NAVFAC Southwest Cost Engineer Technical Discipline Leader Joseph Bonaparte received the Department of the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award during a Jan. 2 ceremony in the NAVFAC Southwest command conference room in San Diego.

NAVFAC Southwest Commanding Officer Capt. Mark K. Edelson presented the award to Bonaparte.

Bonaparte was recognized for his meritorious service and exceptional achievement for the work he performed from March 2016 to December 2017.

"Mr. Bonaparte distinguished himself by guiding the command's cost engineering for facilities programing, project budgets, modification negotiations, and process improvements," said John Coon, NAVFAC Southwest Capital Improvements Business leader, reading from the award citation.

The award citation noted Bonaparte's work overseeing cost estimating that justified allowing preliminary design to proceed at 19 Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force installations in the western United States for Navy Region Southwest and Marine Corps Installations West military construction (MILCON) submission during a period of unprecedented industry volatility.

He was also recognized for leading the training, mentoring, and coaching of interns and junior engineers that joined the command after the 2016 hiring freeze.

Bonaparte, a native of Charleston, South Carolina and graduate of Tuskegee Institute, is retiring after 39 years of combined military and civilian federal service.

"I attended Tuskegee Institute, where I was in the Reserve Officer Training Corps," said Bonaparte. "Upon graduation as an engineer, I became an officer in the US Army upon graduation in 1971. After serving my active duty obligation I was hired on with a Fortune 500 firm as a construction project manager and cost estimator for general construction as well as heavy highway construction in Columbus, Ohio."

He continued his military service in the Army Reserves and the Calif. Army National Guard. He retired as a Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Bonaparte is retiring in January 2018.

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