COL Daphne H. Austin

Daphne H. Austin Headshot

COL Daphne H. Austin

Colonel Daphne H. Austin assumed responsibility as the Chief of Staff, U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command, Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, in June 2019. She is the principal assistant to the commanding general for synchronizing the efforts of the headquarters staff in support of a 1,500-person command. 

The MICC is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Contracting Command made up of two brigades, two field directorate offices, 30 fieldlevel contracting offices and nine battalions. MICC Soldiers, Army Civilians and contractors support Soldiers and their families in the continental United States and Puerto Rico providing Army commands, installations and activities with responsive contracting solutions and oversight. On order, the command provides trained and deployable contracting assets to the operating force. 

Colonel Austin was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Signal Corps through the Army ROTC program at Columbus State University in 1998. She was assigned to Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, for her first duty assignment. During her three-year tenure in Hawaii, Colonel Austin served as a Signal Platoon Leader for Alpha Company, 125th Signal Battalion, as the Battalion S-6 for the 25th Military Police Battalion, and as Company Executive Officer for Charlie Company, 125th Signal Battalion.  Upon completion of the Signal Captains Career Course in 2002, Colonel Austin took command of Alpha Company, 442nd Signal Battalion at Fort Gordon, Georgia. She then served at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. During her three years at West Point, Colonel Austin instructed hundreds of cadets in the field of Military Science, which earned her the recognition as the Instructor of the Year in 2007 for the Department of Military Instruction.  

Following her operational assignments, Colonel Austin joined the U.S. Army Acquisition Corps in 2007. Her acquisition assignments include Brigade Operations Officer, 408th Contracting Support Brigade at Fort McPherson, Georgia; Team Leader, 709th Contracting Team at Fort Eustis, Virginia; and Team Leader, Deputy Director, and Director of the Mission and Installation Contracting Command–Fort Benning, Georgia. During her assignments in the acquisition field, Colonel Austin executed several deployments to the U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility to include multiple deployments to Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Inherent Resolve, respectively. Her contributions in Iraq earned her the Richard “Dick” Ginman Contingency Excellence Award in 2017. Colonel Austin served as the Commander of the 921st Contracting Battalion at Wheeler Army Airfield, Hawaii, as the first Commander to lead the battalion in the Pacific after restationing the organization from Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. Most recently, Colonel Austin graduated from Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, where she received a Masters in Strategic Studies. 

Colonel Austin holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature from Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia, and earned a Master of Business Administration from Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia. Additionally, she is Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act Level III certified in Contracting and Level I certified in Program Management.

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