From Contracts to Combat Training: Huntsville Center Employee Balances Civilian Career with Military Service
REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – For Derrick Coffey, serving in the National Guard means wearing two hats.
During the workweek, Coffey serves as a contracting specialist at the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville where helps provide specialized, high-impact acquisition solutions for complex, global engineering and technical programs.
Outside of the office, Coffey serves as a specialist in the National Guard. He recently completed Basic Combat Training and Advanced Individual Training as an infantry Soldier.
His path to military service was shaped early by a family with a long history of serving in uniform. His grandfather and uncles served in the Marine Corps, his aunts and parents served in the Army, his brother serves in the Air Force, and his wife served in the Army National Guard.
“My parents instilled the values of service in me at an early age,” Coffey said. “They taught me a lot of the Army values, and now I’m trying to teach those same lessons to my son.”
Coffey has spent 12 years in the contracting field and six years working at Huntsville Center where his experience as a contracting specialist exposed him to high-pressure situations, particularly during the end of the fiscal year.
“The end of the fiscal year can be stressful, especially within the contracting directorate,” he explained. “That experience helped prepare me to stay calm in high pressure environments.”
While Coffey’s civilian career helped prepare him for the demands of military training, his experience in the National Guard also changed the way he views his work at Huntsville Center. Experiencing the Army’s needs firsthand gave him a different perspective on the impact of his civilian mission.
During training at Fort Benning, Georgia, he encountered a situation that made that connection particularly clear. His training group went without hot water for two weeks after a water heater stopped working.
Coffey immediately recognized the type of problem Huntsville Center could help address.
“I’ve worked on contracts where projects have addressed issues like that before,” he noted. “I knew my team with HNC could have helped.”
The experience reinforced the connection between the contracts Coffey works on every day and the Soldiers whose lives are positively impacted.
“When I came back, I knew we do more than just push papers,” he stated. “The work we do every day really has an impact on Soldier’s day-to-day lives.”
For Coffey, the experience has brought his military and civilian careers into sharper focus.
“I always knew the work we did at Huntsville Center was important,” he said. “But being on the other side and seeing how that work impacts Soldiers firsthand really made a difference for me.”
Now, as Coffey returns to his work as a contracting specialist, he carries that perspective with him, knowing the contracts he works on are more than paperwork and processes.
“We are helping people,” he expressed. “What we do at HNC really makes a difference.”
For Coffey completing the training is not an ending, but the beginning of a new chapter, one that combines a civilian career with a commitment to serve.
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