Event Recap: JETC 2025

JETC 2025: A Focus on Collaboration, Leadership, and the Warfighter

The 2025 Joint Engineer Training Conference & Expo officially kicked off on May 13 with professionals from across the military engineering community coming together in Louisville, Ky., to deliver the mission for our federal agencies and support warfighter readiness and critical infrastructure. Before the official program began, SAME National President Sharon Krock, SPWS, F.SAME, honored the 2024–2025 Leader Development Program (LDP) graduates—emerging leaders from the A/E/C community who completed a year-long program designed to sharpen their leadership skills through education and self-driven projects. Krock also introduced the 2030 SAME Strategic Plan, launched in January 2025, which centers on three interconnected goals: Drive Partnerships, Deliver Solutions, and Develop People. These pillars set the stage for a dynamic fireside chat between world-class chef, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Robert Irvine, and Jo Bass, the 19th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force and member of the Board of Directors for the Robert Irvine Foundation.

Irvine opened with a powerful reminder: leadership and national security are deeply intertwined. Drawing on his experience in the culinary world, he explained how feeding servicemembers safely and efficiently is a matter of national security. “If an aircraft carrier goes to Gaza, or the Mediterranean, I still have to feed people and feed them safely in order for them to do their job. If I can’t do that,” he said, “we have a useless piece of metal in the ocean.” Bass reinforced this point, noting that, “the most precious weapon system we have is a U.S. servicemember.”

Both emphasized that taking care of those who serve requires effective and empathetic leadership. Irvine shared how learning to listen and leading with empathy transformed his leadership style, and engendered loyalty within people. Irvine provided an example of the importance of empathy in an early episode of his show Restaurant: Impossible. As a Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, Bass reinforced this point. “The first lesson is learning how to lead your self, so that your self can be on point, so that you can do the things that you need to do,” she said.

The discussion shifted to how strong leadership can address the evolving challenges of national security. Irvine pointed out the need to adopt industry innovations, such as modernizing food logistics for the military. Bass reflected on how the nature of warfare has expanded from three to six domains, now including space, cyber, and information. Meeting these challenges, she argued, requires a unified national effort. “It will take a whole-of-nation, whole-of-society approach to get after the challenges we have,” she said.

Day Two’s General Session featured the swearing-in of Mike Huffstetler, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, F.SAME, as the 106th National President of SAME. Outgoing president Sharon Krock, SWPS, F.SAME, administered the oath of office, officially commencing his term as the next National President. In his introductory remarks, he shared his vision for the coming year and his stated theme to “Build the Bond”: the 105-year bond forged by SAME between industry and government in support of national security. To fulfill this, he outlined his three priorities for the Society: first, meeting government and industry at the point of need; second, optimizing our impact and focusing on speed, relevance, and results; and third, fueling our profession by boosting the talent pool through the Society’s high-octane programs.

The session also brought senior engineering leaders from the engineering services on stage for a panel discussion of program updates, upcoming opportunities, and focus areas for the services. Amongst the senior leaders, the common theme was the urgent need for transformation across the services to increase speed, agility, and innovation. Brig. Gen. Kirk Gibbs, USA, Deputy Commanding General for Military & International Operations, outlined the Army’s modernization through the Army Transformation Initiative, which includes upgrading infrastructure to deter China in the Indo-Pacific and reforming acquisition processes, tools, and authorities. Rear Adm. Dean VanderLey, P.E., CEC, F.SAME, USN, echoed this need for change at NAVFAC, citing congressional demands for reduced construction costs citing a few examples; the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program; the extensive work in the Pacific, particularly on Guam and other outlying islands; and a potential increased investment in the maintenance of existing shore infrastructure.

Brig. Gen. Brian Hartless, USAF, Director of Civil Engineers, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, highlighted the Air Force’s efforts to modernize its infrastructure while managing aging facilities, introducing a “build-one, demolish-one” policy to control excess capacity. He also stressed the importance of joint partnerships, such as the multi-service restoration of Tinian’s WWII-era airfield in the Mariana Islands. For the Coast Guard, Rear Adm. Amy Grable, USCG, Assistant Commandant ENG & Logistics, discussed Force Design 2028, a transformational effort focused on decentralizing decision-making, accelerating execution, and investing in new shore infrastructure with the goal of securing and defending the U.S. border and maritime approaches.

Facing rising demands and constrained resources, the service chiefs stressed that change is not optional, and that partnership with industry is essential. The relationships strengthened at JETC 2025 are critical to enabling this transformation and ensuring a more resilient, capable, and responsive engineering force for the future.

The leadership showcased and cultivated at JETC 2025 reflects SAME’s commitment to its mission. From keynote speakers to LDP graduates, the event is developing leaders ready to drive innovation, deepen collaboration, and support the warfighter. With a packed first day of sessions, roundtables, and networking opportunities, JETC is laying the foundation for a stronger, more resilient national defense infrastructure, and a more prepared, empowered, and lethal fighting force.

Strengthening Our Relationships, Our Nation

Along with the inspiring General Sessions, attendees filled their days with hours of concurrent education sessions, technical workshops, and collaborative experiences. Topics ranged from improving resilience to cyber threats, strategies for disposing of PFAS contaminated soils, a discussion of overcoming barriers to AI adoption, and a session discussing the path to USCG Force Design 2028, among others.

Nowhere was this commitment to the mission of strengthening industry-government relationships and delivering solutions for our engineering services better seen than at the Mega Sessions, held over the entire week of the conference, that offered practitioners a deep dive on topics such as warfighting, energy security, enlisted servicemember engagement, construction, and architecture.

Warfighter Mega Session. This session saw Rear Adm. Jeff Kilian, USN, Commander, NAVFAC Pacific and Fleet Civil Engineer, U.S. Pacific Fleet and selected to be the next NAVFAC HQ Commander and Chief of Civil Engineers, present on what he termed “Poseidon’s Corollary”: a three-pronged approach for NAVFAC to meet infrastructure challenges in the Pacific. The three prongs of the approach include NAVFAC, the Seabees, and industry and aims to get after the substantial investment being made by the United States in the Pacific region, driven by efforts like the Pacific Deterrence Initiative. First, NAVFAC aims to implement an acquisition strategy that includes contract packaging to manage the volume of work and improve efficiency, along with driving the integration of requirements to streamline processes and provide clearer information to industry earlier in the project lifecycle. As the second prong of the corollary, the Seabees provide expeditionary engineering capabilities, supporting everything from building forward operating bases in remote areas to conducting port damage repair exercises and undertaking operations in challenging environments like Antarctica. Lastly, industry bridges the gap in delivering infrastructure across the Pacific and in large-scale efforts like projects being carried out on Guam.

Energy Mega Session. At this session, Col. Sebastian Joly, PMP, USA, Commander, USACE Huntsville Engineering and Support Center, and Kirk Phillips, Director, Air Force Office of Energy Assurance, discussed plans and strategies to increase energy security and mission assurance, as well as areas for industry engagement and collaboration to get after these challenges. And challenges there are, as the stated goal for installations is to have 99.9 percent functioning power throughout an entire calendar year by 2030, and for mission-critical infrastructure to have an even higher goal of 99.999 percent energy security. In addition, the demand for resilient energy is expected to increase, both at installations and across the nation in general. A significant focus of the discussion was on third-party contracting tools, emphasizing that these tools have the capabilities to reduce costs and provide long-term value, with cost savings ideally reinvested into infrastructure. Specific areas of interest being watched in the near term include data centers with a focus on high speed requirements, power generation and multi-fuel generators, and finding resilient energy solutions that match the needs of each installation. 

Senior Enlisted Mega Session. Bringing together senior enlisted leaders from the Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force, this session explored critical issues surrounding the readiness, career progression, and ongoing education and training of enlisted personnel. One such area discussed by the panelists was ways to increase opportunities for hands-on technical training and enable engineer personnel, such as Seabees, to spend more time “back on job sites.” The conversation also highlighted the practical need to prepare transitioning servicemembers for the civilian sector, especially in the area of credentialing, and shared resources with gathered servicemembers to potentially take advantage of.

Construction Mega Session. This session on Day Two of JETC shared insights from the FBI, NAVFAC, and USACE on how their agencies are adapting and leveraging design-build delivery methods to improve project outcomes. Remarks from the FBI set the stage for the session, addressing how the agency has shifted from utilizing design-bid-build for 90 percent of its projects in 2018, to employing design-build for 90 percent of its work today. Lessons learned from that transformation include disclosing the budget, prioritizing the “A team” based on qualifications over price, and conducting one-on-one proprietary discussions. Follow up remarks from NAVFAC and USACE dove into ongoing efforts and initiatives at those agencies surrounding design-build. NAVFAC outlined its lean design build strategy and some alternative delivery methods as they continue driving toward the goal of driving down cost and speeding project delivery. For USACE, the focus is on “making sure that we’re selecting the most appropriate acquisition method for the technical requirement,” Kenny Simmons, Chief of Construction, USACE, said, which includes when they would employ design-build. The key to making that selection is partnership, from start to finish. “Sometimes we think about partnering relationships as a construction thing, but we’ve got to really embrace one another in the pre-award phases as well,” he said. 

Architecture Mega Session. This session detailed upcoming changes in facility design, driven by a need to increase readiness, improve cost estimation, and accelerate schedules. As a benchmark, Cynthia Dejong, NAVFAC, shared a recent study that identified MILCON costs to be in the range of 30 to 90 percent above the private sector. Efforts to bring those costs down include the lean design-build method and implementing industrialized construction that can take advantage of economies of scale. The Air Force is facing similar headwinds in regard to growing costs, with one example shared during the session being the multi-billion Next Generation Air Dominance program. To improve this, they are locking in designs at 65 percent and requiring general officer approval for later changes to deter costly and late modifications. Improving soldier quality of life, particularly through updated barracks, is another key focus following a 2023 GAO report highlighting how deteriorating conditions at barracks have impacted morale and readiness. Efforts are also underway to integrate suicide prevention requirements by reducing ligature points through smart design, architectural detailing, and specific hardware.

Developing and Celebrating Leaders

The final day of JETC 2025 featured the Academy of Fellows Investiture, officially welcoming the new class of Fellows to the Academy and recognizing these esteemed members for their dedicated and outstanding service to the Society, military engineering, and the A/E/C profession. This year’s ceremony held special significance as it marked the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Academy of Fellows. In addition to recognizing the new class at the event, the Academy also presented Vice Adm. Mike Loose, P.E., F.ASCE, F.SAME (Dist.), USN (Ret.) with the title of Distinguished Fellow for his significant contributions, and presented the Gerald C. Brown Mentoring Award to Col. Patrick Coullahan, P.E., CEP, PMP, F.SAME, USAF (Ret.) for his exceptional dedication to mentoring and professional development.

From the inspiring General Sessions to the collaborative Industry-Government Roundtables, interactive Mega Sessions, record-breaking educational programming, and connections being gained in the Exhibit Hall, leaders are being built at JETC. The energy and focus generated during this event enables the meaningful exchange of ideas and solutions to critical engineering and national challenges, driving change and uniting stakeholders in support our shared mission of strengthening our national security through focused, solution-oriented collaboration.

Just Ahead …

While this year’s JETC may have concluded, the anticipation for SAME’s Federal Small Business Conference is building! Scheduled for Nov. 19-21, 2025, in Pheonix, AZ., the market research event of the year for the federal A/E/C sector presents an invaluable chance to network with top professionals, key decision-makers, industry solution providers, business partners, and federal contracting officers.

You’re encouraged to contribute your innovative ideas to the 2025 SBC. The Call for Presentations is open until June 2. We are seeking presentations in four tracks; presenters may submit a maximum of two proposals for review.

Call for Presentations

Entering the Federal Marketplace – Ideas and approaches to promote and position a business that’s new to federal work.

Marketing & Business Development – What businesses need to understand about how to promote and position themselves, the uniqueness of selling to the government, and how to build brand awareness.

Regulations, Rules, and the Government Framework – Sessions focusing on what small businesses need to understand about ever-changing and evolving government laws, regulations, guidelines, and programs.

Advanced Business & Procurement Strategies – The means and methods for established businesses looking to excel and grow further.