# March EOM Winners Are Dedicated to Supporting Warfighters

/ Published June 1, 2022
Richmond, Va., 
Joshua Johnson and Thomas Shaffer were selected as Defense Logistics Agency Aviation’s Employees of the Month for March.

Employee of the Month is awarded to DLA Aviation non-supervisory civilian employees. Two recipients are selected based on individual general schedule pay levels – one from GS 1-9 (Category 1) and one from GS 10-13 (Category 2). Recipients receive a coin, a certificate of achievement from the DLA Aviation deputy commander and a cash award.

Johnson, a management and program analyst within Customer Operations Directorate, Defense Logistics Agency Aviation at Warner Robins, Georgia, directly supports the management of more than 2,000 national stock numbers and locally assigned NSNs of hazardous materials in pharmacies and issues centers.

“Josh [Johnson] has a steadfast passion to provide material support to the warfighter and readiness to assist his teammates perform monthly requirement,” Sorot Boonkian, Material Management Support Branch chief within the Customer Operations Directorate, DLA Aviation at Warner Robins, said. “Josh is an outstanding performer and deserving of this award.”

Boonkian said Johnson is not afraid of a challenge, which is why he can juggle multiple tasks while also ensuring essential materials are ready and able to meet warfighter needs.

Johnson’s recent accomplishments include identifying, with the assistance of a coworker, a critical gap in the transportation of frozen material that potentially could have led to part failure on aircraft.

“I am very fortunate to have my teammate, Jason Maine,” Johnson said. “Without his input, accomplishing tasks and my goals would be more difficult.”

Johnson said he’s continually looking for ways to improve his performance and grow his responsibilities.

"I would like to gain more knowledge within logistics, specifically within the job series of management and program analyst,” he said. “I want to grow within DLA and give myself an opportunity to accept a larger role with greater duties and responsibilities.”

Shaffer, a customer support specialist within Customer Operations Directorate at DLA Aviation Jacksonville, Florida, works with Fleet Readiness Center Southeast to support aircraft component shops. His efforts to reduce unfilled orders resulted in a six-month strategy that significantly reduced a backlog of structural component orders.

Anthony Kosloski, Shaffer’s nominator and Order Fulfillment Section chief within the Customer Operation Directorate, DLA Aviation at Jacksonville, said the result of Shaffer’s efforts produced a 35% reduction in unfilled orders.

“[His] efforts helped exceed the aged unfilled orders performance-based agreement metric of 20%, reaching 17.8% - a level never before achieved at DLA Aviation Jacksonville,” Kosloski said.

Shaffer explained how he manages challenging aspects of his job.

“Sometimes, despite our best efforts, there is nothing that can be done to expedite delivery because of a specific roadblock that we cannot clear,” he said.

“I understand there are no quick fixes, and no one should sacrifice quality over speed, so I must monitor and keep the people involved aware of our urgency. The real challenge is to follow up often enough to keep up with the status.” Shaffer explained.

In his role, Shaffer said he has a simple goal: to try to improve the health of each national stock number he reviews.“I usually cannot make the needed updates or changes myself, so I need to reach out to my point of contacts asking them to review, create stock purchase requests, or validate the need for a specific item. It’s always a team effort.”