Wallingford Native Earns Prestigious Award

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Todd Frantom

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Sean Stackley presented Rear Adm. Thomas J. Eccles with the 2012 Rear Admiral Wayne E. Meyer Memorial Award at the Pentagon July 30. 

Eccles, a Wallingford native, earned the award for superb technical proficiency and programmatic skills over the course of his highly successful career as an Acquisition Professional. In his final assignment as the Chief Engineer for the Naval Sea Systems Command, he worked hand-in-hand with the NAVSEA Program Executive officers to balance technical requirements and affordability to arrive at the best solution for the operational forces. 

Before reading the citation and recognizing this year's recipient, Stackley recognized all previous winners for their important contributions to the Navy and what the award embodies and why these individual are recognized.

The RADM Wayne E. Meyer Award, the most prestigious of the Department of the Navy Acquisition Excellence awards, recognizes a DON individual who exemplifies the highest examples of acquisition excellence and whose achievement brings significant credit to the DON acquisition community.

"This award, in my mind, represents not only the accomplishments of this individual but more importantly the character of the individual," said Stackley. 

"The Navy could not have had a finer Chief Engineer on watch the last five years taking care of our current and future fleet and all the technical and programmatic issues that come with that, and helping senior leadership understand the challenging things that we deal with on a daily basis in order to make the critical decisions they need to make to keep the Navy on course."

Eccles' efforts have saved the Department of the Navy countless resources over the last three years and through his personal involvement with the NAVSEA portfolio, he has been responsible for shaping the formidable and dominant capability delivered to Sailors and Marines at war.

Eccles skills also made him the ideal candidate to lead the Navy in several independent evaluations and special investigations. He led an in depth review of the Littoral Combat Ship program at a critical time in program's development and highlighted the need for an additional acquisition workforce to oversee this vital Navy program. He was appointed to the National Academy of Engineering committee, which examined the Deep Water Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Finally, Eccles led the U.S. technical team that supported the Republic of Korea joint international investigation into the loss of RoK warship Cheonan, which included diving and salvage of evidence operations, State Department negotiations, and accident cause determinations through analysis of weapons damage.

"Your willingness and ability to work across any of the DOD programs, working with specs to solve the most pressing issues and especially getting senior leadership to understand and helping them make those key decisions to keep the Navy on course exemplifies a good leader and you have defined the position with character and competence to what a Chief Engineer is," Stackley said. 

"We are all extremely proud and you for receiving this award but most important you have our respect and admiration."