409th Contracting Support Brigade, Kaufmann is responsible for managing various online acquisition systems as well as overseeing the management, training and developing guidance for internal customers.
"Ms. Kaufmann and I worked together for five years at the Wiesbaden Contracting Center," said McCarroll. "Her tenacity and dedication to the center and to the electronic-business initiatives was so strong that she soon became the go to person for acquisition related electronic business-tools in Europe."
"During her visit she trained a melting pot of people from various professions. There were Americans, Asians, Arabs, engineers, program analyst, master gunners, medical practitioners, logisticians and infantry men and women," McCarroll added.
Upon learning of the 'by name' request from OPM SANG, Kaufmann’s supervisors and command were more than happy to lend out one of their best.
"Kaufmann is extremely good at what she does and we are happy to support fellow organizations with our finest," said Col. Debra Daniels, 409th CSB commander.
In addition to the training, Kaufmann had a chance to see and experience a different side of Army contracting.
"This was definitely something new for me. I was in a deployed environment. I got to see and experience first hand what our Soldiers have to go through," said Kaufmann. "They would have to wear masks because the sand would blow so hard. I could smell the oil in the air. I got a true appreciation for what our military goes through when they deploy."
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