# ACOR to bring deployment skill training to Battle Creek

/ Published June 2, 2023
BATTLE CREEK, Mich., 
Summer is back and with it comes field exercise season. This year’s iteration has been dubbed the 2023 Agency Contingency Operations Readiness, or ACOR event, and Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services personnel, agency reserve military members and headquarters support elements will congregate at the Battle Creek Air National Guard Base in Michigan in mid-July to hone their deployment skills.                Trainees move freight boxes during the 2022 Contingency Operations Readiness Exercise held at the Battle Creek Air National Guard Base in Michigan.                            220721-D-YU183-380                            Trainees move freight boxes during the 2022 Contingency Operations Readiness Exercise held at the Battle Creek Air National Guard Base in Michigan.            SHARE IMAGE:Download ImageImage DetailsPhoto By: Jeff LandenbergerVIRIN: 220721-D-YU183-380

Acting DLA Disposition Services Exercise Planner Jeffrey Nofzinger is heading the major sub-command’s participation this time around and said close to 40 property disposal personnel from across the network would take part, split basically evenly between expeditionary civilian workforce members and reservists.

“Participants were mostly selected to get needed training, along with a few more experienced personnel to help them along,” Nofzinger said, calling it a “perfect opportunity” for skill sharpening among expeditionary workforce members slated to deploy soon.

Nofzinger said the training would be more compact than larger exercises in recent years, focusing on “back to basics” training and individual skill development rather than staging a full-on Expeditionary Support Site validation and conducting a full week of operations on multiple installations and sometimes multiple continents. Between the normal billet turnover experienced by the expeditionary reserve teams that support DLA property disposal and the ongoing rollout of the Warehouse Management System among all DLA Disposition Services field sites, sub-command leadership felt it “was the right time” to return to the roots of the annual deployment training started about a decade ago.

“In the future, we still want to tie into a joint exercise with a combatant command,” Nofzinger said, noting that the agency does expect to continue looking for customers it can serve while keeping its people contingency ready. 

During the first week, participants will receive individualized classroom instruction. The whole team gets two days of demilitarization training and then disperses for breakout sessions tied directly to specific job roles, Nofzinger said. During the final days of training, the team will build up a medium-sized ESS and conduct two days of site operations to process real-world property pre-staged from nearby military turn-in customers on BCANGB and Fort Custer.

Unlike previous years when DLA Disposition Services took the lead on planning and execution, this year’s event will be led for the first time by DLA Logistics Operations. As in recent years, it will continue to involve the support of DLA Information Operations with on-site communications and connectivity and DLA Joint Reserve Force personnel. The agency’s Rapid Deployment Teams will also take part this year, as well as DLA Distribution, which will conduct an adjacent training event from a location in Virginia.