Service Then
Heidi Elise Jensen began her 21-year military career after graduating from Washington University in St. Louis, where she received a scholarship in the Army ROTC program. She was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps in 1988 and then attended the Officers’ Basic course at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), MD. Her first assignment was as a Maintenance Officer in Stuttgart, Germany. In this position, she deployed to Desert Shield/Desert Storm and led a maintenance platoon of over 100 soldiers, providing maintenance support to units in combat.
Heidi returned to APG for the Officers’ Advanced Course, where she then became a Company Commander responsible for 450+ soldiers in several locations. She developed tracking procedures to improve timeliness for administrative requirements, used subject matter experts to enhance training events, and set up an incentive program to increase physical fitness scores. She was also a Staff Officer, where she improved tracking tools to organize staff functions and improve support to units and soldiers.
In 1995, she moved to Fort Hood, TX, and served as an Operations Research Systems Analyst at the Test and Evaluation Command. She provided technical expertise for command, communications, and control systems and developed analysis of mission-essential functions for new systems, such as the Enhanced Position Location Reporting System and the Replacement Satellite Configuration Control Element.
As a Logistics Instructor at the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, OH, she taught classes in logistics, acquisition, testing, and joint operations at the Air Force Institute of Technology to over 1,500 Department of Defense employees.
In 2000, MAJ Jensen attended the Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, KS, and was assigned to Fort Wainwright, AK, as a Battalion Executive Officer. She supervised a staff of 50+ soldiers and a budget of over $2.4M and provided logistics support for diverse and new equipment in the harsh Alaskan environment. She also served as a Brigade Supply Officer, where she coordinated the transformation of a brigade from a light infantry unit to a motorized Stryker Brigade Combat Team. She led the turn-in and transfer of over 17,000 pieces of military equipment.
In 2005, she returned to APG as an Inspector General, where she provided assistance, information, and inspections to the Commanding General of the Ordnance Centers and School. A year later, LTC Jensen’s career came back full circle as she became the Professor of Military Science/Department Chair at the University of Delaware.
Deployment
1990-1991
Desert Shield Desert Storm
Army Active-Duty Service
1988-1992
Lieutenant and Maintenance Officer – U.S. Army Ordnance Corps
1993-1995
Company Commander, 143rd Ordnance Battalion – APG, MD
2001-2004
Brigade Supply Officer & Battalion Executive Officer – 172nd Support Battalion – Fairbanks, AK
2006-2009
Professor of Military Science – University of Delaware’s Army ROTC
SURVICE Now
Heidi supports the U.S. Army Research Laboratory as SURVICE’s new program manager for the ARL Scientific Engineering and Technical Assistance contract, which has over 50 employees supporting the Weapons and Materials Research Directorate.
She previously worked as a senior analyst and project lead for SURVICE on several programs, including survivability support of vehicle and armor systems at the Army Evaluation Center (AEC); work on Joint Test programs, such as a Joint Survivability Handbook, the Joint Biological/Radiological Mortuary Affairs Contaminated Remains Mitigation Quick Reaction Test, and the Joint Base Architecture for Secure Industrial Control Systems Joint Test; and the AEC Emerging Leaders Cohort program.
