LTC(R) John Mark Thane is a Capabilities Integrator for SAIC in the Army Future Command’s Future Operations Division. He is part of the G-3’s Command, Control, Computers, Communications, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance. (C5ISR) Team that is a key linkage between the AFC Headquarters and the Network Cross Functional Team. He leverages his intimate understanding of the full spectrum of development of Army systems from JCIDS and preacquisition activities to the product fielding process. He watched the concept development and initial formation of the first Cross Functional Teams (CFTs). He had civilian jobs that also supported ATEC and AFC’s Army Applications Laboratory. The AEC support gave an appreciation for integrated developmental and operational test and evaluation. The more recent experience with AAL provided a number of opportunities to observe AFC Headquarters’ relationship with CFTs as well as how several CFTs leveraged AAL to use nontraditional solution providers to attack their hard problems.
He is a seasoned Defense Acquisition Professional with over twenty years in the Army Acquisition Enterprise and have an intimate knowledge of the Army Futures Command. His DAWIA Level III certifications are in Program Management, Test and Evaluation, and Systems Planning, Research, Development and Engineering. His Active Duty assignments included experimentation, program management, capability development and research and development positions. As an undergraduate and graduate student of Physics, he worked in the High Energy Physics Research Group at Texas A&M University on projects including a scintillation-based GUT magnetic monopole search and prototype hadron calorimeters for the Collider Detector Facility at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. His thesis, “Development of a Small Angle Hadron Calorimeter Prototype for the Collider Detector at Fermilab,” focused on development of instrumentation for the high radiation environment around the beamline of the 2 TeV synchrotron collider.
After graduate school he entered Active Duty as an Armor Officer in the United States Army’s Third Infantry Division leading in both operational and staff assignments. As a consequence of the 1992 Reduction in Force, he returned home to Texas and led troops in the Army National Guard in other leadership and staff assignments as and Armor and Cavalry Officer in Texas’s own Forty-Ninth Armored Division. On the civilian side, work at EWA Services provided additional opportunities to grow at the Army’s Test and Experimentation Command as an ORSA, Test Plans Analyst and Data Manager. His civilian job moved him to the Washington, D.C. area in 1998 to work at the U.S. Army Evaluation Center (AEC). At the AEC he was the Senior Evaluator for Small Arms Weapon Systems and began making frequent trips to Picatinny Arsenal, NJ and the Infantry Center and School at Fort Benning. As a consequence of the relocation, he transferred to the U.S. Army Reserve and was assessed into the Reserve Component Acquisition Workforce. After September 11th, 2001, he was mobilized and served two years at the Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, MD followed by two years of Active Duty at the Defense Intelligence Agency.
LTC(R) Thane’s last Active Duty assignment was with the U.S. Army’s Capability Package Directorate, System of Systems Engineering and Integration Directorate at Fort Bliss, Texas as the Executive Officer with additional duties supporting the U.S. Army’s Rapid Capability Office. His organization has a critical role in the U.S. Army’s modernization effort.
His first job after transition from Active Duty as a Military Technology Analyst with Alion Science and Technology supporting the Army Future Command’s outreach to entrepreneurs. His expertise spanning a wide spectrum of technologies proved a key asset in the valuations of nontraditional companies with latent solutions for AFC CFT hard problems. Similarly, his diverse background better enabled my liaison between the Army Application Laboratory and AFC’s Directorate of System Integration to best communicate needs and opportunities.
LTC(R) Thane is a recipient of the U.S. Army Research & Development Award in 2013 and the Army Greatest Invention Award for 2006 as the Team Leader for Development and Fielding of the Rapid Entry Vehicle for use in Camp Bucca, Iraq. His military awards include the Bronze Star, the Afghan Campaign Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Joint Meritorious Unit Award, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Armed Forces Reserve Medal, the Army Reserve Components Achievement Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the NATO Medal and Basic Parachutist Badge. He has three Level III certifications in PM, T&E and SPRD&E and a Level II Acquisition certifications in SPRD&E PSE and is a graduate of the Capabilities Development Course. He received both his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Physics from Texas A&M University with a focus on Experimental High Energy Physics Research. He is an Eagle Scout.