Department Honors Civilians in Pentagon Ceremony

By Terri Moon Cronk

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 6, 2011 – Thirty-nine civilian public servants were honored yesterday for their distinguished careers with the Defense Department at the Spirit of Service recognition ceremony held in the Pentagon’s courtyard.

“These are some of the more tenured public servants in their components, who have more than 50, 60 years of combined military and civil service,” said Michael L. Rhodes, director of administration and management in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. “Through their dedicated work for the Department of Defense, they’ve had a hand in creating the world we live in today.”

Rhodes, the event’s keynote speaker, put the honorees’ years of service in historical perspective.

“Most started their public service before the U.S. military was involved in Vietnam,” Rhodes said. “They served through the tense years of the Cold War, saw the Soviet Union fade as an adversary, and watched the military draw down in the 1990s. Some were in this building when our nation was attacked nearly 10 years ago, Sept. 11, 2001.”

The honorees’ careers spanned a significant time in U.S. history, Rhodes said. Day-in and day out, he added, their dedication did not waver.

“Time and time again, public servants have answered the nation’s call,” Rhodes said. “While the world has changed, their spirit of service remained a constant. Their dedication to service in every job, at every level, is the bedrock of the Defense Department.”

Public service, he said, is the common thread that’s woven throughout DOD, its offices and agencies, and the military services.

DOD civilians’ spirit of service greatly contributes to “keeping this nation safe and protecting our interests abroad,” Rhodes said.

Public servants assisted President Harry S. Truman in creating a unified Defense Department in 1947, Rhodes said.

“For more than five decades, each of the tremendous public servants we’re celebrating today has ensured our military strength and readiness. They meant business and they got business done,” Rhodes said.

“We’re indebted to all our public servants, and the service they’ve given this nation,” he added. “I salute you all, and thank you for what you’ve done.”

Those honored at the ceremony had notched between 48 to 68 years of civil service and each was presented with the department’s Spirit of Service plaque. Afterward, honorees and guests enjoyed refreshments and a concert by the U.S. Army Band.

Multinational Force Responds During Natural Disaster Training

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW) Sylvia Nealy, USS Mount Whitney Public Affairs

DEVONPORT PLYMOUTH, England (NNS) -- Joint civil service mariners from four different nations aided dozens of civilians stranded at a village in a realistic scenario during the France, Russia, United Kingdom and United States (FRUKUS) exercise 2010 July 21.

"I wanted to combine the nations and put them in a position to provide humanitarian aid and disaster relief effectively, while observing coordination between nations as they assist causalities using their techniques to overcome the situation," said Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. John Bull, staff executive officer to Flag Officer Sea Training.

Bull Point Village was a full size training ground, complete with traumatic mock-ups expected during a natural disaster. FRUKUS teams worked together to fight fires, extract trapped victims and provide first aid and survival supplies.

"This has been a new experience for me," said Information Systems Technician 3rd Class Jared Chase, U.S. Medical Team Member, USS Mount Whitney (LCC/JCC 20). "It forced me to react in a fast efficient manner based on how realistic the scene was with multiple distractions going on at once."

The village had 150 residents prior to the hurricane. The simulated four-hour hurricane left 11 dead, 51 injured and 19 survivors.

The multinational team's quick response surprised the survivors, who were in a state of shock.

"I was frightened when the responders approached me because they were strangers, then I had reassurance when I realized they were here to help and take care of me," Geraldine Dennis, a survivor from the Village, said.

Royal Navy Rear Adm. Christopher Snow, Flag Officer Sea Training, arrived at the village half-way through the exercise. He commented on the collaborative efforts and learning taking place during the event.

"This exercise is a great way to unite different nations, but underneath the surface it's about confidence, building trust, and understanding each other during FRUKUS exercise 2010," said Snow. "Today, we received a bit of experience of what life would be like in a real life situation and during this experience everyone can get a sense of what different navies can do together."

FRUKUS is an annual naval exercise with the maritime forces of France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. It formulates joint activities within a multinational operational formation while improving interoperability between the nations.

Mount Whitney is currently on its scheduled deployment in support of FRUKUS exercise 2010. She is the U.S. Sixth Fleet flagship homeported in Gaeta, Italy and operates with a hybrid crew of U.S. Sailors and Military Sealift Fleet Support Command civil service mariners.

Hospital Ship Mercy Visits Pearl Harbor, en route for Pacific Partnership

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW) Mark Logico, Commander, Navy Region Hawaii Public Affairs

May 10, 2010 - PEARL HARBOR (NNS) -- Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) arrived at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, May 8, while en route for its Pacific Partnership 2010 (PP10) mission.

"The Pacific Partnership leadership aboard Mercy are Capt. Lisa Franchetti, Mercy's mission commander; Military Sealift Command Capt. David Bradshaw, Mercy's civil service master; and Capt. Jeffery Paulson, commanding officer of Mercy's shipboard hospital.

"Mercy is a big part of our Maritime Strategy," said Franchetti. "Being able to build cooperation and strengthen our regional alliances is a key component of our strategy. We want to engage the world and build partnerships that we continue to grow."

Pacific Partnership 2010 is the fifth in a series of annual U.S. Pacific Fleet humanitarian civic assistance endeavors aimed at strengthening regional relationships with host nations and partner nations in Southeast Asia and Oceania.

"This deployment offers an incredible opportunity to continue to build the relationships and capabilities that will be essential in responding to real world disaster in the region," Franchetti said.

The deployment, which is scheduled to take place through late September 2010, is designed to enhance relationships through medical, dental and engineering outreach projects that reinforce the mutually supporting roles between participants.

Mercy, as lead vessel, is scheduled to visit Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and Timor-Leste. The medical treatment facility includes multiple operating rooms, sophisticated X-ray capabilities and more than 500 volunteer and military staff. Two additional visits will be made in Palau and Papua New Guinea by other Navy and partner nation ships as part of PP10.

"We're very excited to be there," said Franchetti. "As you know, the mission, in a lot of ways, has been planned for the last two years. The last time Mercy was out was in 2008. We've really been working hard at the Pacific Fleet level to develop the mission. It seems like we've been planning on this forever, so we are really excited about getting there and getting started."

Mercy is one of two U.S. Navy hospital ships and is crewed by 66 civil service mariners, of the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command, who navigate the ship to each mission stop, run the ship's engineering plant and transport patients and mission personnel between ship and shore in small boats.

Pacific Partnership conducts humanitarian and civic assistance by working with and through host and partner nations, non-governmental organizations and other U.S. government agencies. In addition to providing humanitarian assistance, Pacific Partnership also provides valuable experiences to learn from host nation military and civilian experts. This experience helps ensure the U.S. military is able to rapidly respond in support of emergency relief efforts in the future.

Leadership and the Odd Mind

Editor's Note: The author is a former servicemember.

July 20, 2009 (San Dimas, CA) American Heroes Press announced that the co-author of Leadership: Texas Hold ‘em Style, Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster, LAPD (ret.) will be a guest on the internet-based radio program The Odd Mind with host Lesa Trapp on September 3, 2009.

Date: September 3, 2009
Time: 9PM Central
Listen Live:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/TheOddMind

ABOUT THE PROGRAM
The Odd Mind Show is the voice of the independent author/artist. The host, Lesa Trapp, is also the publisher of The Odd Mind magazine. In an interview of Trapp by Yvonne Mason, Trapp said of the Odd Mind magazine, “"I want a magazine which not only highlights unknown authors and artists, I also want one which can be purchased and taken into a store to use as a guide to by books." Lesa Trapp went onto explain, “These authors have to rely one their own promoting and their own resources to get their work out there to the readers. Many have spent years trying to not only get published but about as many years getting known.” Summed up, the radio program and the magazine put the extraordinary talents of relatively unknown authors and artists into the minds of new audiences.

ABOUT RAYMOND E. FOSTER
Raymond E. Foster was a sworn member of the Los Angeles Police Department for 24 years. He retired in 2003 at the rank of Lieutenant. He holds a bachelor’s from the Union Institute and University in Criminal Justice Management and a Master’s Degree in Public Financial Management from California State University, Fullerton. He has completed his doctoral studies in business research. Raymond is a graduate of the West Point Leadership program and has attended law enforcement, technology and leadership programs such as the National Institute for Justice, Technology Institute, Washington, DC.

Raymond has been a part-time lecturer at California State University, Fullerton and is currently a faculty advisor and chair of the Criminal Justice Program at the Union Institute and University. He has experience teaching upper division courses in law enforcement, public policy, technology and leadership. Raymond is an experienced author who has published numerous articles in a wide range of venues including magazines such as Government Technology, Mobile Government, Airborne Law Enforcement Magazine, and Police One. He has appeared on the History Channel and radio programs in the United States and Europe as subject matter expert in technological applications in law enforcement.

His first book, Police Technology is used in over 100 colleges and universities nationwide. He latest book, Leadership: Texas Hold ‘em Style has been adopted by several universities for course work in leadership; by several civil service organizations and required reading for promotion; and, has been well received in the wider market.

ABOUT THE BOOK
Using poker as analogy for leadership, Captain Andrew Harvey, CPD (ret.), Ed.D. and Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster, LAPD (ret.), MPA found the right mix of practical experience and academic credentials to write a definitive book for leaders. Working together, Harvey and Foster have written Leadership: Texas Hold em Style. Most often leaders find they are given a set of resources people, equipment, funds, experience and a mission. As Foster noted, "You're dealt a certain hand. How you play that hand as a leader determines your success."

More than a book: A fun and entertaining journey through leadership that includes an interactive website to supplement knowledge gained from the book.
Proven and Tested: Not an academic approach to leadership, but rather a road-tested guide that has been developed through 50-years of author experience.
High Impact: Through the use of perspective, reflection, and knowledge, provides information that turns leadership potential into leadership practice.
Ease of Application: Theory is reinforced with real-life experience, which results in accessible and practical tools leaders can put to use immediately.
High Road Approach: Personal character and ethical beliefs are woven into each leadership approach, so leaders do the right thing for the right reasons.
Uses Game of Poker: Rather than a dry approach that is all fact and no flavor, the game of poker is used as a lens through which to view leadership concepts.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster, LAPD (ret)
909.599.7530
raymond@hitechcj.com
www.police-writers.com

Presidential Fellows Program Develops Future DoD Leaders

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

Oct. 2, 2008 - Motivated individuals who want a fast track to executive careers within the Defense Department or at other federal agencies might investigate the Presidential Fellows Management Program. The PFM program's purpose "is to attract to the federal service outstanding men and women from a variety of academic disciplines and career paths who have a clear interest in, and commitment to, excellence in the leadership and management of public policies and programs," President Bush said in a statement on the Office of Personnel Management's Web site explaining the program.

The program was created by Executive Order in 1977, when it was known as the Presidential Management Internship program. The program's name was changed a few years ago.

The Defense Department is among several federal agencies that participate in the PFM program, said Washington Headquarters Services manager Ken Rauch, director of the PFP program for DoD. Successful applicants, he said, serve on paid, two-year assignments.

Officials received 148 applicants for the seven Defense Department fellowship positions that were available this year, Rauch said. The department, he said, maintains 14 total positions as part of the program.

After completing the program, most participants join the federal civil service in functional areas that reflect their expertise, Rauch said.

Some DoD participants, like Ylber Bajraktari and Natalie Howley, volunteer for overseas duty in Iraq or Afghanistan as part of their two years of service.

Bajraktari, 30, obtained his graduate degree at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. A member of the PFM program's class of 2006, he served in Baghdad from February 2007 to February 2008 on the staff of then-Multinational Force Iraq commander Army Gen. David H. Petraeus.

"I cannot say enough good things about the program," said the Kosovo-born Bajraktari, who became a U.S. citizen in 2004. The program, he said, offers challenging assignments, as well as plentiful training opportunities.

Bajraktari was a member of a 20-person joint strategic assessment team during his duty tour in Baghdad. The team, he said, studied how military, economic, political and diplomatic assets could be best employed to effect stability in and around Baghdad during the surge.

Surge-fortified U.S. and Iraqi security operations helped to reduce insurgent-committed violence in Baghdad and were a key component that contributed to the surge's success, Bajraktari said. Iraq today "is in a better place" than it was prior to the surge, Bajraktari said. However, he added, the situation in Iraq is still fragile.

Bajraktari earned the Defense Superior Civilian Service Award for his service in Iraq. He plans to join the Middle East section of the Office of the Secretary of Defense's policy shop to put his training and experience to good use.

"I wanted to do public service, and I wanted to work for the government," Bajraktari said in explaining why he applied for the PFM program. And, international affairs "never gets boring," he said.

Howley, 27, began the Pentagon's PFM program a year after Bajraktari. Like Bajrakatari, she also obtained her graduate degree at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Now about halfway through the program, Howley said she's still deciding where she'd like to work in the Defense Department.

Howley also performed overseas service, having served with the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, from February to May of this year. She received the Global War on Terrorism Medal for her service there. While in Kabul, she worked with Afghan federal officials on Afghan local governance, elections and other issues.

"You do try to connect with the people and make their lives better," Howley, a Frankfort, Ky., native, said of her tour in Afghanistan. Her work in Kabul, she said, was conducted in a balanced way, with the view that Afghanistan is a sovereign nation with its own policies and priorities.

"I really enjoyed it, and would go back," Howley said of her assignment in Afghanistan.

Executive Order Eases Federal Employment for Military Spouses

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

Sept. 30, 2008 - President Bush signed an executive order this week that will make it easier for spouses of servicemembers to get federal jobs. The order authorizes noncompetitive hiring of spouses and should make the hiring process easier and faster for those in this category, said Patricia Bradshaw, deputy undersecretary of defense for civilian personnel policy.

"It shall be the policy of the United States to provide for the appropriately expedited recruitment and selection of spouses of members of the armed forces for appointment to positions in the competitive service of the federal civil service as part of the effort of the United States to recruit and retain in military service, skilled and experienced members of the armed forces and to recognize and honor the service of such members injured, disabled or killed in connection with their service," Bush wrote in the order, issued Sept. 26.

The order will allow spouses "to walk into any personnel office of any federal agency and get a job," Bradshaw said. "This sidesteps this long-enduring process that often turns spouses away."

Bush first proposed the initiative in his State of the Union address in January. "We want to ensure that our military families are taken care of," Bradshaw said. Surveys show that employment for spouses is a concern to servicemembers and their families.

To be eligible, individuals have to be the spouse of an active-duty member or of a reservist on active duty called on to relocate.

Also eligible are the spouses of servicemembers listed as 100 percent disabled and separated or retired, as well as widows or widowers of servicemembers who died on active duty and who have not remarried.

"We hear from servicemembers that a key to retention and recruitment is the support systems in place to help family members," Bradshaw said. "More than half of the military members are married, and this is a significant issue for them."

Only about 10 percent of military spouses remain in the same place for five years, and the frequent moves make employment a problem, Bradshaw noted.

"The objective of this appointment is to actually get their foot in the door, and then they will be able to move around the federal government that much easier," she said. "This authority gets them into the door. It doesn't waive the qualifications for the job."

The director of the Office of Personnel Management will issue the implementing regulations.

"We are working with them very aggressively as quickly as possible," Bradshaw said. "Unfortunately, it will be sometime after the first of the year before we see interim regulations."

USNS Mercy Mission Forms Partnerships, Provides Medical Help

by Navy Lt. Jennifer Cragg
Special to American Forces Press Service

June 6, 2008 - Forming partnerships with host and partner nations while offering medical assistance are key elements provided during the Pacific Partnership 2008 deployment aboard the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy, the ship's civil service master said yesterday. Since deploying May 1, Mercy has visited three provinces in the Philippines and is expected to visit four other countries.

"The planning of this mission began many, many months ago, and it began by the requests of the host nations to partner with them to provide humanitarian assistance and civil assistance," Navy Capt. James P. Rice, commanding officer of the medical treatment facility aboard Mercy, said in a teleconference with online journalists and bloggers.

Rice said many host-nation health care providers operate side by side with the Mercy staff.

"We have networked with the local health care system and the ministries of health to [ensure after-care is provided] to transition those patients into their health care system," Rice added.

During the deployment, Mercy also will visit Vietnam, East Timor and Micronesia, offering medical assistance, repairing infrastructures and providing donated medical equipment for the host nation's use.

"This is a full-service hospital with everything you would expect to find in a hospital back home," Rice said. "We have lots of capability to include medicine, pediatrics and surgery, as well as the ability to put people in the host nation and provide medical and dental care ashore."

Since their stop in the Philippines, Mercy's crew has seen more than 14,000 patients through medical and dental civil action programs ashore. Aboard Mercy, some 200 surgeries have been performed and 400 patients have been seen.

Civil service master Capt. Robert T. Wiley, commanding officer of Mercy, said many miracles have taken place aboard Mercy, such as a surgery that allowed a young boy with a crippling injury to walk.

"Six years ago, he was injured in a bomb explosion and his right leg was bent at the knee," Wiley said. "They did skin grafts and orthopedic surgery, and they got the leg to straighten."

He added that yesterday, in physical therapy aboard Mercy, the 14-year old boy walked for the first time with crutches.

Other miracles are being performed, such as 53 cleft lip palate surgeries performed by Operation Smile, or the 22-pound tumor recently removed from a Filipina woman, Wiley said. "In 2006, aboard Mercy, we took out a larger tumor, which was close to 30 or 40 pounds," he added.

The crew of Mercy is thrilled to participate in the Pacific Partnership 2008 mission, the ship's civil service master said.

"People who go to medical school and decide to wear the uniform are so excited about being here," he said. "This is their mission; they are at the tip of the spear and are extremely excited about this."

Accompanying the Mercy crew are doctors and dentists from Japan, Canada and Australia, but as the deployment continues, they will be welcoming medical practitioners from Chili, Portugal, Singapore and Indonesia. Nongovernmental organizations, such as Project HOPE also are accompanying the crew of Mercy.

"This is a great value to work together on a humanitarian basis, ... to prepare us to work together in a disaster situation where we already know each other and [will] be comfortable working together," Rice said.

Rice explained other capabilities Mercy also brings to the countries it visits.

"We have brought preventive medicine and environmental health providers on board to help with sanitation inspections and other public health preventative medicine programs," Rice said.

Mercy also has veterinarians aboard, performing important work on animals, which are a defining component of some host nations' economic stability, he added.

Construction battalion engineers round out the crew. They are actively engaged in a variety of projects ranging from repairing roofs and schools to replacing windows.

"All this will have an impact on their educational ability. By having a nice structure that will allow them to educate their children, there will be a long-term benefit," Rice said.

(Navy Lt. Jennifer Cragg works in the New Media directorate of the Defense Media Activity.)

Everyday Heroes Receive Defense Department Awards

By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service

Dec. 6, 2007 - Defense officials this week lauded 16 everyday heroes for overcoming disabilities. Among them is an aspiring young gymnast left paralyzed from the chest down by a car accident after high school who is now a college graduate working as a human resources specialist, a senior accountant born with muscular dystrophy, and a career civil servant with dwarfism who started 22 years ago using a desk and chair much too large for her small frame.

The disabilities varied, but their stories are similar, and each demonstrated the stuff heroes are made of, Army Maj. Daniel M. Gade said at the Dec. 4 event. Gade works for the White House as associate director for domestic policy and is responsible for disability and health care issues related to servicemembers and veterans. The major also is an amputee who lost his right leg to a bomb in Iraq.

"Being a hero does not necessarily mean grabbing a rifle and manning a post. It simply means doing your best and choosing to do right," he said.

"The people we honor today are great examples of everyday heroes, and so we celebrate them. Many have overcome debilitating disease and trauma and inspire us by their daily devotion to doing the right thing -- their best, despite their circumstances. The agencies and organization leaders represented here today are also everyday heroes, because they choose to employ and empower people with disabilities," he said.

The purpose of the annual ceremony is to increase awareness of contributions to national security made by those with mental and physical disabilities. The awards program began in 1981, and recipients are nominated by their respective agencies. The program also recognizes three DoD components with outstanding affirmative action programs for people with disabilities.

The Defense Department now employs more than 5,000 people with severe disabilities, or nearly 1 percent of its work force. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates wants to increase that to 2 percent, officials said.

A shift in attitudes and developing technology have opened more doors to disabled people, David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said at the ceremony.

Chu cited the governmentwide Computer/Electronic Accommodation Program, which provides assistive technology for federal employees with disabilities at no cost to the employing agency. The program began in 1990 to help break down barriers for people with disabilities, Chu said. Congress has since expanded the program to include all federal agencies, and in 2006 expanded it to include wounded servicemembers. This will help as the military begins to retain more wounded servicemembers on active duty.

"I think it is important to note that today we have a shift within our military structure in attitudes, too. Our military organizations realize that putting aside personnel with disabilities is a wasteful loss of valuable human resources," Chu said.

Thanks to advancements in technology and rehabilitation programs, "it has become common practice (for) military personnel who so desire and can demonstrate their ability to return to military duty and certainly to pursue rewarding careers in civil society," he said.

Gade was able to stay on active duty and is heading to a teaching position at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. He said that after his injury, people often referred to him as a hero. But to those at the ceremony, he offered a different definition.

"A hero by my way of thinking is not captured by a dictionary search or (an Internet) search. Most heroes simply live their lives unnoticed and uncelebrated," Gade said. "Perhaps the best definition of a hero is one who chooses a harder right over an easier wrong. You may be thinking that the warfighters are the heroes, and some are. You may think the military families are the heroes, and some are. You may even think that you are not a hero, but aren't you, or couldn't you be?

"Those of you with disabilities who are working despite those disabilities and employees who empower them are my heroes today, and I applaud you," Gade said.

Nicole Richards has worked two years for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Indianapolis. A car accident after high school left the aspiring gymnast paralyzed. She went on to college and wasn't sure what she wanted to do. Her grandfather was a retired civil servant and told her of the benefits. Now, she said, she plans to make civil service a career.

"The two short years that I've been there have been great, and I can see myself there for a very long time. Anything I need or have needed, they seem to get right away," she said.

For Richards, the awards show that disabled employees work as hard as those without disabilities.

"It means a lot really. ... It shows me that the government really does care about people with disabilities," she said. "We are working just as hard and sometimes harder as able-bodied people to get our mission accomplished."

Rocco Arizzi, an electrical engineer with the Navy in Bethesda, Md., said the awards send a message to young people with disabilities who may be wondering what they are going to do with their lives or who will employ them. Arizzi was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a degenerative neuromuscular disease.

"I like for younger people and students with disabilities to see people accomplishing things and serving their country so that they know they can do the same," he said. "The more they see people not only just existing and working, but achieving great things, the more that they believe that they can do it themselves."

Arizzi's grandfather and brother both served in the Navy. He would like to see disabled people eventually deploy in support of the war. "There's a lot of front-line work that can be done by people with disabilities -- people who are sitting at desks or controlling unmanned aerial vehicles or running logistics. I would like to see more opportunities for (disabled) people in those types of areas," he said. "I believe they can contribute in the war directly."

Kane Urban, a senior auditor with the Defense Contract Audit Agency, at Fort Worth, Texas, was born with muscular dystrophy. He said he is happy with accommodations the Defense Department makes to hire disabled people, but he would like to see the day when special recognition is no longer needed because such hiring practices are commonplace.

"They have these types of awards and ceremonies and conferences to highlight improvements that are made, ... and their goal is total integration and equality. Once you reach that, you don't need conferences and awards, because you met the goal," he said.
Urban said he believes more managers would hire disabled people but are held back by misperceptions of additional costs and difficult accommodations. "We bring the same things to the table as anyone else does, with minimal increased costs when you compare it to what employees cost anyway. I think ... that managers don't realize how marginal the cost is," he said.

Linda Keel, an administrative assistant a Redstone Arsenal, Ala., component of Defense Intelligence Agency, began federal service more than two decades ago, before many of today's accommodations were in place.

Keel, who has dwarfism, showed up on her first day of work to a full-sized desk and chair. But she didn't let it intimidate her, she said. Her only complaint was that it was sometimes hard to reach things.

Now she works in a cubicle that fits her size and is delivering big dividends for her employers. Last week, she was named Outstanding DIA Employee with a Disability. This award means a lot to her, she said, because it means that she makes a difference.

Keel serves up tall advice for those following in her tiny footprints. "Don't give up. Go after it with the attitude that you can do it and with the determination that you can do it, and just put being disabled behind you," she said.

Other award recipients were:

-- Bruce E. Beyer, Department of the Army;
-- Ronald B. Greenfield, Department of the Air Force;
-- Steven R. Clark, Office of the Secretary of Defense/Washington Headquarters Service;
-- Maria T. Andrade, Army and Air Force Exchange Service;
-- Anthony Green, Defense Commissary Agency;
-- Joseph P. Higginbotham, Defense Contract Management Agency;
-- Kimberly J. Pare, Defense Information Systems Agency;
-- Constance Gardener, Defense Logistics Agency;
-- Jennifer L. Perry, Defense Threat Reduction Agency;
-- Michael J. Morgan Jr., National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency;
-- Michael P. Herron, National Guard Bureau; and
-- John H. Loftis Jr., National Security Agency.

DoD organizations honored were: the Department of the Air Force, the Defense Logistics Agency, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense/Washington Headquarters Service.