Supporting the Mission, After the Mission

As Beast Code pushes the envelope of what's capable in our world class Digital Twin technology, we rely on strategic hiring to help guide our business into the future. A highlight of our strategic hiring is in retired senior officers from branches across the United States Armed Forces. We sat down with three retired Navy captains to discuss their transition from active-duty service to the civilian workforce and how their skills and experience learned through their military careers enable them to support Beast Code’s mission to support the Warfighter.

What are some of the key skills that you learned during your time in the military?

“The Navy’s recruiting slogan is “Forged by the Sea” and the intent behind that is whatever you bring into the Navy, going to sea will forge that characteristic behind you,” said CAPT Doug Patterson, USN Ret., “Everyone has a different degree of self-awareness and over my [32 year] career that was refined.” CAPT Sam Pennington, USN Ret., agreed and continued, “you learn to leverage your team when you’re in command and are aware of the skills and talents your team brings.” CAPT Jamie Kalowsky, USN Ret., added via Microsoft Teams, “the [Navy] community went through efforts to make sure you learn servant leadership, where you learn to influence rather than direct. As a leader, you’re normally part of a field activity for only two to three years of your civilian team members’ 30-to-40-year careers at that command, so your mission isn’t to be the best and highest achieving “you”, rather, it’s to help them become the best “them”. There’s a stereotypical feeling by some ?that as a military leader your job is to tell people to charge the hill, but I found it to be anything farther from the truth.”

So how do those skillsets and experience from your military career translate to your current position at Beast Code?

“The Navy and Beast Code are both technically anchored; we’re both in the business of knowledge management and solutions. When we’re looking at that idea of servant leadership here at Beast Code we’re making sure the most junior software developer is heard. You’re not telling them what to do, but you’re knocking down obstacles and helping self-organizing teams understand the best ways to accomplish their tasks,” said Product Manager Kalowsky, “as you’re going into an area where its empirical and knowledge based, having that empathy, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence all really come into play as you’re dealing with smart people who build code that has to break that technical to human interface with clients on a daily basis.” He later continued, “One of the reasons I came to Beast Code was to be back on the playing field to help the community that I had worked with in uniform, utilize Information Technology to expand our advantage on the seas. I’m able to utilize those experiences and the network I’ve grown [and still] get that feeling of shared purpose that you’re able to contribute to something meaningful.”

“I came to Beast Code in an odd situation. There was no Director of Training so big picture vision leadership was one skillset I had to use quickly,” said Patterson. “Coming from at sea and an Engineman, Chief Engineer and EAP assessor, I also had the perspective of 'What can the surface community use this for?’ I was able to look at the idea of what we can do with a Digital Twin from different perspectives to give customers some ‘what if?’ ideas. I have the experience of going through those courses that teach that curriculum so I’m looking at how do we use a Digital Twin to aide that curriculum?”

“My recent experience benefits Beast Code’s business side more than the customer side. My last eight years in the Navy were in acquisitions building my knowledge of contracts, how funding flows, and the business side in preparing to win contracts and awards. I was a Program Manager that benefited from Beast Code’s products that I used to deliver some requirements to the Navy for the DDG 1000,” explained Subject Matter Expert Pennington. “However, because I spent 33 years in the Navy with experience in Surface Maintenance and Modernization, I’m able to help with some of the customer facing requirements especially with lead time planning for carriers.

Beast Code CEO Matt Zimmerman later touched on their diverse experience in a separate interview, “The team's past experiences provide leadership and expertise on US Navy acquisition, training, and sustainment activities. Their firsthand knowledge of these processes will better Beast Code Digital Twin product line built to support the lifecycle of a weapon system and improve the safety and effectiveness of the Warfighter.”

What is something you learned from your experience retiring from the Navy?

“There’s an old saying, ‘Mission first, people always’ and I think we all had that same mentality with our families,” explained Pennington, “The Navy comes first when it comes time to deploy but our families are always the highest priority and we didn’t get much control over that [work life] balance while we were active duty. In that transition from military to civilian I really got to decide how I wanted to work and who I wanted to work for and how much I wanted to work and that gives me a lot more control over my work life balance.”

“One of the things I’ve observed is there’s a perception that captains coming out of the Navy can’t do much on their own anymore. So, you can really break some peoples’ paradigms of what a transitioning senior officer can or can’t do when you surprise people by going, ‘I can still build a spreadsheet, write a paper and facilitate design sessions,’” added Kalowsky, with a grin.

Patterson continued, “Especially as a retiring captain where you’re in command or whatever the case may be and you’re important and the [day after retiring] you’re nothing it really builds on that self-awareness I talked about earlier. As you retire you start to realize that the day after you leave the bullet train of the Navy is going to keep going and it has to. Once you’re out it needs to keep going. So that’s a good piece of self-awareness to take into a new career so you work in a way where if something were to happen to the organization can keep going.”

Are there any final thoughts to leave with?

Kalowsky laughed at this, stating, “I’m probably one of the few people in America right now saying I hate working remote. I’d rather be in the office with my Beasts!?The people are there who build all of the creative energy that I love.” Pennington agreed, continuing, “The environment [at Beast Code] reminds me of being on a submarine or ship in terms of the camaraderie and the ability to keep things light but still stay focused on what we’re delivering to the Warfighter.”

The opinions and statements made in this article are of the individuals and not on behalf of the Department of Defense or the United States Navy.

Original Publication Date: 06 June 2022

Written by: Emily Patterson, Social Media Manager

Photos by: J.D. Compton, Designer III

Biographies

Captain Douglas Patterson enlisted in the Navy in 1989 where he served for seven years as an enlisted Engineman. He commissioned as a Surface Warfare Officer in 1997 after attending officer Candidate School. In his 25 years as a SWO, his career highlights include?Commanding Officer Training Support Center San Diego, Commanding Officer USS ASHLAND (LSD 48), and Senior Assessor at Engineering Assessments Pacific.

Captain Samuel Pennington enlisted in 1987, qualified in Submarines as a Machinist Mate in 1989, and was commissioned under the Enlisted Commissioning Program in 1995.?He spent 25 years of his career as a Surface Warfare Officer, and the last 7 years in the Surface Acquisition Community.?He served onboard SSBN 645, FFG 60, DDG 87, and CG 61 in various engineering billets and as the ship’s Engineer Officer during his last two sea tours.?He commanded NRD Pittsburgh and held various acquisition billets within NAVSEA and PEO SHIPS before becoming the Major Program Manager for PMS 339, Surface Training Systems.?He completed his 33 year career at OPNAV N1, working requirements for MyNAVY HR.

Captain James Kalowsky was a member of the acquisition professional community, in uniform as an Engineering Duty Officer. In his 20+ years as a maintainer, he led intermediate and depot level maintenance in both the Atlantic and Pacific, in roles that spanned from a Contracting Officer’s Representative for preservation up to the Force Maintenance Officer for Pacific Fleet Submarines. The pinnacle of his Naval career was the honor of serving as the Commanding Officer of Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and the Hawaii Regional Maintenance Center, where he and his team kept the Pacific Fleet, “Fit to Fight!”. Captain Kalowsky has have worked on both sides of the Fleet owner and NAVSEA operator construct, as well as significant experience managing complex programs in the Federal Sector as a defense contractor.