A Change of Responsibility and Retirement Ceremony held at the Myer Center Auditorium on Sept 15, marked the closing of an era that lasted 31-years for an officer whose work has touched virtually every Soldier in the Army.

During the ceremony in front of an audience of more than 500 Soldiers, government civilians and contractors at Ft Monmouth and via live streaming video to various other locations Brig. Gen. Thomas Cole, program executive officer-Intelligence Electronic Warfare & Sensors (PEO IEW&S), passed the torch for the organization to Douglas Wiltsie who will serve as the Acting PEO.

Immediately following the ceremony Cole was retired by Lt. Gen. William Phillips, Military Deputy, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics & Technology) who presided over both ceremonies.

The likely-hood that the day would come when Cole would end up as a general officer leading an organization responsible for more than 90 products and $4 billion annually was never his original plan.

His father was a retired Air Force senior master sergeant, which meant Cole spent his formative years living on AF bases and as such grew up being competitive with the other services. However, he always knew he wanted to follow in the family’s military background and with a recommendation from Congressman William Ketchum

(Cal); he ultimately attended the US Military Academy at West Point and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Field Artillery.

Although he joined the Army, making it career wasn’t his initial objective. “When I first came in the Army I actually chose my first assignment with the plan of getting out in five years,” said Cole. “I really planned on getting out, but the Army has a way of growing on you and I enjoyed the jobs that I had, the camaraderie, and the responsibility as a young officer so I basically had no reason to leave.” He added that 31-years later he still enjoys what he is doing.

Following his time within the Field Artillery corps, Cole attended a graduate program at San Diego State University earning a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering and then went on to become one of the Army’s first acquisition officers in 1987.

Reflecting on his time in Field Artillery and the lessons he carried over into his Acquisition Corps career Cole stated, “what I got the most out of being an officer in a tactical organization was the very strong and beneficial influence of our non-commissioned officers, who are the envy of the world. These NCOs have grown up from young Soldiers to being NCOs, those guys had a profound impact on me and really shaped my view of the Army.”

Prior to becoming the PEO for IEW&S Cole spent time serving in various roles from a system manager to a project manager. His acquisition career included stops at, Program Integration, Platforms, Future Combat Systems (Brigade Combat Team), Warren, Mich.; the Acquisition Executive of Special Operations Command, MacDill AFB, Fla.; Project Manager Warfighter Information Network-Tactical in the Program Executive Office, Command, Control, and Communications-Tactical, Fort Monmouth, N.J.; Deputy for Theater Missile Defense Systems in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics), Washington, D.C.; Product Manager, Firefinder at U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command; Chief of the Joint Tactical Ground Station Division at U.S. Army Space Command, Colorado Springs, Colo.; and as a satellite system manager for the Space Test Program, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif.

As the PEO for IEW&S, Cole along with seven project managers/directors led a team of more than 2,000 Soldiers, DoD Civilians and contractors in the development and sustainment of systems that cover the gamut of military needs. The PEO rapidly transforms requirements and validated field requests into reality. The organization’s systems have been providing Force Protection and Situational Awareness for joint and coalition forces in all theaters of operation.

“The one thing I remember when I first got in here was that everyone’s priority was fielding and that was job one, that was my take away and I would say that what we have evolved into during my time here is really solving problems in order to understand the battlefield in the warfight, which has become our primary job,” stated Cole. “It is still important for us to field equipment and there is this tension between supporting the warfight and building the future and how do both because you have to do both well, but I think PEO IEW&S has had an increased emphasis in supporting the warfight, particularly in solving problems.” Amongst the current and future problems the organization addressed was the standing up of the Afghan Mission Network which gives coalition forces a greater opportunity to share information with the goal of gaining a greater understanding of the environment.

With his time as PEO winding down Cole reflected on the value of the organization’s efforts by saying, “what people in this organization do every day in their jobs is extremely important, I know we understand that it is important to our Soldiers and to our Army but the magnitude of the capability that this PEO provides is one of national importance because of its role in effectively executing the fight in Iraq and Afghanistan and that is a tremendous contribution,” said Cole. “I am extremely proud of the selfless service to our nation and the dedication of everyone I work with.”

Cole’s future is undecided at this point but he is leaning toward assuming a role within education. “I feel very passionate about education and I think there are three fundamental areas that are the foundation of our national security and one of them is not defense, they are health, education and family/faith. I see myself potentially having a role in education at some point in the future, crafting how we set what is important in our schools, how we motivate teachers, how we motivate students, how we get more out of our schools than what we are getting today because those three elements – health, education, family that’s our future.”

Cole’s replacement Wiltsie steps into the role as acting PEO after serving more than two years as the deputy PEO for the organization. Prior to his current assignment Wiltsie was the Assistant Deputy for Acquisition and Systems management at ASA(ALT) along with various assignments in Project Manager Night Vision /Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition and Future Combat Systems.