CHARLESTON, S.C. – A Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic program manager recently received the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Director’s Circle Award. 
 
Albert “Terrance” Garrick, a member of NIWC Atlantic’s Joint Force Mission Systems (JFMS) team, was awarded the 2021 NRO Director’s Circle Award at the NRO headquarters in Chantilly, Virginia on April 19. 
 
Created in 1998, the Director's Circle Award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions that have had an NRO-wide impact and whose outstanding performance reflects the organization's values and goals. This year only approximately 1.5% of the eligible personnel were selected for this award.
 
Garrick, who is the program manager for the Tactical Defense Space Reconnaissance Program (TacDSR) and a NRO liaison, is the first NIWC Atlantic employee in the NRO Director’s Circle Award’s 62-year history to receive this award. 
 
Garrick said he was honored and elated by the formal recognition. 
 
“I feel blessed and validated that my hard work and commitment as a senior program manager in the Department of Defense and intelligence community (IC) did not go unnoticed and that I am truly making a contribution and impact to our priceless Armed Forces,” Garrick said.  
 
The National Reconnaissance Office protects the security of the United States, its citizens and its allies through capabilities in space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
 
As the TacDSR program manager, Garrick successfully closed out the congressionally-mandated NRO Military Intelligence program, which developed, matured and integrated technologies that facilitated dissemination of intelligence analysis to the warfighter in the field. The TacDSR program supported 18 services, combatant commands and partnering agencies.
 
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Garrick also served as acting chief of NRO’s Mission Integration Directorate (MID) Operations Support Group, taking on the additional responsibilities of overseeing multiple programs and contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars  that delivered critical capabilities to NRO, DoD and IC mission partners.
 
Garrick oversaw a multi-million dollar NRO/MID program that solicits innovative programs for our nation’s warfighters. Under Garrick’s guidance, these programs delivered NRO overhead into combat platforms that successfully mastered sensor-to-shooter data flows, improved ship tracking, geolocation data, all weather intelligence and tracking unmanned aerial systems.
 
“This award was well deserved,” said Jason Session, chief engineer for NIWC Atlantic’s Special Reconnaissance Surveillance and Exploitation (SRSE) Division and senior engineer for NIWC Atlantic’s NRO team. “Terrance’s hard work and dedication to the mission and our NIWC team is very much appreciated. Thank you to Terrance for all you do and how you do it!” 
 
Garrick credited his team members for the successes that led to him achieving this award.
 
“Two words that describe how my team members helped me accomplish this mission and define our success are ‘teamwork’ and ‘together’,” Garrick said. “Teamwork is key to our daily accomplishments, since it takes all of us bringing our collective talents, perspectives, expertise and experience together. The coming ‘together’ is what I believe is the beginning of our success. Staying together is progress and working together is success for all endeavors.”   
 
Garrick offered special thanks to his leaders and mentors for their support.
“My supervisors and mentors have always provided me excellent guidance and wisdom in my 38 years of combined military and government civilian service,” Garrick said. “They have always encouraged me to have integrity, self-belief and a strong work ethic with the intestinal fortitude to complete every task or mission given to me.”