Neighborly advice leads tech worker to commission into Army Reserve as major

AUSTIN, Texas — Andrew Barisser watched in shock last year as floodwaters ravaged Kerrville, a town about two hours west of his home here.

“I realized that when things went wrong, I was just a passive bystander. I was not on the team. And that did not sit well with me,” he said of the July 4, 2025, flooding that killed more than 130 people, including children attending summer camp along the Guadalupe River.

A father of four, he decided that he needed to find a team and a way to serve others. Barisser had spent part of his 20s in the Peace Corps, then transitioned to a career in technology, most recently as a machine learning engineer at Meta.

His neighbor, Lt. Gen. Miles Brown, offered a suggestion — why not join the Army?

“That’s how it starts for all of us,” said Brown, acting commander of the Army Transformation and Training Command, T2COM.

He introduced Barisser, 39, to the direct commissioning program, which includes recruiting civilians with experience in the tech industry to commission into the officer ranks and bring that career experience to the Army.

“[He] introduced me to the possibility of direct commission and how I could fit into the Army,” Barisser said.

Maj. Andrew Barisser, left, and Lt. Gen. Miles Brown, commander of the Army Transformation and Training Command, during a ceremony to directly commission Barisser into the Army on July 29, 2026, at the command’s headquarters in Austin, Texas. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)

Brown administered the oath of office to Barisser on Wednesday morning during a ceremony at T2COM’s downtown Austin headquarters, commissioning him in the Army Reserve at the rank of major. Barisser is assigned to the 75th Army Reserve Innovation Command and will soon begin an assignment at the Army Software Factory in Austin.

The Army has commissioned 7,300 officers this year, but only 75 have received direct commissions, Brown said.

“We open the doors for a lot of folks who have that desire. Then we find a place for them,” he said.

In the last year, the Army has cut redundancies within its direct commissioning program to speed up the process and better attract candidates who have very specialized skills, such as Barisser. In the past, the service averaged about 50 people a year receiving a direct commission because it could take more than a year to complete the process. Now it can be done in less than six months, the service said.

Col. Jason Zuniga, director of the Army Software Factory, said it is the merging of industry experience with the career soldiers who come to the factory that helps make its products successful for the troops that use them.

“Part of what the Army Software Factory is trying to do is bring industry best practices into our software operations,” Zuniga said. “We can be side by side working on Army problems together, and their expertise can be our expertise.”

Recently, the software factory created a program to digitize jump records for the 18th Airborne Corps to replace manual jump logs. This helped cut time in the logging process but also improved visibility on each soldier’s training level.

Crystal Barisser smiles at her husband, Maj. Andrew Barisser, during a ceremony to directly commission him into the Army on July 29, 2026, at the Army Transformation and Training Command Headquarters in Austin, Texas. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)

It was serendipitous that the software factory is in Austin, where Barisser has settled with his family. His wife, Crystal Barisser, said she fully supported her husband’s decision even before she knew he’d have such an easy commute.

The two met while in the Peace Corps, and she could see that working just to earn money was taking its toll.

“I don’t want him to get to the end of his life and have regrets,” she said. “I want him to feel pride about what he is doing.”

Andrew Barisser said he wants his children to see that pride and add it to their own life values.

“I do not believe that responsibility lies with some other people over there. It lies with us regular people who choose to become active participants in preserving our society,” he said.

Adeline Barisser, 5, looks at a coin her father, Maj. Andrew Barisser, received soon after directly commissioning into the Army on July 29, 2026, at the Army Transformation and Training Command Headquarters in Austin, Texas. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)