A Change of Responsibility and Retirement Ceremony conducted virtually on May 26, marked the closing of an era that lasted 29-years for an officer whose work touched virtually every Soldier in the Army.
During the pair of virtual ceremonies on May 26, hosted by Lt. Gen. Robert Marion, Principal Military Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology) and Director, Army Acquisition Corps, Brig. Gen. Michael Sloane, Program Executive Officer-Intelligence, Electronic Warfare & Sensors (PEO IEW&S), passed the Responsibility for the organization to Mark Kitz who will serve as the PEO.
As he bid farewell to serving as an Active Duty Soldier, Sloane a former Logistics Officer and longtime Acquisition Leader reflected on the role the Army has played in his life. “The Army has been our family for nearly 30 years,” said Sloane. He reflected on his father’s additional 31 years as an Infantryman and said, “I will always remember his commitment to our Nation and my Mom’s unwavering support to him and our Army.” He noted he and his family have moved more than 20 times during his career and he is forever grateful to his wife’s Debbie’s and son Beau’s continued support to his career.
Sloane cut his teeth in the Army serving as a Logistics Officer supporting Mechanized Infantry and Light Infantry Divisions to include deployments in support of Operation Desert Shield/ Desert Storm, Honduras, Hurricane Andrew Relief Operations, Bosnia, and several other overseas trips to Afghanistan, Iraq, Qatar, and Kuwait as an Acquisition Officer. Following a four year break of service to explore the business world, which included owning his own company, Sloane returned to the Army.
Honing in on his interest in business as well as utilizing his operational experience, Sloane transitioned to the Acquisition Corps. He leveraged his advanced degrees (Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Science (MS) in his path ahead. During his tenure within the Acquisition career field he has served in key roles ranging from Assistant Product Manager for THAAD Missile Development and System Level Test Integration to Product and Project Manager time at PEO Soldier, a stint serving as the Chief of Staff for ASA (ALT), Assistant PEO at Enterprise Information Systems and then served twice as a PEO, for both Simulation, Training and Instrumentation as well as Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors.
In this final assignment, Sloane was charged with leading the PEO IEW&S team made up of more than 1100 team members and its extremely diversified portfolio of more than 100 programs that support a wide range of organizations throughout the Army, as well as joint and coalition partners. With multiple portfolios under one umbrella, PEO IEW&S is involved in Space; Force Protection; Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR); Cyber; Electronic Warfare; Mission Command; Aviation and Fires.
Sloane, who arrived and led the PEO team throughout the COVID pandemic shared his thoughts on the perseverance of the organization. “It has been my pleasure to work with so many great PEO team members and I have come to see you all as “masked crusaders” getting the hard work done no matter the environment. Behind the masks, we wore throughout the entirety of my tenure as PEO, you have been adaptable, persistent and always put our Warfighters first.”
For Sloane’s next chapter he will be joining the Countermeasures Acceleration Group (CAG), formerly known as Warp Speed. One reason he is joining CAG is to continue a career of service to our nation and to “ensure the phenomenal work started and achieved by Gen (Gustave) Perna, retired Lt. Gen. (Paul) Ostrowski, retired Lt. Gen. (Giovanni) Tuck and the entire Operation Warp Speed team continues into the future until the mission is completed, to address additional vaccinations for adolescents and pediatrics, therapeutics, booster shot development, as well as provide potential world-wide support to people in need around the globe, if assigned that mission.”
Sloane’s replacement Kitz, steps into the role as PEO after serving as the deputy PEO for the organization. Prior to his current assignment Kitz was Chief of Systems engineering also at PEO IEW&S.
