# Celebrating 60 years: DLA contributes to DOD initiatives in the 1990s

/ Published Nov. 5, 2021
FORT BELVOIR, Va., 
*Editor’s note: “Celebrating 60 years” is a series of seven articles highlighting DLA’s support to America’s military since the agency was created Oct. 1, 1961.*

Four story lines connect the Defense Logistics Agency and Defense Department in the 1990s.                Navy Commander Steve Kovonka, right, of Defense Personnel Support Center-Europe tours a Coca-Cola plant in Budapest with Mihaly Juhasz of the Hungarian Ministry of Defense in late 1995. The plant supported Operation Joint Endeavor, the U.S. military mission in Bosnia. DLA Photo                            Celebrating 60 years: DLA contributes to DOD initiatives in the 1990s                            Navy Commander Steve Kovonka, right, of Defense Personnel Support Center-Europe tours a Coca-Cola plant in Budapest with Mihaly Juhasz of the Hungarian Ministry of Defense in late 1995. The plant supported Operation Joint Endeavor, the U.S. military mission in Bosnia. DLA Photo            SHARE IMAGE:Download ImageImage DetailsPhoto By: CourtesyVIRIN: 210723-D-D0441-1002 The decade began with the Gulf War, a campaign to push Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. Success in the conflict was partly due to a logistics miracle in which the agency’s distribution depots provided enough cots and ready-to-eat meals to bivouac half a million troops. The Defense Fuel Supply Center also played a significant role, finding alternative vendors for Navy jet fuel, all of which had come from Kuwaiti companies. In addition, DLA Headquarters received and shipped bulk donations from the public when the task began overwhelming the General Services Administration. Everyone in America, from industry to individuals, wanted to send troops items from home. DLA processed the last 1,330 pallet-sized deliveries.

With the Gulf War leaving Hussein in power, the United Nations declared a no-fly zone over northern Iraq. DOD then launched Operation Provide Comfort to sustain Kurds in the area. The Defense Personnel Support Center supported the effort with $68 million in food, clothing and medical supplies. Within two weeks, it had delivered 5 million pounds of rice, 1 million pounds of beans and peas, 1 million pounds of flour, 1 million cans of fruit and many other items.

Provide Comfort previewed the many non-combat operations DOD would conduct in the 1990s. DLA deployed contingency support teams to three: Restore Hope in Somalia, Uphold Democracy in Haiti and Joint Endeavor in Bosnia. The agency tailored its support for each, even using prime vendors to deliver medical and subsistence items to troops in Bosnia, the first time the technique was used for an overseas operation. 

The agency and DoD consolidated while supporting these operations. Seeking a profit from America’s victory in the Cold War, Defense Secretary Richard B. Cheney began issuing department-wide Defense Management Review Decisions. These decisions gave DLA more responsibilities than it lost, pushing its workforce past 65,500 as a result.

Congressionally sponsored Base Realignment and Closures helped curb growth. DOD executed BRAC 1988 in the 1990s and initiated additional rounds in 1991, 1993 and 1995. The 1988 round moved the agency’s headquarters and Defense Fuel Supply Center to Fort Belvoir from Cameron Station, Virginia, in 1995. Busy adjusting to Defense Management Review Decisions, DLA was allowed to skip the 1991 iteration. The 1993 and 1995 rounds reduced warehouses and contract management regions. In addition, the 1993 round collapsed the Defense Electronics Supply Center into the Defense Construction Supply Center to form Defense Supply Center Columbus and moved the Defense Personnel Support Center from south Philadelphia to the Defense Industrial Supply Center’s location in northeast Philadelphia. The 1995 round then merged the two into Defense Supply Center Philadelphia.                A prime vendor delivers fresh eggs to U.S. troops in Lukavee, Bosnia, Feb. 17, 1996. Photo by Glenn Reid                            Celebrating 60 years: DLA contributes to DOD initiatives in the 1990s                            A prime vendor delivers fresh eggs to U.S. troops in Lukavee, Bosnia, Feb. 17, 1996. Photo by Glenn Reid            SHARE IMAGE:Download ImageImage DetailsPhoto By: Glenn ReidVIRIN: 210723-D-D0441-1003Merging supply centers changed how the agency operated. Until the 1990s, DLA organized these centers around the supplies they managed. The Defense Construction Supply Center, for example, provided lubrication, lumber, piping and other building-related items. The services cared less about functions than weapons systems. In response, the agency began moving supply classes so the same center supplied all the parts of a weapons system.  

The final story line affected DOD as well as DLA. Technology had always driven military efficiency, but the increased availability of personal computers and the internet in the 1990s transformed logistics. Encouraged by Pentagon leaders, the agency launched EMall, an online portal for supply clerks. Then, in 1998, it decided to replace the Standard Automated Materiel Management System, the program that had defined the agency for almost three decades. Replacing SAMMS was a lengthy process that the war on terror almost derailed. How the agency managed to conduct Business Systems Modernization while simultaneously providing warfighter support is a story for the next article in this series.