Outgoing Fort Detrick Commander Recalls Highlights
FREDERICK, Md. (AP) -- Despite all the places around the world her Army career has taken her, Col. Judith Robinson is still an Iowa farm girl at heart.
During her childhood, she preferred to arrange models of fields instead of playing with dolls, and she still sometimes uses farm analogies to get her points across in conversation. That upbringing taught her several lessons that have served her well during her 26-year Army career, including the last three years as garrison commander of Fort Detrick: Resources are limited and therefore should be used sustainably. Education is a lifelong priority. Cooperation and collaboration, even on a small scale, are essential.
Robinson followed Col. Mary Deutsch, the Army post's only other female commander, when she arrived three years ago. Robinson said she walked into a great situation, with a capable staff already working on important initiatives, but the 55-year-old from Waukon, Iowa, has left her own mark on Fort Detrick.
"When I came in, I said, `if there's something I want to leave behind, it's a culture of sustainability,"' Robinson said last week during a farewell interview before today's change-of-command ceremony, when Col. Allan Darden will take over.
But sustainability is more than just recycling and conserving water, Robinson says whenever the topic comes up. She wouldn't let the garrison staff develop a separate sustainability plan to address "green" issues on post. Instead, she insisted they turn their long-term strategic plan into a sustainable strategic plan, incorporating environmentally sound practices and resource-saving ideas into everything the post does, from what gets used to clean the floors to how it generates electricity and disposes of its waste.
"It's not about putting out a solar farm because `ooh, aren't we cool, we've got a solar farm,"' she said. "It's about putting out a solar farm that actually will have some payback to it and means that we spend the taxpayer dollars appropriately and well. If we go out willy-nilly and just do it because we want to punch a ticket, or we want to look like we're doing the politically correct thing, then I'm not doing the right thing by the taxpayer -- and I'm one of those taxpayers, by the way."
That work has garnered national recognition from the Department of the Army and Department of Defense. Last year the post won the Army's Community of Excellence award for exemplary practices. This year it was chosen to be a pilot location in two of three categories for the military's Net Zero sustainability initiative.
Putting such an emphasis on sustainability comes at a good time for Fort Detrick. With several factors converging, Fort Detrick has 16 buildings under construction and 11 more in the hopper, totaling $2 billion.
Knowing how many construction projects were on the way, the post's infrastructure needs were among the first issues to grab Robinson's attention. She lobbied the Department of Army and eventually the Department of Defense for help in upgrading the entry gates, utilities and emergency services to support the four major labs and variety of office buildings that would be coming to Fort Detrick. The Pentagon agreed to provide the funds as long as Robinson could spend them immediately. "It's unusual for a garrison commander to come in and three years later to be planning the groundbreakings for these projects," she said. "Generally, in the Army system it takes about seven years from the time you put a document in to the time you get a building."
But, as Robinson always notes during public appearances, nothing at Fort Detrick happens in a vacuum. She readily admits Fort Detrick's rapid expansion will affect the rest of the community, in positive ways such as creating jobs and supporting local businesses, but also in negative ways such as creating extra traffic. Robinson made a point of attending Neighborhood Advisory Council meetings to talk about the traffic issue, meeting with business organizations to discuss contracting opportunities, and attending Rotary Club and other group meetings to spread Fort Detrick's message and answer questions.
"Outside the gate, the relationship with the community, I think, has just blossomed," Robinson said of her three-year stint.
"I was probably more active here than in a lot of other locations because of the nature of Fort Detrick -- Fort Detrick is a very stable population of folks, it's folks that stay here for a lifetime," she said. "They raise their kids here, they have their grandkids here, they retire in this area, and so the folks that work here are very embedded into the community."
In contrast to larger military posts with combat-oriented units, the research focus of Fort Detrick means that only about 1,450 of the 10,650 employees wear military uniforms, and even the military personnel typically stay for longer than a normal two- or three-year military rotation. By looking to partner with local businesses, teaching science and technology to local students, and volunteering with local charitable organizations, Robinson said she and her staff were supporting each other's families, neighbors and friends.
Her focus on community building in Frederick complemented her personal goal of earning a doctorate in public administration. She had already planned a thesis centered on community building as a tool for nation-building, an idea partially inspired by her deployments to Honduras, Bosnia, Kosovo and other recipients of American rebuilding efforts. But spending three years as "mayor" of Fort Detrick has expanded her views on how to build a vibrant and solid community.
Robinson hopes to have time to begin her doctoral studies during her next station, teaching strategic thinking and a few medical elective courses at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa. She joked that after having already collected three master's degrees among her academic achievements, it was about time to earn a doctorate.
Robinson said she hoped to return to Frederick County after retiring from the Army. But as she says goodbye for now, those she worked most closely with will remember her for her way of connecting to those around her -- by inviting them over for dinner, her walking-and-talking method of brainstorming, and for leaving a trail of sticky-note messages instead of emailing or calling her staff when work needed to be done.
"I hope they remember me also as a collaborator, somebody that has helped to pull teams together with some forward thinking," Robinson said. "To be willing to tackle the hard issues and do it, hopefully they have looked at it, with grace."
Information from: The Frederick (Md.) News-Post, http://www.fredericknewspost.com
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
