Kenneth C. Gongaware

Kenneth Gongaware began working at a young age on his family’s dairy farm on Barnes Lake Road. He was the primary summer “hand” on the farm from 9th grade until he graduated from college. He learned that hard work could be fun and rewarding. Ken was a recipient of the John Phillip Sousa Award at Norwin.

Gongaware graduated with a degree in Physics from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania while also a Distinguished Military Graduate from the Reserve Officer Training program, thereby qualifying him for a Regular Army Commission. During his Army career, he earned an MS degree in Administration of Science and Technology from George Washington University and an MS degree in National Resource Strategy from the National Defense University.

His initial Army assignment was in the 82nd Airborne Division. As a parachutist platoon leader, his platoon deployed to Miami, Florida in the summer of 1972 for both the Democrat and Republican conventions to provide communications support to the 82nd performing riot control. His next assignment was to Korea where Gongaware commanded a small specialized communications detachment that serviced military units throughout the peninsula.

Upon leaving Korea, Gongaware married Connie Gray, a foreign language teacher at Norwin. Together, they arrived at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, where Ken served as a test engineer at the Proving Ground and then the Officer in Charge of the Command Center of Test and Evaluation Command. Their next assignment was in Germany where Gongaware was the Signal Officer for a Tank Battalion, and then a Signal Company Commander (205 soldiers). They opted to extend their stay in Germany for a fourth year so that Gongaware could serve as the Signal Battalion Operations Officer.

After graduating from the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, they stayed for a follow-on assignment where Gongaware was a staff officer leading the design of future networked tactical command centers. They adopted their son, Stephen, immediately prior to their departure back to Germany. Gongaware served for two-and-a-half years as a Signal Battalion Executive Officer, also authoring two articles for the Army’s Communicator magazine.

They left Germany a second time for Gongaware to command the 9th Signal Battalion (610 soldiers) at Fort Lewis, Washington. Following Battalion Command, Gongaware was selected for the White House Communications agency, providing national security communications support to the President of the United States, the National Security Council, and the Secret Service. He was the chief of a directorate designing and procuring advanced technologies. He traveled in support of the President to Rome, Italy and Warsaw, Poland as well as to numerous locations around the US, especially throughout the campaign in 1992.

After graduating from the Senior War College at the National Defense University at Fort McNair, Washington, DC, Gongaware returned to Germany to serve as the European Command J6 Operations Chief where he directed communications support for US forces operations in Bosnia as well as for US forces providing humanitarian support to the Kurds in Iraq and in Rwanda following the massacres. He left Europe to command the 11th Signal Brigade (3250 soldiers) headquartered at Fort Huachuca, AZ with elements at Fort Gordon, GA, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. Components of the Brigade deployed back to Kuwait in 1998 when Saddam Hussein built up forces on the border with Kuwait again. Gongaware’s final Army assignment was as the J6, Southern Command, Miami, Florida. He was the Director for all communications and IT support for US Forces in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. Southern Command’s primary focus was counterdrug operations. Gongaware was heavily engaged working with the US Embassy in Panama negotiating what communications equipment would be left behind and turned over to Panama as the US Army was departing.

Upon Gongaware’s retirement from the Army in 2000, he moved back to Virginia where he became a Vice President for Mantech Security Corporation. He managed contracts with the State Department, designing, building, and operating IT network security capabilities for their worldwide networks. Gongaware left Mantech to become a senior Program Manager for Boeing. He managed several classified software products and software engineering contracts and programs throughout the US Intelligence community, including the National Reconnaissance Office, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Counterterrorism Center.

Since Gongaware’s retirement from Boeing in 2010, he has volunteered at his church playing trumpet in the orchestra and as a lay counselor, working with men individually, and with Connie to work with married couples. He and Connie serve together teaching Couples Communication classes. He enjoys more time playing golf and playing with his three granddaughters in Virginia. He and Connie make regular trips to North Huntingdon to enjoy both of their families and to make improvements to his family home. Gongaware is a lifetime member of Norwin’s VFW Post 781 and was the speaker at Norwin’s Memorial Day Ceremony last year.