A career as a U.S. Army Reserve Signal Corps officer wasn’t 1st Lt. Micah Good’s intended path; however, he found it to be exactly what he needed.

Good is a senior information systems officer in the 86th Training Division, stationed in Arlington Heights, Illinois, currently participating in training exercise Grecian Firebolt at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. Grecian Firebolt is designed to test the Signal Corps’ ability to install and maintain communication lines in the field, along with providing computer support for other units on the ground.

“The reason I wanted to go into information technology is, on the civilian side, I'm an accountant," he said. "The direction that finance and accounting is headed is very reliant on I.T. The systems that provide accounting information, I thought would help bolster my civilian career by having that fundamental I.T. knowledge that the Army gave me.”

Good found out that this sharing of knowledge was a two-way street, aiding him with both his civilian career and military operations such as Grecian Firebolt.

“I've found now that I've got about five years under my belt as an officer in the Reserve, there’s what I call cross-pollination, where the skills the army teaches me, I bring back to my civilian world, allowing me to be better at my job as an accountant," said Good. "Then the skills that my civilian job teaches me, I can bring back to the Army and better my trade in the Reserve and better my team.”

This ‘cross-pollination’ of experience has enhanced Good’s capability to maintain the U.S. Army Reserve’s readiness through modernization of technology and exceptional leadership.

During the training exercise, Good was in charge of field logistics, making sure communication lines were available in a timely manner, providing communication support to all of the Reserve exercises taking place there.

“We run fiber optic lines, and ensure that occupied buildings have network connectivity," he said. "We work with resources at Fort McCoy to ensure the training audience is successful in setting up their network. We're also getting valuable training by ensuring there's a good live network and systems they can connect to.”

Good’s responsibilities include modernization of technology as much as they do field efficiency of current technology.

“It’s an ever-changing environment," said Good. "There's so many different systems and applications and things that are just constantly moving in the I.T. realm. A good example is the DoD’s [Department of Defense’s] implementation of Microsoft Teams. In the grand scheme of things for how long I've been in the Army, that's a very new thing.”

Good has worked on the implementation of not only Microsoft Teams, but also migration of Microsoft 365 accounts. This modernization that Good, and others like him are pioneering, is a vital step towards maintaining readiness in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Good leads Soldiers with a servant mindset that drives those that follow him to excel at what they do in the Reserve.

“From a readiness perspective, it's been just an absolute treat for me to see just how effective and efficient the Soldiers that I've worked with here can switch off their civilian mode and do their jobs effectively,” said Good. “That speaks testaments to the Reserve’s readiness. You don't even know half the time if you're working with a Reserve Soldier or active-duty Soldier, because the Reserve Soldiers are just so squared away and so proficient in their jobs and task that you would never know, unless you ask them.”