Ex-Redstone garrison head loves job as BRAC 'expert'
Retired Olshefski now point man for AMC move here
John Olshefski is no longer in uniform, but he is still very much in the Army.
He retired last year as a colonel after more than 27 years in the service, the last few as Redstone Arsenal's garrison commander.
Now, Olshefski reports to an office on the arsenal in civilian clothes as a Department of the Army employee in the Senior Executive Service. He's been hired as an SES "Highly Qualified Expert" to be a kind of point man for the BRAC-mandated move of the giant Army Materiel Command from Ft. Belvoir in Virginia to new headquarters here.
"I haven't worked this hard since I was in the war," Olshefski said during a recent drive to the AMC building site on Redstone.
There, he and Mike Edwards, the program manager in charge of the project, looked at the ground that has been readied for concrete. Edwards pointed out a pond in front of the building that will both beautify the site and be part of its force-protection measures.
Olshefski's new role includes helping shepherd construction of the more than 400,000-square-foot building that will become the new home of the AMC and the U.S. Army Security Assistance Command in mid-2011. Among other things, he is a liaison between Redstone-based personnel and AMC leadership in Virginia, including four-star Commanding Gen. Ann Dunwoody; Lt. Gen. Jim Pillsbury, Olshefski's former chief at Redstone Arsenal; and Kathryn Condon, executive deputy to the commanding general.
"The vision has changed considerably," Olshefski said. The building plans have been downsized a bit to save dollars as construction costs have risen and because, as he pointed out, "we are at war."
The AMC mission of providing soldiers around the world with everything they need, from boots to bullets to bread, cannot be downsized, he said, or even affected during the move. The same number of jobs - more than 1,350 AMC and 360 USASAC positions - are coming here as part of the Base Realignment and Closure process, which is on track despite changes in the economy and Washington