# DOD logistics agency touches American lives 

/ Published Oct. 26, 2021
FORT BELVOIR, Va., 
From crackers and sanitation kits for America’s fallout shelters during the Cold War to COVID-19 supplies so direly needed in every state and town, one defense organization has the power to provide essentials in the nation’s time of need. 

The Defense Logistics Agency was created in October 1961 to manage common goods for the military services. Its worldwide network of supplies, distribution assets and contracting experts has supported U.S. troops in peace and at war. And though “DLA” may not yet be a household name, it’s touched American lives through whole-of-government support that stretches back to the agency’s roots. 

“DLA’s work has always been tied to the greater American story. There’s very little the nation has done where we haven’t had some supporting role,” DLA Historian Colin Williams said. 

                The 20-story tall Atlas V rocket launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, June 24, 2016. Defense Logistics Agency Aerospace Energy provided highly purified kerosene and liquid oxygen for the engine powering the Atlas booster, as well as high purity hydrazine and dinitrogen tetroxide to maneuver and control the payloads once in orbit. DLA’s involvement in U.S. space exploration began when it provided the antenna that broadcast man’s first walk on the moon. Courtesy photo                            160624-D-D0441-029.JPG                            The 20-story tall Atlas V rocket launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, June 24, 2016. Defense Logistics Agency Aerospace Energy provided highly purified kerosene and liquid oxygen for the engine powering the Atlas booster, as well as high purity hydrazine and dinitrogen tetroxide to maneuver and control the payloads once in orbit. DLA’s involvement in U.S. space exploration began when it provided the antenna that broadcast man’s first walk on the moon. Courtesy photo            SHARE IMAGE:Download ImageImage DetailsPhoto By: CourtesyVIRIN: 160624-D-D0441-029Fallout shelter supplies were the first items DLA bought for use by the American public. Fear of a nuclear attack was so real the agency assembled medical kits and stockpiled supplies in caves in the Allegheny mountains. 

“We kept them for so long we had to set up an inspection schedule to ensure shelf-stable foods really were shelf stable,” Williams said. 

The agency went on to source the antenna that broadcast man’s first walk on the moon. And when gas shortages and steep prices during the 1970s energy crisis ignited strikes and families ran short of heating oil, DLA brought stability by using the Defense Production Act to order large quantities at better prices than those available to the general population. 

American companies that wanted to send free goods to troops in the Gulf War also got a hand from DLA when it partnered with companies like Nabisco, Mars Inc. and USA Today to palletize and ship Oreos, M&Ms, books, newspapers and more. 

Though Hurricane Katrina wasn’t the first storm to invoke DLA support, its Category 5 winds and resulting floods stranded over a million people needing basic supplies. DLA sent items like food, bottled water and sleeping bags for residents suddenly rendered homeless to Federal Emergency Management Agency staging areas. 

                The Texas Army National Guard delivers 40,000 cases of water to residents without clean water after a winter storm in February 2020 brought multi-day power outages and broken pipes. The Defense Logistics Agency provided food and fuel. Photo by Army Spec. James Garcia                            210220-Z-FP744-010                            The Texas Army National Guard delivers 40,000 cases of water to residents without clean water after a winter storm in February 2020 brought multi-day power outages and broken pipes. The Defense Logistics Agency provided food and fuel. Photo by Army Spec. James Garcia            SHARE IMAGE:Download ImageImage DetailsPhoto By: Army Spec. James GarciaVIRIN: 210220-Z-FP744-010DLA support was so vital to the months-long recovery following Katrina that the agency created contingency contracts to respond to FEMA requirements for humanitarian aid in future disasters. 

“Katrina really put DLA on the map when it comes to supporting the nation in a crisis,” DLA Vice Director Brad Bunn said. “By bringing commercial supply chains together with our organic distribution capabilities, it became obvious we were able to deliver supplies wherever they’re needed and, frankly, at a reasonable cost because of our ability to leverage large-scale buys.”

After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, DLA provided 6 million commercial meals as well as blankets, cots and other supplies for citizens and first responders. But Hurricane Maria in 2017 showcased the agency’s ability to support broader needs. DLA Troop Support sent commodities like handheld radios and medicine to Puerto Rico, and DLA Disposition Services helped victims remove scrap metal from crumpled homes and other debris scattered across the island.

                Students at St. Kevin School in Providence, Rhode Island, test new laptop computers donated from a command at nearby Quonset Air National Guard Base. Computers for Learning allows DLA to provide public, private and parochial schools and educational non-profits excess Defense Department computers for free.Photo Courtesy St. Kevin School                            180101-D-YE683-022                            Students at St. Kevin School in Providence, Rhode Island, test new laptop computers donated from a command at nearby Quonset Air National Guard Base. Computers for Learning allows DLA to provide public, private and parochial schools and educational non-profits excess Defense Department computers for free.Photo Courtesy St. Kevin School            SHARE IMAGE:Download ImageImage DetailsPhoto By: Photo Courtesy St. Kevin SchoolVIRIN: 180101-D-YE683-022“In rebuilding the power grid, it wasn’t just a matter of generators. We brought in the actual telephone poles and all the wiring to rebuild that grid,” said William Kinney, executive director of contracting and acquisition at DLA Troop Support. 

America’s schools have been helped by DLA, too. Through Computers for Learning, pre-kindergarten and grade-school classrooms are furnished with laptops, monitors and keyboards considered excess by the Defense Department. 

Fresh fruits and vegetables are also sent to school kitchens across the country through DOD’s Fresh Program, a partnership between DLA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture that also supports U.S. farmers. When COVID-19 closed schools, DLA helped provide produce to students’ families. And a similar program allows the agency to put fruit, vegetables and eggs on the dining tables of low-income Native Americans. 

“This helps my family out tremendously. Each box is a surprise ... I’m very thankful for what I get,” said Titiana Burks from the Shoalwater Bay Tribe in Washington. 

Homeless veterans get a lift from the agency, as well. DLA Disposition Services holds hundreds of annual events around the nation to distribute boots, parkas, sleeping bags, towels, cold-weather gear and other items. 

Even American small businesses have flourished from DLA support. In fiscal 2021, over 7,000 small businesses like those owned by minorities and service-disabled veterans were awarded contracts worth $13 billion.

                Lisa Grenon, of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center in Battle Creek, Michigan, organizes backpacks from DLA Disposition Services for the annual Veterans Stand-down event in October 2015. Photo by Jeff Landenberger                            151029-D-YU183-026.JPG                            Lisa Grenon, of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center in Battle Creek, Michigan, organizes backpacks from DLA Disposition Services for the annual Veterans Stand-down event in October 2015. Photo by Jeff Landenberger            SHARE IMAGE:Download ImageImage DetailsPhoto By: Jeff LandenbergerVIRIN: 151029-D-YU183-026“DLA implements several small business socioeconomic contracting programs, which means we’re protecting American jobs and supporting those who’ve been historically underserved, marginalized or affected by persistent poverty,” said Chris Hall, deputy director of the DLA Small Business Office.

DLA has also been a pillar in the U.S. government’s response to COVID-19. DLA Troop Support provided gowns, gloves, test kits and more for nursing homes; masks for local community centers; ventilators and medical supplies for hospitals; and protective equipment to replenish the Strategic National Stockpile. The agency even made it easier for small businesses with government contracts to purchase items like hand sanitizer and Plexi-glass shields to protect workers. And states like Tennessee received medical supplies including defibrillators and surgical bandages from excess DOD inventory. 

DLA Energy Deputy Director Dave Kless, who served as DLA Operations’ executive director from the beginning of the response until June, said DLA’s reputation for helping the nation during natural disasters made it an obvious solution for sourcing hard-to-get material.

                An emergency services technician stands ready to process COVID-19 tests at New Jersey’s Community Based Testing Site for COVID-19. The Defense Logistics Agency has leveraged internal and external partnerships to supply millions of personal protective equipment items to Department of Health and Human Services supported COVID-19 surge test sites across the country. Photo courtesy of K.C. Wilsey/FEMA                            200404-D-LW007-0502.JPG                            An emergency services technician stands ready to process COVID-19 tests at New Jersey’s Community Based Testing Site for COVID-19. The Defense Logistics Agency has leveraged internal and external partnerships to supply millions of personal protective equipment items to Department of Health and Human Services supported COVID-19 surge test sites across the country. Photo courtesy of K.C. Wilsey/FEMA            SHARE IMAGE:Download ImageImage DetailsPhoto By: K.C. Wilsey/FEMA VIRIN: 200404-D-LW007-0502“There was an immediate gravitation to, ‘Hey, we’ve worked with DLA before,’ and ‘DLA, are there things you can do to help us with providing medical supplies, transportation capability, acquisition capability?’”

The need for some supplies was so urgent that many missions went from concept to execution in less than a week, he added, attributing the agency’s success to employees “just doing what had to be done for the good of the country.”

DLA Aviation Commander Air Force Brig. Gen. David Sanford, who helped coordinate whole-of-government efforts as director of the COVID-19 Supply Chain Task Force and Supply Chain Advisory Group, called the agency’s contributions an important part of DLA history. 

“We will be captured in every after-action report as a success for being able to step in and provide the capabilities that the other government agencies didn’t have internally,” he said. “DLA was able to step into that gap and support the entire United States, and it’s not often that you get to say that.”

                Pictured are some of the critical items that Defense Logistics Agency San Joaquin, California, ships to fire caches in the United States in support of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildland Fire Protection Program. Photo by Annette Silva                            190826-D-DO441-0005.JPG                            Pictured are some of the critical items that Defense Logistics Agency San Joaquin, California, ships to fire caches in the United States in support of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildland Fire Protection Program. Photo by Annette Silva            SHARE IMAGE:Download ImageImage DetailsPhoto By: Annette Silva VIRIN: 190826-D-DO441-0005Even as DLA worked to ensure delivery of vaccines for overseas employees, it equipped wildfire responders with everything from chainsaws and fire hoses to hard hats as they fought fires sprawling across millions of acres in numerous states. And in February, the agency supported Texas residents with food and fuel during record-breaking snow and ice that brought multi-day power outages, broken pipes and road closures. 

Such support is possible and continues to grow partly because of DLA’s alliances with industry, Bunn said. 

“DLA is an enormous machine of procurement and logistics so capable at largescale support that when there’s a requirement that expands beyond DOD, it makes sense for the country, the federal government, the White House and Congress to look to us as a potential solution,” he added. 

The nation’s growing reliance on agency capabilities like procurement and distribution suggest the role is permanent for DLA, Bunn continued. 

“I think in the future we’ll be seen as thought leaders and consultants on how to best replicate some of these functions, even if we continue to support in areas of our core competencies,” he said. 

Bunn described DLA employees as genuinely inspired to help warfighters and Americans at large. 

“In most cases they’re volunteers who could choose not to be part of an emergency essential group or expeditionary team, but they’re connected from a cultural standpoint to DLA’s mission; they’re inspired by it,” Bunn said. “It’s easy to understand why, especially when it comes to helping their fellow citizens and making an impact closer to home.”