Lt. Col. Philip M. Secrist III

As the 56th Commander of the Philadelphia District, Lieutenant Colonel Philip “Flip” Secrist commands a 600-person District. His responsibilities include dredging waterways for navigation, protecting communities from flooding and coastal storms, responding to natural and declared disasters, regulating construction in the nation’s waters and wetlands, remediating environmental hazards, restoring ecosystems, building facilities for the Army and Air Force, and providing engineering, contracting and project management services for other government agencies upon request.
 
Established in 1866, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Philadelphia District encompasses the 13,000-square-mile Delaware River Basin and the Atlantic coast from New Jersey’s Manasquan Inlet to the Delaware-Maryland line. Within its boundaries are more than eight million people in eastern Pennsylvania, western and southern New Jersey, most of Delaware, New York’s Catskills region and part of northeastern Maryland. It also includes two state capitals (Trenton, N.J., and Dover, Del.) and the Delaware River ports complex from Philadelphia and Camden (N.J.) to Wilmington (Del.).

Lieutenant Colonel Secrist was commissioned in 1991 from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. His assignments include Engineer Line Platoon Leader, Assault and Obstacle Platoon Leader, Company Executive Officer, and Assistant Brigade Engineer in the 91st Engineer Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; S3 Training and Plans Officer for the 130th Engineer Brigade, V Corps, Hanau, Germany;  Charlie Company Commander, 54th Engineer Battalion, 130th Engineer Brigade, Bamberg, Germany; and Project Manager for the Sacramento District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Beale Air Force Base, California. He has deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

He is a graduate of the Airborne School, Ranger School, and the US Army Command and General Staff College. He holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in Civil Engineering from the Virginia Military Institute, a Master’s of Science in Engineering Management from the University Missouri-Rolla and a Master’s of Science in Environmental Engineering from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VA Tech).

His awards and decorations include the Bronze Star (with Oak Leaf Cluster), the Meritorious Service Medal (with Oak Leaf Cluster), the Army Commendation Medal (with two Oak Leaf Clusters), and the Army Achievement Medal (with one Oak Leaf Cluster).

Lieutenant Colonel Secrist is married to the former Lavonda Mungle of Saint Charles, Missouri. They have three sons, Jackson, Gabriel, and Kyler and one daughter, Julianna.