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NEWS | Feb. 15, 2008

Contracting course graduates first Army students

By Tony Perez 37th Training Wing Public Affairs Office

On Jan. 30, there was a little Army green sprinkled between all the Air Force blue service dress uniforms as the first Army students graduated from the Air Force Mission Ready Airman Contracting Apprentice Course.

Sergeants 1st Class Joseph Freeman and Sou Lester were among the 11 graduates from the eight-week course.

While the Army has had personnel providing contracting services for years, it was not recognized as a separate career field. 

But in September 2006, the Army announced the approval of the new military occupational specialty, 51C: Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Contracting noncommissioned officer, and expressed the desire to obtain professional development training at the MRACA course administered by the 345th Training Squadron at Lackland.

Army Master Sgt. Christopher Bowers, an instructor assigned to the 345th TRS, is the first Army instructor for the MRACA course. He has been a member of the Army for 19 years and has extensive experience in the contracting field.

"This is a great opportunity. A lot of work in the field is being done in joint environments, so to be training in a joint environment is a great thing," said Sergeant Bowers.

All contracting professionals working for the Department of Defense follow the Federal Acquisition Regulation, and must pass exams given by the Defense Acquisition University to be certified as contracting professionals.

While Airmen can begin the MRACA course upon graduation from basic military training, the Army requires that those interested be a level (E-6) or above with at least nine years of military experience.

"Most of the contracting we do is contingency stuff," Sergeant Bowers said. "So we require our people to be a little older with a little more experience because they are more likely to be in situations where they will be by themselves."

Even though Sergeant Bowers is teaching certain portions of the course, he admits that a lot of it has been a learning experience.

"I'm getting a lot of base knowledge. I'm going back and learning not just how to do something, but why I am doing it. It's been great to go back and re-learn all of the things that you take for granted when you are out there in the field." Sergeant Bowers said.

The Army is expecting to graduate 20 students from the course in 2008.

The two-month course focused during training for the first five weeks, but gave students more hands on experience at the tail end of the course. During the last three weeks, students were given $1 million worth of contracting scenarios to work through.

"You always see the ethical issues that we are having in contracting because of a lack of training. We all need to have the same level of training across the board," said Master Sgt. Lynette Parson, 345th Training Squadron.