Gerard F. O’Connell achieved 40+ years of service to the United States Air Force (USAF), retiring in 2019. Jerry started his career at Hanscom AFB in 1977 working as a Systems Contract Specialist in support of ground based Command and Control (C2) programs. In 1983 he was awarded a USAF Contracting Officer warrant and began working on the MILSTAR terminal segment development and acquisition. The MILSTAR terminals served as a switchboard to direct and process data from MILSTAR satellites and crosslink them with other MILSTAR satellites, reducing the requirement for ground-controlled switching. His efforts enabled encrypted voice and data communications between the Services. The work supported onboard digital processing and gave US armed forces the advantage of secure, jam resistant, bandwidth-on-demand space communications and flexible space-based network capabilities for the first time. It was a critical C2 component during Desert Storm, Allied Force and the Global War on Terror and today remains operational.

In 1996, Jerry became a supervisor and Contracts Chief for the Special Programs Division. While much of the work classified, Jerry and his team supported a congressionally established office on Combat Identification. This office was stood up in response to incidents that occurred during the Gulf War culminating with the 1994 Black Hawk shoot down incident. His team played an integral role in procurement of modern day Identification Friend or Foe systems and Jerry’s understanding of C2 systems coupled with modern day air combat tactics resulted in advanced Concepts of Operations that serve as a backbone to today’s AF. His teams led capability advancements in Joint Air to Air and Air to Ground Operations, RADAR, Airborne C2 and in Communications facilitating rapid integration of coalition forces that was critical in the Wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Starting in 1998 through the early 2000’s, Hanscom began an era of prototyping best exampled through the Joint Expeditionary Force Experiments. Jerry’s leadership and oversight ensured that the experiments led to the insertion of new C2 techniques, the development of advanced information technology systems and the standardizing of infrastructure and architectures that essentially laid the groundwork for future systems integration.

From 2005 to present day Jerry took on duties as Chief of Contracts; while in this role he served as the primary business advisor to the Program Executive Officer and the Hanscom community. Jerry participated in acquisition strategy formulation, performed Business and Contract Clearance approvals and exercised approval authority for Undefinitized Contract Actions. His AF legacy grew as he worked on large ground based C2 systems such as the Air Operations Center, the Distributed Common Ground Stations, and Space Fence, along with several Foreign Military Sales programs.
Through Jerry’s work, Hanscom AFB continues to be an integral part of the evolving electronics technology community in the Boston area. His technical knowledge coupled with contracts acumen served to mentor over 400 contracting personnel while creating lasting relationships between government, educational institutions, private industry, and military research and development installations.