Start Where You Stand
A bottom-up approach to rebuilding America’s industrial commons—one procurement decision at a time.
Lucas Cristaldi is an incoming M.S. Computer Engineering student at New York University and a former U.S. Air Force Contracting Officer who executed acquisition operations across CENTCOM, including contracts supporting the Afghanistan retrograde and Agile Combat Employment exercises in Palau and Puerto Rico. He co-founded the Business Innovation Cell at Moody Air Force Base’s 23rd Contracting Squadron. Lucas is a graduate of Palantir’s American Tech Fellowship.
Matt Brien works for a defense technology company in California and is a Reservist in the U.S. Air Force. Matt’s experience as a contracting officer includes operational contracting support, Director of Business Operations at the 386th Expeditionary Contracting Squadron, USSOCOM Ghost #321, and complex systems procurement at Space Systems Command.
Take a closer look at the everyday items on your desk or at home. Flip over your keyboard, your mouse, or your phone case, or examine the government award you proudly display. You will likely find the words “Made in China” stamped on the back.
China’s industrial base accounts for about 29% of global manufacturing output. China dominates critical dual-use sectors, from shipbuilding (53% of global production) to commercial drones (over 90% of the global market). Under Beijing’s Military-Civil Fusion strategy, this civilian industrial capacity can be rapidly redirected toward military production. The U.S. manufacturing sector, meanwhile, has contracted to just 8% of American jobs compared to 32% in 1953.
These aren’t distant problems from our daily lives. Every “Buy Now” click potentially strengthens our adversary’s manufacturing base and indirectly supports China. The rise of online shopping has obscured country-of-origin information, making many Americans unwitting financial supporters of rival industrial capacity.
The crisis extends beyond individual purchases to institutional procurement. The Defense Acquisition Workforce oversees massive spending flows that could either strengthen American industrial capacity or accelerate its decline. The cumulative effect of routine purchases—Micro-Purchase Threshold (MPT) transactions, Operation and Maintenance (O&M) spending, and Government Purchase Card (GPC) transactions—represents billions in economic activity that could support domestic manufacturers or foreign competitors.
This is an opportunity. While major weapons systems require complex international supply chains, routine institutional purchases offer immediate opportunities to build domestic capacity. Air Combat Command installations alone spent hundreds of millions on GPC transactions. Even small percentages flowing to foreign manufacturers represent substantial sums that could support American businesses instead.
We know these flows can be redirected fast because we tackled the problem as part of a contracting squadron in Valdosta, Georgia. By expanding local vendor pools, partnering with a technology startup to surface American-made alternatives, and building direct relationships between a military installation and its surrounding community, we kept federal dollars domestic and proved that the model can be replicated at installations across the country.
More than any policy shift, what’s needed is a change in mindset. Rebuilding American industrial resilience requires acquisition professionals who refuse to be spectators.
‘It Won’t Fail Because of Me’
In October 2021, while strategists debated supply chain vulnerabilities in conference rooms, we decided to start where we stood. As Contracting Officers with the 23rd Contracting Squadron at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Georgia, our day-to-day work was buying goods and services and executing contracts for the installation. As part of that work, we decided to address foreign dependency in defense procurement in our own, small way.
We started a Business Innovation Cell, supported by leadership that understood that Airmen with time, resources, and permission to solve problems could generate solutions with lasting impact. We saw a glaring gap: a disconnect between what was available in the local market and how the government was buying. Procurement processes were stuck in decades-old rules, not actively taking advantage of capable companies that could deliver quicker, better, and closer to home. Our mandate was to close that gap, to engage local small businesses, keep federal dollars within America, and strengthen the distributed network of enterprises that provides actual resilience during crises. We did this by visiting businesses directly, educating them on government contracting, and actively expanding the pool of qualified vendors for routine purchases.
Defense acquisition professionals can easily fall into a rut, viewing themselves as passive processors of requirements. We decided to live out a different philosophy: “It won’t fail because of me.” This was the operational philosophy behind humanity’s greatest achievements and that helped put Americans on the moon. During Apollo, 400,000 Americans from different backgrounds shared one common commitment: personal accountability for collective success. Each person understood that mission success wasn’t someone else’s problem; it was everyone’s responsibility to ensure their piece worked flawlessly.
We applied this same mindset to fixing defense acquisition from the ground up. Rather than becoming spectators waiting for someone else to solve industrial base vulnerabilities, we recognized we were part of a community we could actively shape.
Our first intervention was symbolic but telling. When rescuemen at Moody Air Force Base—Airmen who risked their lives to save others—received commendation awards with “Made in China” stickers, we recognized an opportunity to act. Heroes being honored with foreign-manufactured awards represented a systemic failure, and we knew that the solution required no complex bureaucratic reform. Numerous small businesses in the Valdosta area could do the job. Many could do it better.
We sourced the awards from local vendors in the Valdosta community and helped on-ramp those small businesses as qualified suppliers to the base. The new awards were crafted by local artisans who understood the significance of what they were creating and took personal pride in honoring American heroes properly, instead of being mass produced on some generic, far-away assembly line. This was a small victory, but it proved that in many cases the solution was already in our backyard. So what else were we missing?
Another operational challenge emerged with off-road vehicle maintenance. Moody AFB struggled with ATV repairs, facing lengthy delays through traditional contractors. Yet driving through Valdosta revealed an obvious solution: local businesses specializing in everything from golf carts to UTVs to motorcycles. Rather than waiting for vendors to discover government opportunities, we redefined our approach to expand the competitive pool. Federal guidance emphasizes that contracting officers should actively encourage small business participation. Therefore, we hunted for qualified local capabilities, visiting and educating potential vendors about opportunities.
By expanding the vendor pool from the usual regional contractors to 50+ qualified local businesses, we created genuine market competition that drove down costs, improved delivery, and enhanced responsiveness. Every contract still went through the competitive bidding process, but now we had more qualified bidders competing for the work.
We also partnered with a technology startup that had developed a browser extension and product-tagging platform designed to identify the country of origin for products on Amazon and surface American-made alternatives. Through this partnership, we worked to integrate product-origin data into our procurement workflow, so that when cardholders shopped for supplies online, they could immediately see where items were manufactured and find domestic substitutes.
The downstream effects of these simple reforms extended throughout Valdosta’s manufacturing ecosystem. When federal dollars stayed local, they created multiplier effects: construction contractors sourced materials from Valdosta’s glass manufacturers, roofing suppliers, and fabricated metals producers. We observed increased participation from local vendors in subsequent contracting cycles, and our relationship with Lowndes County government deepened as shared economic interest aligned the base and the community.
The February 2023 Industry Day at Moody AFB represented the culmination of these efforts. Unlike standard industry events, this gathering focused on local small business contractors in three areas: services, construction, and supplies. It united wing leadership, community entrepreneurs, and government officials. Moody had spent millions in South Georgia, but beyond dollar figures, we achieved community unity around shared prosperity.
A Replicable Model
These examples show that routine O&M purchases can provide vital revenue streams that strengthen the distributed manufacturing network America needs for strategic resilience. It all depends on millions of daily, individual choices—and ultimately, on the mindset that acquisition professionals bring to the work.
Are we passive requirement processors or active contributors to national resilience? Do we accept foreign dependency as inevitable, or actively seek American alternatives? Every “Submit Order” click represents a choice: strengthen America’s industrial base or fund our adversaries’ modernization efforts.
The path forward requires acquisition professionals who understand that their individual decisions, multiplied across thousands of installations and billions in spending, shape America’s strategic resilience. It requires rejecting spectatorship, engaging directly with communities, and remembering that we are part of a society we can actively shape.
Our Valdosta experience offers a replicable framework: expand competitive pools, provide information to businesses, and build genuine market relationships. The essence of rebuilding American industrial resilience lies in helping every American who builds (atoms or pixels) feel that they are part of the arsenal of democracy. That sense of shared stakes: that your work matters, that your community matters, that you are part of something worth defending, is the foundation of national mobilization. When local businesses gain federal contracts, when manufacturers supply military operations, when communities prosper through defense partnerships, we develop the sense of agency and mutual responsibility that sustains communities and strategic advantage.
Start where you stand. Problems won’t solve themselves while we wait for someone else to act. The cumulative effect of countless individual decisions will determine whether America builds the distributed manufacturing capacity that competition demands. In an era where efficiency without resilience creates vulnerability, the acquisition workforce holds the power to rebuild American industrial strength one contract, one relationship, and one conscious decision at a time.
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Air Force, Department of War, the U.S. Government, or of any other entities.
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