Arizona Business Magazine


Special Inserts:	Finance & Investment Guide \| Valley Forward



		Call to Duty
		Local businessman describes his experience serving in Afghanistan
		o some people, serving in the military is a duty, but for Major Alan McKewan, it’s an honor. McKewan joined the Army Reserves after high school and 18 years later, he’s proud to carry on a family tradition. His father served during World War II in the Marine Corps and his father’s uncle served during World War I in the Army.
		McKewan, a branch manager at Techni-source, moved to Phoenix from Pittsburgh in 1999 due to the booming business opportunities. He started working at Technisource in 2003, where his duties include branch operations, strategic planning and relations with clients like Wells Fargo and Countrywide. His involvement in the Army Reserves includes several tours—he went to the Persian Gulf in 1993 and he participated in Bosnia's Operation Joint Endeavor in 1996. Then, just six months after 9/11, he went on his first tour to Afghanistan. McKewan recently returned from his second tour in Afghanistan with the 492nd Civil Affair Battalion, which lasted from April 2005 to July 2006. “One of the most difficult things about being a reservist is thinking about what will happen with your full-time job while you’re away,” he says. “It’s a huge burden, not just on your family but on your mental psyche. You have two concerns—staying alive in combat and accomplishing the mission, but once that’s complete, what am I coming home to? A lot can change in six months. [However], there wasn’t a week that went by when I didn’t have an e-mail from Steve Bova, the CEO of Technisource. We had great communication while I was away. Having your employer constantly say we’re proud of you, that means so much to a soldier who is deployed.” McKewan says his work with Technisource and the projects he developed in Afghanistan actually go hand-in-hand. “They complement each other,” he says. “A lot of the work we did [in Afghanistan] consisted of acting as a liaison between military and Afghan government officials. We had a role with the reconstruction of a country; everything from road projects, water, irrigation wells, even a printing press that we built. How you accomplish that is by finding contractors who can help with the project. That’s very similar to what I do [at Technisource]—finding clients and helping them with a project. The military is based on leadership and professionalism, and Technisource prides ourselves on our core values, which are along the same line. It’s a good match.” While in Afghanistan, McKewan saw many projects come to fruition. His battalion helped reconstruct six schools, build roads and developed water irrigation capabilities for the Afghan people to grow crops. “The whole purpose of doing projects and meeting with local officials, village elders and tribal councils is to promote the stability of the country so that it’s not a safe haven for al Qaeda and the Taliban terror cells,” he adds. In addition to official projects, McKewan helped organize a winter clothes drive for children in the Kandahar region of Afghanistan. The project started when a friend of McKewan’s wanted to send a care package for Thanksgiving. He asked what the soldiers needed and McKewan told him they had everything they needed, but suggested he send some clothes for the children since temperatures in the region drop to sub-zero in the winter months. His friend’s church got in on the action and soon the word spread to other organizations. “I stopped counting after, like, 4,000 items because they just kept coming; it was awesome. Children literally freeze to death during the winter. We saw people who needed help and we feel very proud” of the project’s success, McKewan says. Despite the battalion’s absence, the clothing drive carries on with the assistance of children’s agencies and Canadian troops stationed in the region. McKewan adds that seeing the progress they made was overwhelming. “There’s a lot of fighting going on, but when you look at the economic impact...the amount of international support that has increased, paved roads, electricity, increased agriculture—to see that transfer over such a short period of time was amazing. When we first got there, we could zip through the main highway no problem, but by the time we left it would take us another 30 minutes to get through the city because of the increased traffic,” he says. “To see all the produce, goods and cars; you know, no one likes traffic but that was an indicator that there’s a lot more goods moving through — you got a feel for how different it was.” McKewan received the Bronze Star Medal, the Army Commendation Medal and the Afghanistan Campaign Medal for his service and dedication to the United States. He recently accepted a new position in the battalion as executive officer and has no plans of leaving the military anytime soon. “It was one of the most rewarding years I’ve ever had in the military, but also very emotional. I can’t ever imagine not being in the military.”