JA-TAMU_Redacted.pdf

5. Reason for Authority Cited: Based on the market research described in Section 8 of this document, TAMU is a highly specialized research university whose graduate history departments feature military history as a significant field of study, as well as a sufficient number of military history students to be able to provide a new Graduate student each year to CMH. TAMU is the only university that is focused specifically on the history of the institutional Army. TAMU Graduate History Department is a PhD program with a little over 50 students and 43 faculty members. The department includes several prominent military historians, which ensures that its students are well-qualified to support the work of the Center of Military History:

i. Dr. Brian Linn, Ralph R. Thomas Professor in Library Arts, has published five books, including Elvis's Army: Cold War GI's and the Atomic Battlefield (2016); The Echo of Battle: The Army's Way of War (2009); The U.S. Army and Counterinsurgency in the Philippine War, 1899-1902 (2000); Guardians of Empire: The U.S. Army and the Pacific, 1902-1940 (2000). Linn’s awards include the U.S. Army Historical Foundation Book Award (two awards); the U.S. Military History Group Captain Richard Lukaszewicz Memorial Book Award; the Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award (two awards); History Book Club Selection; the U.S. Army Chief of Staff's Reading List; and, the US Air Force Chief of Staff's Reading List; and, the Choice Outstanding Academic Book. Dr. Linn is working on his sixth book, Real Soldiering: The U.S. Army in the Aftermath of War. He is also an NEH fellow, a Fulbright fellow, a Fulbright distinguished professor, and past president of the Society of Military History.

ii. Dr. Adam Seipp, professor and Associate Dean, Graduate and Professional School, specializes in European military history, especially Germany and the Cold War. His books include Strangers in the Wild Place: Refugees, Americans, and a German Town, 1945-52 (2013); The Ordeal of Peace: Demobilization and the Urban Experience in Britain and Germany, 1917-21 (2016); and an edited volume with Michael Meng, Modern Germany in Transatlantic Perspective (2017). His several grants and fellowships include the Melbern C. Glasscock Center at Texas A & M University; the Ridgway Fellowship with the US Army Military History Institute; and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

iii. Dr. Roger Reese, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, focuses on social and military history of the Soviet Union. His books include The Imperial Russian Army, in Peace, War, and Revolution, 1856-1917 (2019); an edited volume, The Russian Imperial Army, 1796-1917 (2019); Why Stalin's Soldiers Fought: The Red Army's Military Effectiveness in World War II (2011); Red Commanders: A Social History of the Soviet Officer Corps, 1918-1991 (2005); The Soviet Military Experience: A History of the Soviet Army, 1917-1991 (2002); and Stalin's Reluctant Soldiers: A Social History of the Red Army, 1925-1941 (1996). He currently has two additional books under contract. His awards include the Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr. Book Prize of the World War One Historical Association and the Moncado Prize for outstanding article in military history awarded by the Society for Military History.

iv. Dr. Lorien Foote, Patricia & Bookman Peters Professor of History, focuses on the American Civil War. Her books include Rites of Retaliation: Civilization, Soldiers, and Campaigns in the American Civil War (2021); with Earl J. Hess, The Oxford Handbook of the American Civil War (2021); with Daniel Krebs, Useful Captives: The Role of POWs in American Military Conflicts (2021); The Yankee Plague: Escaped Union Prisoners and the Collapse of the Confederacy (2019); with Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai, So

Conceived and So Dedicated: Intellectual Life in the Civil War-Era North (2019); The Gentlemen and the Roughs: Manhood, Honor, and Violence in the Union Army (2010);

and Seeking the One Great Remedy: Francis George Shaw and Nineteenth-Century Reform (2003). Dr. Foote has two manuscripts under contract and has won numerous awards, including an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship; the 2017 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine; Honorable mention, Colonel Richard W. Ulbrich Memorial Book Award; and Honorable Mention, The Lincoln Prize.

v. Dr. Jonathan Brundstedt, Assistant Professor, is the author of The Soviet Myth of World War II: Patriotic Memory and the Russian Question in the USSR (2021).

In addition to an unusually large number of graduate students and a prominent faculty, the Graduate History Department runs a number of programs to produce excellent historians.

The faculty sponsors a War and Society working group for students and faculty to workshop papers, practice presentations, attend talks from visiting scholars, and feature lectures on book publishing and best practices for professional conferences. Graduate students also take classes at the George H. W. Bush School of Government and Public Service, which provides certificates in international affairs, homeland security, intelligence, national security affairs, and cybersecurity policies. Many military history students have a professor from the Bush school on their doctoral committee.

The department helps to prepare its graduate students for teaching, and opportunities such as the CMH Graduate Research Assistant program, by allowing them to teach classes in American Military History, European Military History, and American Sea Power.

They are the instructor of record, design the entire course, produce the lecture materials, and grade the students’ performance. Due to the large student body (73,000) and large population of ROTC cadets (2,300), the department offers a wide array of military history classes. Teaching and grading undergraduates’ papers helps the graduate students improve their writing, which is a vital skill for succeeding as a graduate research assistant.

TAMU has successfully supported the GRA program through its contract for the last five years. Of the four GRAs CMH has had from TAMU, one co-authored a CMH publication, The Lincoln Assassination (2020); CMH has hired one as a permanent employee; one returned to TAMU to complete his dissertation; and, TAMU and CMH agreed to renew a GRA for a second year due to her outstanding work.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition:

a. Effective Competition: The Government does not intend to solicit additional sources for this effort for the reasons described in Paragraph 5 above.

b. Subcontracting competition: This action does not lend itself to subcontracting. The graduate research assistant will be a direct employee of the contracted university, which is the most efficient and cost-effective arrangement.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: No actions to increase future competition are contemplated at this time, as the TAMU meets CMH’S needs.

8. Market Research: Pursuant to FAR 10.002 (Procedures), Market Research was conducted in January-March 2022 to determine if there are any vendors that can be utilized to perform the GRA support services. CMH used a list of MA/PhD granting institutions compiled by the Society of Military History (https://www.smh-hq.org/grad/gradguide/degree.html) to research institutions that could provide graduate research assistants.

a. Four primary factors shaped the evaluation of these institutions. First, the quality of the university’s graduate program based on the fields of study relevant to CMH and the number and expertise of its faculty in the field of Military History. Second, the size of the university’s history graduate student population. If a university’s pool of graduate military history students is too small, there might not be a student interested in the position in some years. Ideally a school should be able to provide at least two students as candidates each year, to increase the selectivity of the program and to increase the chances that a student’s area of interest aligns more closely with Army history (e.g. a student emphasizing ancient warfare in their studies would not be as well prepared to work at CMH as one looking at modern western warfare). Third, past performance on the contract and, finally, the projected cost of the contract.

b. CMH eliminated 10 foreign universities from the list because GRAs require a security clearance, and it eliminated four expensive private universities in order to contain costs.

c. Of the 16 remaining, only six have more than 50 graduate students and more than 10 studying military history. TAMU stands out as the only public university whose graduate history department features military history as a significant field of study with particular emphasis on the institutional Army. CMH needs a GRA who has been exposed to a wide-range of military history specialties, but who also has focused specifically on the institutional Army. The specialties of the faculty members listed above, as demonstrated by the books they have published, include the American Civil War, Russian and Soviet military history, German military history, World War I and World War II. Most importantly, the department head is Dr. Brian Linn, who has published five award-winning books on the institutional U.S. Army in the 20th century.

No other program among American graduate history departments offers such well-rounded exposure to military history specialties along with a specific focus on the institutional Army, and that is exactly what CMH needs from a GRA working under this contract. While the number of students specializing in military history at any given time varies, TAMU currently has more than ten.

d. The resulting market research indicated that, although there are six universities that could provide general GRA support services, only TAMU provides the required expertise in the institutional Army. Only a contract with TAMU would meet this requirement.

9. Interested Sources: To date, no other sources have written to express an interest.

The notices required by FAR 5.201 will be published and any proposals received will be considered.

10. Other Facts:

a. Procurement History: In 2017, the US Army Center of Military History entered into a contract W56HZV-17-P-L573 with TAMU for RGA support services for a purchase price of $292,947.00. This contract is set to expire on 31 July 2022.

b. Other facts: None

11. Technical Certification:

I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Typed Name: Dr. Shane Story Date: 05 April 2022 Title: Chief, General Histories Division Signature: //SS// William S.

Story

12. Requirements Certification:

I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Typed Name: Dr. Shane Story Date: 05 April 2022 Title: Chief, General Histories Division Signature: //SS// William S.

Story

13. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated cost to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based on the Independent Government Estimate and past procurement history. The contractor will not be required to submit certified cost and pricing data because the proposed action will be a commercial procurement IAW FAR 15.403-1(b)(3).

Typed Name: Elida Kellezi Date: 06 April 2022 Title: Contracting Officer Signature: // Signed// EK

14. Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief:

Typed Name: Elida Kellezi Date: 06 April 2022 Title: Contracting Officer Signature: //Signed// EK