Spinks recognized for work in security enterprise – DVIDS

Jerrid Spinks has been named the Security Assistance Command’s Employee of the 2nd Quarter for fiscal 2023. A country program manager for Korea, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Maldives, he has been at the command for 13 years.

Country program managers develop programs that manage the transfer of defense articles and services to assigned countries. This includes the lifecycle management of foreign military sales, which involves coordinating the movement of the materiel from the command’s New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, location.

“Mr. Spinks manages a larger than normal portfolio than many other CPMs,” Tracy Engler, division chief at USASAC INDOPACOM/NORTHCOM/SOUTHCOM, said. “He has demonstrated his superior skills as a CPM by managing large and complex programs for Patriot, Stryker, Apache, Black Hawk and Chinook.”

Spinks has been recognized by the customers in the countries he covers, and the COCOM for his outstanding work on Thailand Stryker. He has also received multiple performance awards, Civilian Service Achievement Medals and USASAC Employee of the Quarter several times.

“His ability to recognize problems and solve them ensures cases are processed quickly and do not have a negative impact on USASAC metrics,” Engler said. “Mr. Spinks sees challenges as opportunities and routinely goes beyond to solve problems and serve the customer.”

He is known to take initiative on many tasks despite his large portfolio of cases. Teammates have talked about his presence as a “morale booster” in the command.

Spinks manages an extensive portfolio of Title 10 building partner capacity cases. He has resolved complicated funding issues to enable the purchase of additional materiel. BPC cases are funded with U.S. government dollars and maximizing the use of funds has a direct benefit to the U.S. taxpayer.

His largest impact has been the building of partner capacity in the INDOPACOM region and directly supporting that COCOM’s lines of effort. As the workload increases for Thailand and Singapore, Spinks’ ability to efficiently manage his programs results in a greater number of cases being processed in less time across the enterprise.

He was instrumental in providing support for the USASAC commanding general’s February visit to the INDOPACOM area. Spinks directly engaged with the Singapore Security Cooperation Office to determine talking points and resolve issues prior to the meeting. He willingly accepted these duties despite no longer managing the Singapore program. Spinks recognized the need for a successful senior leader engagement and stepped in because he was the most knowledgeable on the program.

Spinks’ division chief assigned him management of Korea Patriot cases starting in early 2023 to assist a co-worker with an increased workload on a critical foreign military sales program. Before the effective transition date, Spinks recognized his teammate needed help and jumped in to assist with the development of CH-47 and PAC-3 MSE cases during the illness of the assigned case manager.

“Mr. Spinks leveraged his network to process non-recurring and (missile technology control regime) waivers that were urgently required to develop and offer the letters of offer and acceptance,” Engler said.

Spinks also coordinated with members throughout the entire security assistance enterprise to identify issues and mitigated risks with creative solutions. “The result of all this hard work resulted in Mr. Spinks offering LOAs for CH-47s for $1.1B, and PAC-3 MSEs for $609M,” Engler said.

Members in the security assistance enterprise and USASAC believe his intervention in these two cases provided the required information for Korea to secure their budget. His efforts resulted in the addition of $1.7 billion to the USASAC foreign military sales portfolio as well as strengthen the U.S. and Korea partnership. These efforts further demonstrate Spinks’ commitment to mission and the customer above all else.

Spinks is the father of an energetic second grader and he is actively involved in helping with class parties, field trips and other school events. He also coaches his son’s flag football and baseball leagues. In his spare time, Spinks is a health nut, participates in 5K and 10K races, and enjoys many sports.