[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 51 (Wednesday, March 28, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E475-E476]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               HONORING LIEUTENANT COLONEL JOHN L. COOMBS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. STEVE CHABOT

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 28, 2012

  Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to honor and acknowledge 
Lieutenant Colonel John L. Coombs who has served this great Nation in 
the U.S. Army since 1989, most recently as the Acting Director of 
Operational Contracting Support and Policy with the Office of the 
Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Procurement.
  John L. Coombs enlisted as a Private and began his Army career as a 
Light Infantryman with the 7th Infantry Division in Fort Ord, 
California. He was soon recommended for and

[[Page E476]]

graduated from the Officer Candidate School where, in 1992, he was 
commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Chemical Corps. As a 
Chemical Officer, he served as a Battalion and Brigade Chemical Officer 
in artillery, cavalry, and aviation battalions and brigades for the 1st 
Armored Division in Germany and the 1st Cavalry Division in Texas. In 
1995, he deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina as the nuclear, biological and 
chemical reconnaissance platoon leader. There he developed tactics, 
techniques, and procedures to detect environmental hazards at 
industrial sites occupied by U.S. forces, leveraging the capabilities 
of the mobile mass spectrometers installed in the nuclear, biological 
and chemical reconnaissance vehicles.
  In 2001, Captain Coombs was accessed into the Acquisition Corps, 
attended the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California and in 
2002 graduated with a Master of Science in Business with an emphasis on 
federal contracting. From 2002 to 2005, as the Contracting Division 
Chief in the Wiesbaden Contracting Center for the U.S. Army Contracting 
Command, Europe, Captain Coombs supervised more than 30 contracting 
officers who awarded and administered more than $400 million in annual 
contract awards. He deployed to Kosovo for six months as the Chief of a 
Joint Contracting Center, where he led a joint military staff, U.S. 
civilians and Kosovar nationals to procure $5 million in annual 
contract awards. While in Kosovo, his work helped to improve multi-
national relations when he negotiated a complex settlement for damages 
to a hotel occupied by NATO forces. The following two years, Major 
Coombs served as the Deputy Chief of Office in the Italy Regional 
Contracting Office for U.S. Army Contracting Command, Europe. He 
oversaw high visibility procurements including letter contracts to 
lease properties supporting the 2006 Winter Olympics security 
operations in Torino. He was named the Army Europe Contracting Officer 
of the year in 2005. An Army fellowship at the RAND Arroyo Center in 
Santa Monica, California brought this Hamilton, Ohio native back to the 
U.S. There he developed RAND's recommended acquisition strategy for 
Future Combat Systems to balance cost control for the Army and risk to 
the contractor. Since 2008, Lieutenant Colonel Coombs has been assigned 
to Army Headquarters at the Pentagon. He has served as the Executive 
Officer, Deputy Director and several senior positions in the office of 
the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Procurement. His expert 
knowledge of operational contracting policy for military operations, 
natural disasters and humanitarian relief has been invaluable.
  Mr. Speaker, for more than two decades, Lieutenant Colonel John L. 
Coombs has faithfully served our Nation as a dedicated steward for 
American taxpayers. As he enters this next phase of his life with his 
beloved wife Kellie and their four children; Lyndsay, Adam, Emily and 
Jesse; I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating Lieutenant 
Colonel John Coombs upon his retirement and thank him for his service 
in the U.S. Army.

                          ____________________