My DCMA “Remember 9/11” edition showcases the Defense Contract Management Agency’s experienced and dedicated workforce as they reflect on the events of Sept. 11, 2001. The campaign highlights that tragic day’s personal and professional impact on agency team members. Today, Christopher Ford shares his story.  

My name is Christopher Ford, and this is "My DCMA."  

I can vividly recall where I was that day, 25 years ago. I had just completed a duty assignment in Korea with the Army and was a newly assigned soldier to the 101st Airborne Division. Being a resident of New York myself, it hit very close to home, and I set my chart to stay with the Army for as long as possible.   

I wanted to be a member of the first unit to deploy, and I remember our brigade command sergeant major telling me, “At ease, Ford. Everybody's going to take a turn.”  

I wasn’t scared as I was third generation Army in my family at that time, and I enlisted in 1999 to serve my country. My son later followed in my footsteps, becoming the fourth generation of Fords to serve. He is also now separated from the military after deployments to Afghanistan and Romania and now works for a defense contractor himself.  

I feel that the events of 9/11 and my seven years in the military set the stage and the precursor decisions for me to inevitably come to DCMA headquarters, where I now serve as a senior staff quality assurance specialist, or QAS, with the Technical Directorate.  

I am responsible for the policies associated with QA surveillance and Product Quality Deficiency Report, or PQDR, investigations. I support other policies such as Contract Receipt and Review and Product Acceptance, and I am the artificial intelligence champion for Contractor Effectiveness. I am also the module lead for the Product Data Reporting and Evaluation Program’s PQDR and Supplier Audit and Assessment Module.

I frequently represent DCMA’s quality assurance community at industry events such as the Defense Logistics Agency’s Defense Enterprise Data Standards Office Summit and the American Society for Quality’s World Conference.  

Prior to DCMA, I pursued nondestructive testing specialty into my post-Army employment where I started working for a major defense contractor in Decatur, Alabama, which is where I was introduced to a DCMA QAS who explained the agency’s mission and role. He felt I was a good candidate for the job series and recommended I apply and soon spent almost 11 years in a DCMA office in Huntsville, Alabama, as a nonresident QAS, a deficiency report program manager, and Nondestructive Testing examiner. Working with those team members was excellent professional experience that has stuck with me to this day. That same QAS eventually became my first-level supervisor on that team a few years later. I have been loyal to DCMA ever since and plan to remain a policy owner in the Technical Directorate until I retire.  

Even after taking off my uniform, I want to help. While my role in policy management means I don’t directly put hands on the materiel being manufactured out there, the work I do ensures that person’s job is easier. If the work is easier to do, then it’s also done better. I also simultaneously manage those requirements with our defense partners and military services, so our customers understand the effort our quality community puts into their surveillance and its return on investment.  

Our entire workforce has undergone significant change since the pre-COVID era. For example, our QA community experienced three major policy revisions to both structure and content in just the eight years I have been on this team. “Change fatigue” is a term commonly used when the challenges are being discussed. Over the next 12-24 months, my team and I hope to calm that fatigue by preventing unnecessary changes while also allowing agility and flexibility as we incorporate new technology like artificial intelligence.

We are also in the early steps of reinforcing our QA culture and soft skills, all with the intent of improving stakeholder involvement and reducing administrative burden. Once I moved from a tactical role to a strategic one, I saw firsthand that policy writers develop requirements with careful consideration. Policy evolves the way it does because of the bigger picture that I couldn’t see when I first started. That means I also hope to introduce more field personnel to the projects and efforts of the Technical Directorate so they can see “how the sausage is made” and maybe align their own careers to join the policy writing division someday.   

Editor’s note: DCMA’s “Remember 9/11” is a campaign reflecting on the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and the lasting impact 25 years later through stories of remembrance, resilience and service. We invite you to share your story by emailing the DCMA Public Affairs inbox. DCMA Public Affairs hopes to share as many stories as possible but cannot guarantee every submission will be published.