[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” padding_bottom=”25″ z_index=””][vc_column][qode_content_slider auto_rotate=”5″ enable_drag=”yes” direction_nav=”yes”][qode_content_slider_item][vc_single_image image=”967″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image” qode_css_animation=”” qode_hover_animation=”zoom_in”][/qode_content_slider_item][qode_content_slider_item][vc_single_image image=”966″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image” qode_css_animation=”” qode_hover_animation=”zoom_in”][/qode_content_slider_item][/qode_content_slider][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]A Change of Charter and Retirement Ceremony held at the Myer Auditorium on April 28, marked the closing of an era that lasted 40-years for a member of the Senior Executive Service (and retired Colonel) whose work has touched virtually every Soldier in the Army.
During the ceremony in front of an audience of more than 700 Soldiers, government civilians and contractors at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, and via live streaming video to various other locations Stephen Kreider, Program Executive Officer-Intelligence Electronic Warfare & Sensors (PEO IEW&S), passed the torch for the organization to Maj. Gen. Kirk Vollmecke who will serve as the new PEO.
Immediately following the ceremony Kreider was retired by Lt. Gen. Michael Williamson, Military Deputy, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics & Technology) who presided over both ceremonies. Kreider kicked-off his Army career by attending the US Military Academy at West Point. He based his decision to attend West Point as a means of ensuring a well-rounded education that could be coupled with athletic opportunities. As a track and field star Kreider didn’t want to go to a university and get focused only on athletics because he knew he wouldn’t do that for all of his life.
After graduating from West Point he became a field artillery officer with the initial service commitment of 5 years after which Kreider decided to continue with his Army career. “It was the camaraderie of other officers and Soldiers that I worked with along with the challenge of the responsibilities of the job and the opportunities that it provided, which convinced me to stay,” said Kreider.
Following his time within the Field Artillery corps, Kreider was selected to become one of the Army’s first acquisition officers in 1988. “The Army had a requirement to fill the initial personnel to join the acquisition corps and in my year group there was five personnel that had both a branch qualification (meaning you completed your command and oversees and that time had a hard sciences degree),” explained Kreider.
He ultimately retired from active duty in 2008 and was faced with opportunities in both the private and government sectors. “I had a number of job offers, so it was a competition but when I got the phone call with the offering of the job as the SES I felt that I had the ability to impact the Army and our nation more in an SES position than I did in the civilian job offers that I had,” noted Kreider.
Following an assignment with then PEO Future Combat Systems, Kreider transitioned to PEO IEW&S to initially serve as the deputy PEO and then took over as the PEO in April of 2012.
As the PEO for IEW&S, Kreider along with six project managers led a team of more than 1,500 Soldiers, DoD Civilians and contractors in the development and sustainment of systems that cover the gamut of military needs. PEO IEW&S is responsible for a multibillion-dollar portfolio consisting of a combination of more than 80 programs of record and quick-reaction capabilities. Fielded assets range from airborne and ground sensors to the network connectivity and analyst tools used to exploit the large amounts of collected information.
Amongst the numerous accomplishments of the organization under Kreider’s leadership was the ability to create a construct that would allow for increased cohesiveness with other Army organizations. “The former PEO, Maj. Gen. Harry Greene and I had a joint vision to realign the organization to make it more effective an efficient in aligning with the Science & Technology community and with the Army Centers of Excellence,” said Kreider. “We came up with a joint plan that I had the opportunity to implement and realigned the PEO into a strategic construct to make us more responsive to the capability needs of the Soldiers.” With his time as PEO winding down Kreider reflected on the value of the organization’s efforts by saying, “I just want to congratulate the team and thank them for their unselfish support to Soldiers and the nation. It has been an honor to lead them and to part of the team, I just really appreciate them and wish them the best in all that they do.”
With an eye to the future Kreider commented “I see the PEO having a very bright future on a couple of states. First of all our portfolio is particularly important for the Army’s operational concept. Heidi Shyu (former Army Acquisition Executive) in her departure gave leadership her recommendation on where we need to invest and four of those area are in this portfolio (Electronic Warfare, Cyber, Aircraft Survivability and Positioning Navigation & Timing).”
Kreider also pointed out that he believes the PEO will continue to be heavily involved with integrated base defense, the intelligence side of the house, and survivability side of the house. “We are engaged down range with almost every combatant command that exists on a daily basis. Our main focus is support to the Soldier and we do that well.”
Vollmecke steps into the role as PEO after serving more than eight months as the deputy PEO for the organization. Prior to his current assignment Vollmecke was the Deputy Commanding General for the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A) overseeing the security assistance program for the Afghan National Defense Security Forces in support of OPERATIONS ENDURING FREEDOM and FREEDOM’S SENTINEL.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]