Longtime agency leader shares Central Region memories

Longtime agency leader shares Central Region memories

By Tonya Johnson DCMA Central Region Public Affairs

Cal Bailey is the deputy director of the Defense Contract Management Agency Central Region Command. The agency will disestablish the region Oct. 5, as part of DCMA Vision, which is the agency's restructuring plan to better meet warfighters' needs by establishing two new commands in place of the Central, Eastern and Western Regions.

The new commands are the Geographic and Systems Support Command and the Systems Command.

Bailey leads a workforce of more than 2,000 contracting, quality assurance, engineering and manufacturing acquisition professionals across 23 states within the central United States. Central Region professionals manage contract oversight for over 62,000 contracts valued in excess of $500 billion for its 3,000 industry counterparts.

Prior to his civilian career, Bailey served in the Army for almost 30 years. He retired as a colonel in 2013 as the commander of DCMA Dallas. He returned to the agency a year later as the civilian deputy director of DCMA Detroit. He transferred to DCMA Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2017 to serve as the command's deputy director. Bailey became the Central Region's deputy director in 2018. In July 2022, he served as the region's acting director for a year until Army Col. Ken Darnall became the commander in July 2023. Bailey then returned to his deputy director role.

Bailey maintains fond memories of his service - both active duty and civilian. He reflected on his life of leadership, the relationships he established across a wide spectrum of warfighter support entities, and his and the command's legacy.

Q1. What did you learn from leading the Central Region?
I learned that each day continues to instruct and reaffirm the power of people who are mobilized collectively to achieve something greater than themselves. By working together, we were empowered to take decisive action, and therefore, no task seemed insurmountable or any challenge too great. The power of teamwork propelled the Central Region to higher levels of achievement.

Q2. How will your agency experience help you in your future endeavors? What does the future hold for you?
The opportunities afforded to me by DCMA as the Central Region deputy director have been incredibly rewarding. I've been able to serve in various leadership roles at different levels. I aspire to carry these lessons forward in a mentoring and coaching capacity. I want to help mentor those that will take future leadership roles within the agency. That will be full circle for me.

Q3. How would you describe the people within the Central Region? What stood out about them?
I would describe the people of the Central Region and DCMA as incredibly dedicated and committed. They take their responsibilities to provide acquisition insight and the full range of business capabilities personally and seriously. They see themselves in many ways as standing between the incredible industrial capacity this country possesses and our warfighters who use the products or weapon systems. For many, it is a solemn clarion call to duty, and they wear it proudly each day. I am proud and honored to be associated with such great Americans.

Q4. How will the new structure of the Geographic and Systems Support Command and the Systems Command help the agency better support our warfighters?
I think our structure will prove to be a little more intuitive for our warfighters, buying commands, military services and acquisition activities, to engage DCMA in supporting their acquisition and sustainment needs. One of the earliest tenants of our previous director, retired Army Lt. Gen. Dave Bassett, was to simplify and streamline our structure to make it easier to understand how and where to engage DCMA capabilities. He described his experience as a program executive officer in charge of the Army's Land Systems program wanting to engage with DCMA.

He had heard we offered enormous acquisition insight and industrial base intelligence down to the factory floor, however, he never could quite understand how to engage specific contract management offices. At the time, DCMA Detroit was down the street from him in Sterling Heights, Michigan. He knew the team there was providing contract administration critical to his developing capability, yet he couldn't understand why he needed to work through several layers of our organization to engage and help him solve some of the supplier issues associated with the Land Systems' portfolio he led.

When he became the DCMA director and started to understand more intuitively our enormous capability, he said he wished he had known all what we could offer and how to get access to it. So, he thought that making the agency simpler and more intuitive to the services and the new structure would be a benefit to all across the Department of War.

I also believe that our agency embarking upon DCMA Vision several years ago started us down the path of looking at being even more efficient by standardizing, automating, and streamlining organizations and processes. This has helped us become even better stewards of taxpayers' dollars as federal agencies within the Department of War and across the government are being asked to be more efficient and streamlined. Our senior leaders were amazingly circumspect and courageous to start these discussions in advance of what we know today. We are better postured as an agency because of their decisive action.

Q5. Why is DCMA vital to warfighter support?
World events have revealed to us the fragile nature of our supply chains and the impact to global economies and to warfighting capabilities when interrupted or degraded. It is important to have some indication of where the supply chain stands at any given moment. We need to have knowledge of inventory stock levels, manufacturing and production risks, and scarcity of materials, which are critical to economic viability and military readiness.

DCMA is unique because we have personnel on the factory floor with the suppliers and vendors day-to-day. We see the challenges they face and by providing this information to decision makers, we offer insight that proves crucial to national security strategy, priority and objectives. Increasingly, as our senior leaders are called to the National Capital Region, they are informing other senior decision makers of the acquisition insight available through DCMA. The more our senior leaders engage, the more information is being asked from us. This is a good thing.

Q6. Do you have any advice or words of wisdom to current and future DCMA leaders? What advice do you have for the workforce at large?
I'm reminded of a saying I once heard that roughly went, "Every generation has its heroes, and this one is no different." They sit among the cubicles in office spaces throughout the world. They walk the factory floors, administer payment, accept product, audit invoices and provide logistical support. They are going through some incredibly challenging times, both in their professional and personal lives, but this too will pass.

These experiences will mold and strengthen them for the times which lie ahead. In the not-too-distant future, they will be called upon to assume leadership roles within DCMA. I implore them to continue to train in not just their professions, but possibly other career fields, stay tech savvy, and curious across a myriad of topics. Strive for self-awareness and remain grounded in who you are and strive to be. Finally, never stop learning.

Q7. What will you miss the most about the Central Region?
Everything! I will especially miss the people, camaraderie and commitment to meeting the agency's mission. I have every confidence the new organizations will continue to embody and elevate all these things to greater heights as they will be composed of incredibly talented leaders and people. I can't help but say it has certainly been my privilege to grow with the Central Region as it has matured to its current place in DCMA history.

Q8. As the regions across the agency wind down operationally, what are some of the things you have done to ensure a smooth transition to the new structure?
We have been involved since the beginning and the first stand up of a contract management office, DCMA Southern California. We have engaged to help the CMOs consolidate and move from their legacy-based structures into the newer ones. The amount of work that went into each one of those transitions was incredibly substantial. We were there throughout enabling the general orders and organization structure changes, transitioning contractor CAGE administration codes from one office to another, and all other activities in between.

We remained committed to the orderly transition as we brought over and helped establish some of the Systems Command portfolio under the Central Region including Fixed Wing and Vertical Lift support and some of the Geographic and Systems Support Command elements such as DCMA Ohio River Valley and DCMA South, to name a few.

These interim steps helped stage these CMOs to operate under the new structure for a time so that as we near the standup of the new commands, it will not be totally new to operate in this way. We are also engaged with the new commands' leadership team to orchestrate the support transition for caring for people and resources by defining roles and responsibilities. We met in August and September to finalize those transitions to ensure we have an orderly standup and that nothing has been dropped in the process.

Q9. You originally came to the agency as an Army colonel and CMO commander at DCMA Dallas before later becoming a civil servant. How was the transition, and what made you stay with the agency?
I stayed with the agency because I thought I had something to offer. I was also inspired by the fact that, at the time, my son was serving on active duty as a proud soldier in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina. While he was serving, I wanted to do something to show my support and help to ensure that he and his fellow military service members make it home. I couldn't have been more fortunate as my first civilian assignment placed me with what is now called DCMA Land Systems and was formerly known as DCMA Detroit. I couldn't have landed in a better place to support what he was doing.

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