My DCMA Remember 9/11: Sean Higgins, senior industrial specialist

My DCMA Remember 9/11: Sean Higgins, senior industrial specialist

By Elizabeth Szoke DCMA Public Affairs

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, Sean Higgins shares his story.

My name is Sean Higgins, and this is "My DCMA."

As a Navy veteran, it was a real struggle to figure out how I wanted to better serve the nation with everything going on after 9/11.

At the time, I was working in the commercial aviation industry and had recently been promoted to a supply chain management position.

On Sept. 11, 2001, I took our vice president and managing director for a drive in a new car I had bought the day before. We were all having fun, but when we returned to the building, everyone was gathered around a television. The first plane had struck the World Trade Center.

Major airlines were our customers, so we initially thought it was a strange, freak accident. When the second plane hit, we all knew something much bigger was happening. This was not an accident.

We remained glued to the television as the events unfolded at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The mood that had been fun and jovial that morning quickly became solemn and somber. Eventually, our vice president told everyone to go home, be with their families and absorb what we had witnessed.

I had left active duty in 1998 after serving aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, where I ran the jet engine test cell on the aircraft carrier. It was one of the coolest jobs I have ever had.

On 9/11, I was still within the window when I could have been activated from the inactive reserve. As the nation went to war in Afghanistan, many of us in that position wondered if we would be called back to serve.

When it became clear that I probably would not be activated, the urge to serve again still tugged at me.

At the same time, the attacks dealt a severe blow to commercial aviation. Before 9/11, our company had entered agreements with airlines and purchased inventory based on their forecasts. Afterward, increased security and a public reluctance to fly changed the industry's landscape and invalidated many of those forecasts.

We had already purchased material to keep on our shelves for the airlines, but much of it was no longer moving. As the supply chain manager, a significant part of my compensation was tied to inventory turnover. The assumptions behind our contracts no longer held true, and the job was not as fulfilling as it had been before 9/11.

The company employed great people, but I wanted to do my part for the warfighters who were doing what I had once done. I knew what they were facing, and I wanted to help them obtain the resources and equipment they needed to fight the wars our nation was asking them to fight.

I decided that if I was not called back to active service, I wanted to take my skills into civil service or work for a defense contractor. In a sense, I found the perfect combination when I applied for a position with DCMA Lockheed Martin Marietta supporting the F-22 Raptor program.

I joined the agency in 2004. During six years on the program, I worked as both a shop floor and flightline industrial specialist. I witnessed the F-22's transition from low-rate initial production through the final aircraft delivery flying "over the fence."

Since leaving the commercial world, I have worked inside manufacturing facilities and with multiple defense contractors to help ensure the warfighter receives what is required, when it is required and at a cost the taxpayer can afford. Whether the product is a major weapon system such as the F-22 or munitions, missiles or body armor, that work has given me the sense of fulfillment I was seeking after 9/11.

Today, I am a senior industrial specialist in the Engineering and Manufacturing Division on the Technical Directorate's staff. I am an agency subject matter expert in process management and improvement, supply chain management, and the Material Management and Accounting System contractor business system.

I help enable the 595 functional specialists in DCMA's manufacturing and production workforce to monitor production, protect delivery schedules, evaluate manufacturing capacity, and ensure combat-ready weapon systems are delivered to the warfighter on time and within cost.

Our manufacturing and production professionals serve as a critical sensor network inside the defense industrial base. Through continuous risk assessment and surveillance of production, processes and deliveries at thousands of contractor facilities worldwide, they provide visibility into supply chain risks directly from the factory floor. Their work helps sustain and improve warfighter readiness.

When I served in the Navy, I did not know about DCMA. Today, I take great pride in explaining the agency's mission to people who may not know what we do. We help ensure that the substantial investment our nation makes in the defense industrial base produces what the warfighter needs, when it is needed, and that taxpayers receive what they are paying for.

That is a sense of pride I never quite had in the commercial world.

I recently left a division director position in Corporate Operations because I wanted to return to the manufacturing and production mission. With the global conflicts our nation faces, demands for production surges and accelerations will only become more challenging. I want to do my part to help our industrial specialist workforce rise to meet that challenge.

The events of 9/11 changed both my industry and the direction of my career. They renewed my desire to serve and ultimately led me to DCMA, where I found another way to support those who put on the uniform.

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.