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OICC Florence Supervisor of the Year: Joseph Andrews

05 April 2023

From Ashley Snipes

Joe Andrews, a Supervisory Contract Specialist at Resident Officer in Charge of Construction Cherry Point, learned throughout his career how the most important part about the job is to be happy, and he brought that philosophy with him to Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Officer in Charge of Construction Florence in November 2020.
Joe Andrews, a Supervisory Contract Specialist at Resident Officer in Charge of Construction Cherry Point, learned throughout his career how the most important part about the job is to be happy, and he brought that philosophy with him to Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Officer in Charge of Construction Florence in November 2020.

Andrews started his career as a buyer and merchandiser in retail when he graduated from University of North Carolina at Wilmington. After a number of years in Goldsboro and Fayetteville, Andrews and his growing family were excited to return home to New Bern, N.C., working for the Marine Corps Exchange in the same role. Then in 2002, he branched out and moved over to Marine Corps Community Services as a supervisory contract specialist. Since then, Andrews dabbled in a little bit of everything, working for Marine Corps Installation East, Regional Contracting Office; Defense Logistics Agency, Aviation; Defense Logistics Agency, Joint Contingency Acquisition Support Office (JCASO); and Naval Air Systems Command as a program manager.

“My work opportunities allowed me to go all over the place,” said Andrews. “Having the different experiences and seeing how different agencies do things just makes you understand that you have to be adaptable.”

In doing side work with Defense Logistics Agency, Joint Contingency Acquisition Support office (JCASO) Andrews was able to travel around assisting with hurricane recovery and disaster relief. Here, he found he really liked the support he provided from his area. So when a supervisory contract specialist job became available, Andrews was excited to apply and meet Team OICC Florence.

“Generally, you’re given a broad degree of flexibility to find solutions to situations that need to be solved quickly,” said Andrews.

“Joe is an awesome teammate, he keeps a good sense of humor even while working through some of our toughest and most frustrating situations,” said Lt. Cmdr. Dave Dreyer, PE, Resident Officer In Charge of Construction Florence Cherry Point. “He does a great job keeping balance and promoting professionalism in the office.”
“I try to make an environment around me where the people around me are happy to come here,” said Andrews. “You want to be the contracting office of choice, not the contracting office no one wants to come see because long term, that’s going to be detrimental to everybody, and the company, and the project.”

Andrews doesn’t leave his philosophy in the office. His son Jonah Andrews, a recent graduate from North Carolina State with a degree in engineering, asked him for input about what it’s like on the other side of school. Andrews kept it simply:

“I asked him, are you happy? If you’re happy, you’ll do a good job, you’ll do fine. He said ‘I know, but give me the work part’. I said, well son that is the work part.”
Andrews has seen throughout his career that when he likes what he is doing, and he likes coming to work, it’s more beneficial to everyone.

“Over my career and life, I’ve made decisions for a position or money, and it’s never quite worked out exactly the way I wanted it to,” reflected Andrews. “I appreciate how they let me come to work here every day because I really do enjoy it!”
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