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Phil Savino

After 17 years of working at MITRE's Honolulu, Hawaii, site, Phil Savino felt like he and his family needed a change. Eager to explore another part of the world with his wife and daughter, he contacted MITRE's Department Head for European Operations in 2000 about the possibility of a transfer. Six months later he and his family were happily ensconced in Stuttgart, Germany.

From a work perspective, the transition was simple. He parlayed his many years working with intelligence coalition systems for the Pacific Command into his job supporting MITRE's Stuttgart customer, the U.S. European Command's Intelligence Systems Division.

As Savino explains it, his experience working on site in Honolulu and Stuttgart has been very different from his first assignment in the 1970s working at MITRE's corporate headquarters. "I think the biggest differences at a site are the physical closeness to the customer and a constant reminder of the overall mission's shared goals," he says. "For example, you may be concentrating on the technical systems aspect of a task, but you are expected to quickly understand the total scope of the effort, functional as well as your technical piece. There is a constant and much greater sense of importance and urgency in the successful completion of the task since in many cases it involves current or near-term operational missions. Also, the customer will routinely come to the MITRE staff directly with different technical issues that need immediate attention and response. There are very few "routine" aspects to the job, as the day-to-day requirements and demands are very dynamic."

Since MITRE's Stuttgart site maintains a relatively small staff, they work closely with the other MITRE sites in Europe. "Being in the European area of operations, we share common problems and goals even though our customers may be different," says Savino. "We also work closely with MITRE personnel at sites around the world. This helps us tap technical expertise and experience that we may not have at our site and also allows us to provide a more universal view of issues to our customer." The relationship is reciprocal—because of the site's proximity to the customer, the Stuttgart staff provides valuable insight to MITRE's corporate headquarters and other sites.

When asked about how daily life in Germany is different from that in the United States, Savino replies, "It's not as different as one would expect. In fact we need to remind ourselves sometimes that we are in a foreign country. We can get by with English and our limited German just fine. Since we are working with the Department of Defense, we have use of the base facilities, so it makes living in Germany even less different than in the states. However, one big difference is the local stores. During the week they close at 7 p.m. and they are closed all day Sunday—there are no 24-hour grocery stores. A lot of little things are different too, such as the different electrical standards and plugs, smaller appliances, limited television options, and day-to-day items that are more expensive than in the states."

The Savino family—Phil, his wife Erlinda, and their daughter—enjoy an outing to Lake Gumenden in Austria.

An avid explorer, Savino has enjoyed much of his travels, for both work and pleasure, while living in Stuttgart. "On business, I've been to the major cities of Europe, to the Middle East, and even Australia on one of my projects," he says. "Also, given that my business travel often involves short plane rides or the less expensive option of taking a train or driving, I'm able to take my family with me. In conjunction with my business trips, I have been able to take them to Denmark, Belgium, France, Hungary, the U.K., Sweden, and the Netherlands. On pure vacations, we've been to Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Egypt, and South Africa. In addition, my daughter's school trips and summer programs have taken her to Italy, France, Russia, Switzerland, and Austria."

When asked what he and his family enjoy most about living in Stuttgart, Savino sums it up easily, "The opportunity to travel, if even for a day trip to another country on a whim, the vastly different cultures and people we've gotten to experience, and the educational opportunities that my daughter has had at the international school." Sounds like he got just the type of change he was looking for.

MITRE's Stuttgart, Germany, Site

MITRE's European Operations maintain seven sites throughout Europe. The MITRE site in Stuttgart, Germany, is home to 11 employees and primarily supports the United States European Command (USEUCOM). The site offices are at the USEUCOM headquarters at a U.S. Army Post called Patch Barracks (right) in a suburb of Stuttgart.

—by Kay M. Upham