Fayetteville Observer - August 10, 2010

Glow-in-the-dark strips on display Tuesday at the Defense and Economic Development Trade Show looked familiar to a group of soldiers who stopped to inspect them.

They'd last seen that photoluminescent technology on their armored vehicles that traversed dark deserts during a recent deployment.

"How did you like it?" Richard Martin, president and CEO of Defense Holding Solutions Inc., asked the soldiers, who nodded enthusiastically.

"It's nice to get positive feedback. It's hard for us to get input of any kind," Martin told the soldiers. "They tell us no news is good news. But I like the feedback."

Communication of many kinds was key at the ninth annual trade show. It was presented by the N.C. Military Business Center and hosted by Sen. Richard Burr, Sen. Kay Hagan and Rep. Larry Kissell - though Kissell was in Washington for a House vote on a jobs bill.

Companies set up booths at Fayetteville Technical Community College, putting their best boots forward in hopes of making some military inroads. The show included government procurement workshops and meetings between prime contractors and potential subcontractors.

"Keep doing what you're doing," said Maj. Gen. William Ingram, adjutant general of the N.C. National Guard, as he shook hands with Scott Dorney outside a workshop.

Dorney, executive director of the Military Business Center, told Ingram that Department of Defense spending in North Carolina surpassed the $4 billion mark in 2009. That moved the state from 27th to 26th nationally in terms of defense spending, Dorney said. But he stressed to Ingram that his organization is focused not on rankings but on doing all it can to link North Carolina businesses with government and military related opportunities.

Ferg Foley, chief operating officer of American Defense Systems Inc., said state and local officials have been putting so much focus on those opportunities for North Carolina businesses that "it makes it almost impossible to fail."

Foley is based in New York, but a subsidiary, APSG, moved its headquarters to Lillington this year. It makes protective materials for the public, diplomats and military personnel.

APSG was typical of the types of companies that set up booths at Tuesday's show. The large national contractors were represented, though with a lower profile. More of the space this time was dominated by small and midsize companies, many with North Carolina connections.

For example, that photoluminescent tape is produced in Trenton. And some blimp-and-kite-looking combinations on display at another table are designed in the Triangle.

Glenda Rogers, president and CEO of Raleigh-based Carolina Unmanned Vehicles Inc., said her husband embarked on developing such vehicles after doing some designs for the Air Force when he was in the service.

She was anxious to explain the company's offerings to anyone in the crowd, which included plenty of button-down polos, several freshly pressed suits and plenty of camouflage uniforms, on which the ranks ran the gamut.

There were Army specialists such as Donald Wainwright and Ashley Malinosky, who were impressed by the display and explanation of the layered sleeping bag system used by the Marine Corps. Also walking the floor were generals, including a four-star: Gen. J.D. Thurman, who in June took command of Forces Command in Atlanta.

The command, along with the U.S. Army Reserve Command, is moving to Fort Bragg by September 2011.

Thurman spoke at a breakfast on the role that FORSCOM plays and talked about some of the changes that are in the works.

"As we plan the future, we must always expect the unexpected because it will happen," he said. "While we cannot expect the exact nature of the next crisis, we must be prepared to respond at the directive of our nation's leaders.

"In the meantime, Forces Command will continue to prepare the best-trained, best-equipped ... Army forces in the world," Thurman added. "This is nonnegotiable for us."