Azonix Military Advisory Committee (MAC)

Brigadier General Edward M. Harrington
U.S. Army (Retired)

BG Harrington entered the Army as an enlisted Infantryman and earned his commission from the Infantry Officer’s Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia. His first duty assignment was in Viet Nam as a Support Platoon Leader in the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1ST Cavalry Division and later as a logistics officer for the United States Military Assistance Command, Viet Nam. He has held entry, mid and senior level command/leadership and staff positions in logistics and systems acquisition.

He has 18+ years service in logistics units at the Platoon, Company, Battalion, and Group/Brigade level in several posts including Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Germany, and Hawaii.  He was responsible for supply, maintenance and transportation operations directly supporting Army units with 45,000+ soldiers. He planned, coordinated and directed field logistics operations providing Class I-VII and Class IX military supplies and field services (Food, Laundry, Bath, Decontamination, Graves Registration) supporting XVIII Airborne Corps and US Army Pacific missions.   His field logistics responsibilities also included managing weapon systems operational readiness, warehousing and distribution, repair parts and assemblies provisioning and maintenance planning and operations. BG(R) Harrington later managed tactical logistics information systems software engineering, development, hardware/systems integration, testing, fielding and sustainment.

BG(R) Harrington has 15+ years systems acquisition experience that includes the U.S. Army’s Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) in Warren, Michigan (two tours), Program Manager-Integrated Logistics at Fort Lee, the Defense Contract Management Command (three tours), and the Army General Staff at the Pentagon (two tours).  He started his Systems Acquisition duties as an Assistant Project Manager (APM)-Production, in the Army’s M1A1 Abrams Tank PM Office where he was responsible for special armor research, development, testing, transition to production and fielding.  BG(R) Harrington next served as a tactical logistics information systems PM noted above, for the Standard Army Maintenance System (SAMS) and later as the PM Unit Level Logistics System (ULLS). He was designated the Deputy for Systems Acquisition (DSA) at TACOM, later transitioning to Program Executive Officer (PEO). As a PEO, Army Acquisition Executive appointed him as the milestone decision authority for artillery, mortar, light and heavy truck, small arms, vehicle/personnel armor, weapon stations, watercraft and petroleum and water supply field logistics systems.

He served as the Army’s Director for Contracting then Chief of Staff and Executive officer to the Assistant Secretary of the Army, Acquisition, Technology and Logistics in his most recent Headquarters, Army assignment. He retired in January, 2004 after serving as the Director of the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), Alexandria, Virginia, reporting to the Department of Defense (DOD) Under Secretary of Defense, Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. He led a DCMA workforce of over 11,500 worldwide managing 325,000 contracts with 19,000+ contractors with a total contract value of $950 Billion. He held command positions at the field, district and Agency level in DCMA. BG(R) Harrington directed downsizing, consolidation, restructuring of over 30 field offices and A-76 actions for DCMA’s IT workforce at the headquarters and nationwide at 70+ operating locations while managing a $1.2 Billion operating budget. While Director, DCMA, he was designated the DOD PEO for the Standard Procurement System (SPS), responsible for DOD’s first ever standardized business system for 43,000+ acquisition and contracting users worldwide.

BG Harrington is a graduate of Northeastern University and earned his masters degree in Acquisition and Contracting at the Florida Institute of Technology.  His military education includes the Army’s Command and General Staff College and the Army War College Fellowship at the University of Texas-Austin.  He is a graduate of the Defense Acquisition University’s Executive Program Management course. 

Among his awards are the Viet Nam Service Medal, Viet Nam Campaign Medal (2 campaigns), the Army Commendation Medal (8 awards), Meritorious Service Medal, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit (3 awards) and Distinguished Service Medal.

The following link is to other Crane divisions supplying solutions into the defense market: http://www.craneae.com/