# Anniston’s Palmer recognized as the DLA Distribution Vehicle/Material Handling Equipment Management Senior Civilian Manager of the Year

/ Published Aug. 18, 2020
ANNISTON, Ala., 
Mobile Industrial Equipment Supervisor Christopher Palmer of the Vehicles & Artillery Division, Defense Logistics Agency Distribution Anniston, Alabama, was selected as the DLA Distribution Vehicle/Material Handling Equipment Management Senior Civilian Manager of the Year.

Palmer distinguished himself while overseeing the management of the receiving, storage and shipping operations at DDAA. This operation distributes major end items for the Army, Marines, National Guard and Army Reserve. A few of these MEIs include the M1 Abrams tank, M88 recovery vehicle, M113 series troop carriers, and M109 Paladin howitzer. These items are required by the warfighter for combat readiness.

Palmer was instrumental in the implementation and organization of field storage locations – a process that includes the marking of vehicles with required military standard 129 markers to identify each asset by national stock number, condition code and serial number, which has significantly reduced time and manpower for supplying customers with the correct material to be able to support the warfighter mission. 

Palmer provided superior leadership skills to assist the organization with achieving organizational metrics and goals while ensuring the warfighter received their material and supplies on time and in the best possible condition. He worked with local customers to ensure that combat vehicles were delivered as requested to help maintain customer’s completion of projects for each type of variance; thus ensuring the delivery of each vehicle to the warfighter was on time and in the best condition.

With a crew of 15 workers, Palmer maintained oversight of the daily operations of all equipment within the V&A division. The scope included forklifts, government owned vehicles, hoists, tractors with towing capacity greater than 150,000 pounds, a Rough Terrain Container Handler, tugs and mules and the largest material handling equipment located on the Anniston Army Depot, the 80-ton gantry crane, known on the depot as “Clyde.” Palmer’s attention to detail and perseverance kept this division’s equipment in serviceable conditions. When safety hazards or deficiencies were noted, Palmer took the appropriate actions to remedy the problem to include Enterprise Safety Application Management System reporting and reorganizing priorities of work to support equipment unavailability.

Palmer’s determination to support the warfighter was instrumental in the shipping of 131 M113 armored vehicles to the new established 16th Armored Brigade Combat Team. Basic issued items and component of end Items also shipped separately ahead of the vehicle arrival to ensure the vehicle was complete and ready to deploy. Palmer has worked diligently with local customers to provide support while equipment issues prevented the movement of assets to needed workstations. This included movement from distant storage areas to the rebuild locations for support of various projects with Anniston Army Depot.

Working with management and program analysts, Palmer sought to provide customers with the best and most efficient way to provide the warfighters with the equipment and military tanks needed for training and combat readiness, developing cost estimates to fulfill the mission at the best cost and, supplying the material handling equipment for the completion of the mission.

Palmer improved the footprint of storage within DDAA. He maintained mission preparedness through use of his team’s adaptability by worker substitutions into various areas throughout DDAA. He incorporated training for each potential area, both external and internal, using standard operation procedure enclosures and job breakdown sheets to develop a diverse skillset amongst his team. Palmer’s forward thinking enabled the V&A division the adaptability to address fluctuations in workflow.