The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' vision is "Engineering solutions for our Nation's toughest challenges." Not only does this vision relate to challenges here in the United States, but it applies to those encountered all over the world.
The Memphis District recently welcomed back Electrical and General Engineer Aaron Ray from his deployment to Afghanistan.
Ray deployed as an Area Support Group - Afghanistan (ASG-A) electrical engineer responsible for reviewing and approving all support requests for Task Force Power throughout Afghanistan.
"Those support requests covered anything from minor installation of outlets to major work such as installing the power infrastructure for multiple tents and buildings, and safety inspections and corrections of existing infrastructure," Supervisor Donald Bryan said of Ray.
Ray was also a general engineer at Camp Dwyer, which was particularly lucky for his supervisor since most of their projects were electrical upgrades and repairs at the time.
"He attended all project planning meetings with me and briefed the status of projects to the Commander of Camp Dwyer, Lt. Col. Christopher Rowe, when necessary," Bryan said. "He was also instrumental in quickly getting additional sense and warn speakers installed in new areas of the base. Those speakers were the main warning system for incoming indirect fire (IDF) and other threats to the base, so it was a major accomplishment to get those done as quickly as possible."
Additionally, Ray was also the lead employee working with the local power company to correct unsafe electrical issues in several areas of the base. If not fixed quickly, they could have led to someone being injured or killed.
Finally, Ray was the Contract Officer Representative (COR) responsible for several areas outside of his regular line of work, and he performed exemplary by doing all of his audits on time every month and without any issues.
"He was the COR for the Fire Department, Vector Pest Control, Field Engineering Support Services (FESS) {mapping and surveying}, Water production, and generators/light sets," Bryan added. "He was also a COR for the Local National (LN) contract for wastewater removal, trash collection, and portable latrine service. He had a particularly good rapport with the LNs while he was there."
Welcome back again to Ray Aaron. Many thanks to you for all you've done and continue to do for this district, division, and nation.