LOGLINES

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2014

CRUSHING

LOGISTICS

CHALLENGES
from the

DIRECTOR

Navy Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek, USN

Director, Defense Logistics Agency

class logistics outfit, and that’s what 

world-class outfits do; they win. And 

the DLA team is ready for anything 

that comes our way. We’re making 

history every day in our efforts to 

significantly improve performance 

while dramatically reducing cost.

In this issue of Loglines, we’re 

looking at the big things we’ve made to 

better support our warfighters. We’ve 

dramatically decreased the amount 

of time it takes to award a contract, 

making us far more responsive. When 

the Secretary of Defense told us to 

partner with our shipmates in industry, 

we amplified those conversations with 

our Captains of Industry meetings 

and improved performance and 

decreased cost in a big way. 2ur 

supply chains are making routine use 

of reverse auctions to price contracts 

and have already saved more than 2 

billion. 2n the inventory front, we’ve 

rightsi]ed what we carry to ensure 

that the inventory we do have works 

harder, like it’s supposed to. This has 

resulted in one-third less inventory 

I

n May, Deputy 8nder Secretary of 

Defense for Acquisition, Technology 

and Logistics )rank Kendall awarded 

DLA our seventh -oint Meritorious 8nit 

Award. The award ± the second-highest 

award a military organi]ation can receive 

± recogni]ed DLA for the e[ceptional 

support we provided to warfighters, 

federal agencies, our foreign partners 

and those suffering in the wake of 

natural disasters from 1ovember 2011 to 

December 2012. 

Whether figuring out how to get 

material to warfighters in Afghanistan 

when the routes through 3akistan 

closed or speeding the delivery of gas, 

food, water, blankets, generators and 

pumps after +urricane Sandy, you 

proved what DLA can do. But DLA 

doesn’t just confront the “front-page ́ 

logistics challenges like a superstorm. 

We tackle all the challenges, big 

and small, because we’re a worldand a corresponding decrease in the 

warehousing we need to keep it. And 

all those savings in material and 

operations go right back to the services 

in terms of a DLA that’s more effective 

but costs less. These are some of the 

big things we’re doing here that will 

pay huge dividends. The -M8A is 

recognition of that. So keep doing what 

you’re doing, take care of one another 

and keep promises to those we serve. 

Headquarters, Defense Logistics Agency Office of Public Affairs 8725 John J. Kingman Road Suite 2545 Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-6221 703-767-6200 E-mail: loglines@dla.mil

DLA Director

1avy 9ice Adm. Mark +arnitchek

DLA Vice Director

Ted Case 

Chief of Staff

Renee L. Roman

Director, Public Affairs

-oseph M. <oswa

Deputy Director, Public Affairs

3atrick +. Mackin

Loglines is the authori]ed publication for the Defense Logistics Agency’s workforce of federal civilians, active-duty 

military and -oint Reserve )orce augmentees at agency activities worldwide and industry customers of DLA. Contents 

of this publication are not necessarily the official views of, or endorsed by, the 8.S. government, the Department of 

Defense or the Defense Logistics Agency. 

LOGLINES

Official Flagship Publication of the Defense Logistics Agency

Managing Editor: Kathleen T. Rhem

Editor: -acob Boyer

LayoutDesign: 3aul +enry Crank

Sydney Adams

Writers: Beth Reece

Sara Moore

Amanda 1eumann

1avy 3etty 2fficer 1st Class Daniel *aras

Loglines is prepared electronically, using desktop publishing applications; no commercial typesetting costs are 

involved. 3hotos not credited are courtesy of agency sources. Submissions and correspondence may be sent to 

the address below:

LOGLINES STAFF
CONTENTS

Loglines l September - October 2014 1

A Conversation with ... 20

Navy Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek

I am DLA Back Cover

DEPARTMENTS

September - October 2014

2

11

22

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

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dla.mil

www.twitter.com/

dlamil www.dla.mil

www.youtube.com/

dodlogisticsagency

DLA on the Web

26

Switch to Savings 2

Swapping military-specification jet fuel for its 

commercial equivalent looks to save a substantial 

amount for DLA Energy’s customers.

Rightsizing: Making Space 6

2ne of DLA Director 1avy 9ice Adm. Mark 

+arnitchek’s “Big Ideas ́ ensures the agency has the 

right amount of supplies to meet customer needs.

Time is Money 11

DLA’s Time to Award initiative has slashed the 

time it takes the agency to award contracts and 

standardi]ed the processes to do so.

Charting New Courses 14

DLA leaders regularly meet with industry 

representatives to find better and less e[pensive ways 

to supply warfighters. 

The Bottom Dollar Value 18

Reverse auctions foster competition between 

commercial firms and have saved DLA more than 

2 billion since 2012. 

Standardizing Support 22

1aval Sea Systems Command and DLA partner to 

manage ha]ardous materials and waste compliance at 

1A9SEA’s shipyards. 

Combat Chow 26

While the food American warfighters eat has changed 

with the times, the challenges of supplying that food 

remain the same.

CRUSHING LOGISTICS 

CHALLENGES
2 www.dla.mil

nyone who has to fill up a vehicle on a regular basis knows 

that when it comes to fuel costs, any savings is welcome. 

That’s especially true for the Defense Logistics Agency, 

which buys more than  billion gallons of fuel each year for 

its customers. 

After several years of work, DLA is in the final stages of 

switching from providing military-specification “-3-8 ́ jet fuel in 

the continental 8nites States to commercial-grade jet fuel ± “-et 

A ́ with additives, also referred to by its 1AT2 designation, )-2 ± 

and the savings are already adding up.

DLA’s push to convert the military services from -3-8, the 

military-specification fuel, to commercial-grade -et A fuel dates back 

more than 10 years, when the first feasibility studies were conducted

By 2ctober, all of the agency’s customers in the continental 8.S. 

that are able to use -et A fuel will be converted, said Bruce Blank, 

deputy director for acquisition in DLA Energy supplier operations. 

While the full measure of the fuel savings has yet to be seen, as 

of -uly, DLA had saved about 25 million on its most recent two 

regional purchases, which totaled about 500 million gallons of -et 

A fuel, Blank said. That equates to a savings of five to si[ cents per 

gallon, he said.

“When we ran the numbers, I was surprised it was that high, 

because we had only converted certain supply chains, and it wasn’t 

fully developed, ́ he said. “If we sustain that five- to si[-cent savings 

over time for the 1. billion gallons of jet fuel purchased in the 8.S., 

that’s a substantial savings. ́ 

The savings come from increased competition among suppliers, 

which drives down prices, as well as reduced transportation and 

infrastructure costs, Blank said. 8sing commercial-grade jet fuel 

means any supplier that makes jet fuel for the commercial industry 

nyone who has to fill up a vehicle on a regular basis knows 

that when it comes to fuel costs, any savings is welcome. 

That’s especially true for the Defense Logistics Agency, 

which buys more than  billion gallons of fuel each year for 

its customers. A

After several years of work, DLA is in the final stages of 

SWITCH TO 

SAVINGS

Story by Sara Moore

2 www.dla.mil
Loglines l September - October 2014 3

Reyes Porrio carries a fuel hose toward a C-130 Hercules aircraft 

at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California. DLA will be able to 

save its customers money and time by switching from military-grade 

to commercial-grade jet fuel. 

— Photo by Marine Cpl. Jamean R. Berry 

“When we ran the numbers, I was surprised it was that high, 

because we had only converted certain supply chains, and it 

wasn’t fully developed.”

— Bruce Blank

Loglines l September - October 2014 3
4 www.dla.mil

can now compete on DLA Energy 

contracts for military jet fuel. In the 

past, the e[tra requirements for militaryspecification fuel kept many suppliers out 

of the market and reduced DLA’s supplier 

pool, he noted. -et A fuel can also travel in 

the same pipelines as commercial jet fuel 

and does not need to be stored separately, 

further driving down costs for DLA. 

An added benefit of e[panding the 

supplier base for jet fuel is opening up 

the possibility of more vendor-direct 

purchases, which can help reduce 

infrastructure and transportation costs, 

said Linda Barnett, deputy director of 

customer operations in DLA Energy. The 

commercial marketplace for jet fuel is 

designed for high throughput, she said. 

And although DLA’s customers would have 

benefited from access to this e[panded pool 

of facilities and services, the agency was 

restricted because of the requirement to use 

military-specification fuel. 

“I think e[panding distribution 

capability going forward enables 

vendor-direct >shipments@ from closer 

commercial distribution locations beyond 

what we have today. It really opens 

opportunities for us to look differently at 

ways to improve our customer support, ́ 

Barnett said. 

DLA Energy is already looking into 

providing vendor-direct purchases for 

customer locations at the end of long 

supply chains, where transportation 

costs become magnified, Blank said. If a 

supplier could deliver the fuel complete 

with required additives directly to the 

customer location, it could save DLA 

money, he said. 

As -et A fuel replaces -3-8, the 

transition has been relatively seamless 

from the end user’s perspective, said 

Mike Domen, a chemist with DLA 

Energy-4uality. The main difference 

in specification properties between the 

Navy Petty Ofcer 3rd Class Henry Flowers 

opens a valve to transfer jet fuel to the ight 

deck aboard the USS Harry S. Truman. As 

of October, all of DLA’s customers in the 

continental U.S. will be using commercialgrade Jet A fuel in lieu of military-grade fuel. 

Navy Seaman Ryan McLearnon
Loglines l September - October 2014 5

two fuels is the free]ing point, which 

is warmer for -et A than for -3-8, 

which could potentially have an effect 

on certain long-range, high-altitude 

missions on which e[treme cold 

weather is encountered. While the two 

fuel types may have minor physical or 

chemical differences, they both perform 

virtually the same in aircrafts’ fuel 

systems and engines, he said. Before the 

conversion, DLA Energy coordinated with 

counterparts at the service control points 

and military research facilities to evaluate 

each aircraft’s capabilities and limitations, 

he said. This resulted in all but a few 

being able to use the commercial fuel in 

all mission situations. Those aircraft that 

aren’t able to use -et A as a primary fuel 

will continue to use -3-8, he noted. 

Some challenges have arisen in 

educating customers on the conversion, 

Barnett said. Many customers did not 

fully understand the change or had 

concerns about specification differences 

and logistics, she said. Education and 

open dialogue have been key, because 

A KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft delivers fuel to 

a Navy F/18F Super Hornet ghter jet. DLA’s 

switch to commercial-grade Jet A fuel will 

expand the industrial base and mean lower 

prices for military customers. 

while it is a different fuel with a new name 

and designation, it performs virtually the 

same as -3-8, uses the same additives, 

and saves everyone money. 

“We work closely with service control 

points to get the word out so people will 

understand what the replacement fuel is 

and that it’s really basically the same fuel, 

it’s just a little bit cheaper, ́ Blank said.

1ow that DLA Energy has converted 

all its customers in the continental 

8.S. to -et A fuel, it is looking into 

converting customers in +awaii, Blank 

said. Customers in Alaska will not 

convert to -et A fuel, because of the lower 

temperatures and high-altitude missions 

performed there, but will begin to use -et 

A1, which is the international version of 

-et A fuel and has the same free]ing point 

as -3-8, he said. 

Navy Seaman Alexander Filipponi tests a jet 

fuel sample for water and sediments in the fuel 

analysis lab aboard the USS John C. Stennis 

while underway in the Persian Gulf. DLA and 

the military services went through extensive 

testing with Jet A fuel before switching from 

military-grade jet fuel. 

Navy Petty Ofcer 3rd Class Kenneth Abbate

Air Force Staff Sgt. Kamaile O. Long
6 www.dla.mil

he Defense Logistics Agency 

is taking several steps toward 

rightsizing its inventory and 

infrastructure by reducing stock 

to 10.9 billion in fiscal 201 and 

eliminating 2 million gross square feet of 

warehouse space by fiscal 2019.

DLA has been working steadily on 

the effort since DLA Director 1avy 9ice 

Adm. Mark Harnitchek launched the 

“Big Ideas ́ initiative in 2012, said Barry 

Christensen, chief of the DLA Logistics 

Operations’ Supply and Demand Planning 

Branch. Harnitchek has described this 

initiative as cleaning out the attic.

“As it stands right now, our inventory 

is at 11.9 billion, ́ Christensen said. “So 

we still have to pursue some strategies to 

dispose of another $1 billion in inventory 

by the end of September. The easy stuff 

has already been done. We’ve already 

done 800 million in disposals this fiscal 

year and $5 billion worth of inventory 

disposals since fiscal 2012. In addition 

to taking prudent risks in reducing 

Story by Amanda Neumann

economic and contingency retention stock, 

[Harnitchek] has asked us to look at our 

projected demand reductions and the lead 

times we use to award contracts.”

Christensen added that “disposed” 

items are turned over to DLA Disposition 

Services, which makes the materials 

available for reuse or sale. 

By fiscal 2019, agency leaders hope 

to trim the organization’s footprint in 

half and take its inventory levels down 

to 6 billion, Christensen said. But a big 

part of that effort lays in future customer 

demands. DLA direct sales have dropped 

26 percent since fiscal 2010, he said, 

adding that an additional 5 percent 

decline over the next two years has already 

been forecast.

“1ot being involved in two wars has 

been a major driver of the significant 

decline in demand, ́ he said. “Typically, 

we think of forecasting as how much am 

I going to buy to support the upcoming 

demand" But in this case, it’s how much 

am I going to keep" So now, we’re playing 

he Defense Logistics Agency 

is taking several steps toward 

rightsizing its inventory and 

infrastructure by reducing stock 

to 10.9 billion in fiscal 201 and T

eliminating 2 million gross square feet of 

MAKING SPACE

RIGHTSIZING:

6 www.dla.mil
Loglines l September - October 2014 7

“We have found that when 

the services conduct these 

reviews, their disposal 

recommendations have been 

fairly aggressive. So there is 

value to this collaboration”

— Barry Christensen

In San Joaquin, California, demolition has 

started on several Army-owned warehouses 

as part of an infrastructure reduction effort 

between DLA and the military services. DLA is 

working with the military services nationwide 

to clear out unneeded inventory and procure 

funds to demolish aging warehouses. 

— Photo courtesy of DLA Installation Support San Joaquin, California

with all of these different parameters to 

say, μ2K, how much can we dispose of"’ 

Because the quickest way for us to reduce 

inventory is to hit the disposal button. But 

it’s a fine line. <ou need to take some risk, 

but you want to minimize having to buy 

inventory back.”

2ther efforts involve 

process improvements 

to reduce the inflow of 

unneeded inventory, like 

reducing lead times in 

awarding procurement 

contracts. 

“Once you’ve 

initiated procurement 

and obligated the money, 

if demand dies down, 

you can become stuck 

with >e[cess inventory@, 

especially if it’s a large procurement, ́ 

he said. “2ur μTime to Award’ initiative 

can shorten the award time, allowing 

for a smaller window of opportunity for 

things to change. We’ve also done some 

changes with our order quantities. If you 

buy a smaller duration, like buying three 

months’ worth and not two years’ worth, 

your exposure to that demand decline 

is lessened quite a bit. These are key 

proactive things that we can work on to 

not fill up the attic and save money into 

the future.”

Another area 

agency leaders hope to 

make strong headway 

in is contingency 

stock retention, which 

includes more than 

180 temporary weapon 

system e[clusions, 

Christensen said. 

“This has been a 

challenge for us since 

in these e[clusions, 

the services ask us to 

never throw anything out that’s coded 

to particular weapon systems, ́ he said. 

“That means all of those items, regardless 

of how much we have on hand, are 

currently protected against disposal, yet 

many have no economic basis for keeping 

all the stock.”

Defense Department policy requires 

the military services to conduct annual 

reviews of their exclusions to help avoid 

unnecessary long-term protection and 

free up more items for disposal review.

“We have $510 million of these types 

of items awaiting review, ́ Christensen 

said. “So a lot of our inventory is currently 

tied up and pending the reviews that the 

services are doing on those items. We have 

found that when the services conduct these 

reviews, their disposal recommendations 

have been fairly aggressive. So there is 

value to this collaboration”

The last category for reduction is 

aimed at DLA’s economic retention stock 

levels. These levels are calculated by 

comparing the overall cost of storing an 

item against the likely cost of buying it in 

the future, Christensen said.

Cleaning unneeded material out of DLA’s 

inventories will lead to savings in internal 

infrastructure costs.

Beth Reece 

Loglines l September - October 2014 7
8 www.dla.mil

“Let’s say a microcircuit costs 100, ́ 

he said. “If we have 100 of them, but 

only get five demands per year, we 

would then have 20 years’ of stock on 

hand. Since its sitting in a bin at DLA 

Distribution, a storage charge is added, 

so the actual 20-year cost for this item 

might really be 120. So how many 

microcircuits should we keep? Depending 

on your risk tolerance and the degree to 

which you believe current demand rates 

will e[tend into the future, you could 

make arguments ranging from keeping 

everything to disposing down to a year 

or two of stock on hand. But if we had to 

buy it again, would we e[pend the same 

amount of money or not? That’s what our 

inventory. So despite a disposal rate of 

5 billion, our net change in inventory is 

lower, since it’s offset by those transfers 

and also our customer returns.”

2fficials are tentatively projecting 

an additional $1 billion in inventory 

reductions per year through fiscal 2019, 

Christensen said. He added that the 

agency needs to have “smarter working 

inventory” and maintain its high material 

availability and operational readiness 

rates for customers.

“It will be a challenge, and there is 

no perfect equation, ́ he said. “But there 

are pockets of opportunities within each 

of these buckets to penetrate below the 

retention limit, and that’s what we’re 

trying to find. And it takes time. We just 

have to choose the right mix of items to 

reduce that will minimi]e the rebuy, as 

well as the operational risk of not having 

it on the shelf.”

An inventory-reduction model built in 

201 is helping DLA Aviation identify and 

weigh the risks of its inventory-disposal 

efforts each month, said Steve Siewert, 

acting division chief of DLA Aviation’s 

Business Optimization and Logistics 

Planning Division.

“IRIS, the inventory risk indicator 

score, looks at eight risk factors for each 

individual >national stock number@, ́ he 

said. “Basically it asks, μIf you were to go 

out of stock on one item versus another, 

which one would hurt you more? And 

how long would you stay in a backorder 

position"’ Each factor has different 

weights associated with it, and the model 

scores it. And there are a lot of things we 

can do with that number.”

The rank given by IRIS allows DLA 

Aviation to make disposal decisions 

based on rebuy considerations, customer 

support obligations, dollar values and 

even particular targets, such as low-risk 

items or any item with more than 10 

economic models look at and where we’re 

trying to find the right balance. ́

Complicating matters is the agency’s 

new acquisition of service-owned stock 

from Defense Department components 

like the 1avy’s fleet readiness centers. 

Since fiscal 2012, the military services 

have transferred more than 1.2 billion 

worth of inventory as part of the inventory 

capitalization and logistics reassignment 

program, Christensen said.

“We started off this year with a growth 

of inventory, since items that used to be 

managed by the Air )orce, the Army and 

the )RCs, have recently been transferred 

to DLA, ́ he said. “In fiscal 201, we 

gained more than 65 million in new 

Marine Lance Cpl. Marla Crenshaw enters 

national stock numbers into a system at 

the shipping and receiving section at Camp 

Leatherneck, Afghanistan. DLA Aviation’s 

inventory-reduction model identifies and 

scores eight risk factors for each individual 

NSN, helping the agency weigh the risk of 

disposing of that item.

Marine Sgt. John Jackson
Loglines l September - October 2014 9

years’ worth of inventory, Siewert said. 

“If an item has an IRIS score of less 

than 20, then it’s easy for me to go after, ́ 

he said. “But if I have an item that has a 

score of 80-100, that tells me there are 

all kinds of red flags with this item, and I 

should be very leery about getting rid of 

any of that inventory. By knowing what 

our concerns are with every item, we can 

then balance that against all the [weapon 

system] exclusions and determine what 

our stock levels should be for every item.”

Since its inception, the IRIS model 

has already helped DLA Aviation find 2 

billion worth of disposals, and DLA Land 

and Maritime is reviewing it as a method 

for future inventory-rightsi]ing efforts, 

Siewert said.

In addition, a disposal database 

created in 2012 has helped DLA Aviation 

track its disposal efforts as the supply 

chain’s reductions reached peak numbers, 

Siewert said.

“Before, if we had a question on an 

item that had been disposed of, we’d 

have to do a search in 50 different 

files to find out did we even dispose 

of it" And if so, why" ́ he said. “So we 

DLA is working with the military services to consolidate and demolish 

unneeded warehouses, said Navy Capt. Randy Baker, the program manager for 

infrastructure optimization in DLA Logistics Operations.

“Through DLA Distribution, we are constantly looking for opportunities to optimize 

warehouse space,” he said. “When we consolidate our inventory and free up a building 

for return to our military host, my job is to work with the service to demolish the 

building, which is often not at the top of their priority list.” 

The process begins with DLA Distribution and other DLA field activities. It’s up to 

officials in those organizations to determine what DLA- and service-owned inventory is 

needed and where, Baker said. Once that’s figured out, the infrastructure is optimized 

accordingly. Once excess infrastructure is identified, he starts his work with DLA 

Installation Support and the services on demolition recommendations.

“DLA is just a tenant of the warehouses; the services actually own them,” he said. 

“When DLA no longer have a requirement for a warehouse, DLA returns the warehouse 

to the services. It is at this point that we, as the last user of the warehouse, work with 

the services to recommend demolition. We can only recommend which warehouses 

should be candidates for demolition. The services make their own decisions based on 

the condition of the facility and future requirements.”

Since 2012, DLA’s focus on reducing its footprint and maintaining strong 

partnerships with the military services has resulted in the demolition of 19 buildings, 

totaling 2.6 million gross square feet, Baker said.

“Most of that demolition was concentrated at DLA’s site in the Richmond, Virginiaarea,” he said. “Now we’re working to demolish warehouses at a DLA site in San 

Joaquin, California, that was returned to the Army in 2013. We are also in the process of 

demolishing warehouses at a Navy installation in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.”

Reducing infrastructure eliminates the Department of Defense’s need to maintain 

the now-empty warehouses, Baker said. 

“We’re also avoiding the temptation of space creep. Space creep is what happens 

when you clear out a warehouse and three months later, someone has put stuff back 

in there. When you have empty space, people have the tendency to want to use it. By 

getting rid of these warehouses, you can eliminate that problem.”

The cost of demolishing buildings can often be offset by recycling scrap items 

through a contractor, Baker said.

“A lot of the demolition material goes to our contractor, who has been able to reuse 

and recycle it,” he said. “That has helped us keep costs down. In Richmond, some of 

the recycled and repurposed materials we had were pieces of steel, copper from the 

pipes, aluminum, brass, blocks of concrete, and dimensional timber. That timber is 

back from in the 1940s and ‘50s. You can’t get that kind of timber anymore, so it’s great 

for reutilization.”

Although progress has been made in both areas, Baker said he expects the 

reduction of DLA’s inventory and infrastructure will continue to be a huge, but not 

insurmountable, challenge for the agency in the coming years.

“As a joint effort with the inventory, the million dollar question is, ‘Where do we 

expect the inventory to be and how much square footage do we expect that inventory 

to fill?’” he said. “And we don’t have all of those answers yet. It’s a slow process, but 

we’re getting there.”

— Amanda Neumann

A convoy of Marine Corps Mine Resistant 

Ambush Protected vehicles travels in Helmand 

province, Afghanistan. DLA Land and Maritime 

is assisting its customers with exclusion 

reviews as part of an effort to lower its 

contingency stock on protected items like 

MRAP parts, which account for $517 million 

of DLA Land and Maritime’s overall inventory. 

Marine Lance Cpl. Cody Kelley

— Photo courtesy of DLA Installation Support San Joaquin, California

Infrastructure Optimization
10 www.dla.mil

created this database where you can 

throw as many as 20,000 1S1s in 

there at one time and it will search all 

of the actions that we’ve done since 

the beginning of 2ctober 2012. It also 

gives us the information that we were 

looking at when we made our decision, 

like the demand history, the coding and 

the forecast information, so we can go 

back to the customer and answer their 

questions. It’s been a lifesaver. ́

The majority of questions DLA Aviation 

receives are because most of the services 

don’t know how much inventory DLA 

actually keeps, Siewert said.

“Most think it’s just a little bit above 

what we would need for our normal 

requirements objective, ́ 

he said. “And it’s not. For 

e[ample, I have items that 

have more than 1,000 years’ 

worth of inventory on hand. 

And that’s simply because 

five years ago, they needed 

1,000 per month. 1ow that 

requirement has dropped 

down to 10 per month. So 

when you do the math and 

compare, all of the sudden, 

we have many more years of 

inventory on hand than we 

need. That’s why it constantly 

needs to be reviewed.”

DLA Troop Support 

relies heavily on rightsizing 

its inventory year-round 

to help deal with seasonal 

fluctuations, said =enowy 

Bojc]uk, a business process 

analyst in DLA Troop Support.

“In the ne[t few months, our medical 

[supply chain] is going to be getting $11 

million worth of nerve agent antidote, ́ 

he said. “And our construction and 

equipment >supply chain@ is receiving 

2 million of inventory from the *eneral 

Services Administration and another $10 

million from the services. Plus there are 

always certain things we keep in excess 

for contingency, like rations, because if we 

get another natural disaster, we need the 

inventory. Because some of our inventory 

is seasonal stock, we have to plan around 

this additional inventory that’s always 

coming in just to stay ahead of our goal.”

In fiscal 201, DLA Troop Support 

disposed of 129 million in inventory. 

But finding items for disposal isn’t 

always clear-cut, even with thousands of 

commodities, Bojc]uk said.

“When you have an obsolete item, 

most people think it’s easy to dispose 

of, that we can just throw it away, ́ he 

said. “But it doesn’t work that way. <ou 

have to research it, see when it became 

obsolete and why. A lot of times, when 

you get into the weeds, it becomes much 

more complicated. Maybe it’s obsolete 

only because we can’t buy it anymore, yet 

there was demand on it three months ago. 

That means we may still need it and we 

wind up having to keep the item. So some 

things aren’t as simple as they may seem.”

Long-term contracts have helped 

DLA Troop Support keep both inventory 

and budget costs down, Bojc]uk said.

“In our case, as long as it’s not an 

e[cluded item, potential e[cesses go out 

to our supply planners to get individually 

reviewed, ́ he said. “We’re constantly 

pushing for more long-term contracts 

where we can. They allow us to still satisfy 

the customer but keep less inventory. 

Although we’re under our goal right now, 

we’ve got to continue pushing to keep our 

numbers in check.”

DLA Land and Maritime is assisting 

its customers with exclusion reviews as 

part of an effort to lower its contingency 

stock, said Shawn Cody, planning division 

chief for DLA Land and Maritime in 

Columbus, 2hio.

“Last year, we worked with the 1avy 

to review five major weapon system 

e[clusions, and based on those reviews, 

we were able to adjust our retention 

levels and take almost $75 million worth 

of disposal actions associated with that 

protected inventory, ́ he said. “This year, 

we’re working on additional reviews 

against those same platforms, and we’re 

hoping to again achieve some significant 

inventory reductions and initiate 

additional disposals in September.”

Other reviews in the works target 

parts for Mine Resistant Ambush 

3rotected vehicles, which 

account for $517 million of DLA 

Land and Maritime’s overall 

inventory, Cody said.

“Right now, we’re trying 

to make some smart business 

decisions and minimize the risk 

associated with our customers, ́ 

he said. “Last year, we did a 

significant amount of disposals, 

about 1. billion, and a lot 

of that was associated with 

low-risk material, like obsolete 

items. 1ow we’re looking at 

disposing of materials that 

have had demand within the 

past three years. So we want to 

make the right decisions. 1ot 

only because we don’t want 

to impact the overall readiness 

for the MRA3 program, but also 

because we want to make sure that we 

don’t have to rebuy some of this material 

at significantly higher prices than what 

we initially paid for it.”

Other planned reductions include 

an additional $80 million or more in 

inventory across potential reutilization 

stock, contingency retention stock and 

economic retention stock disposals by 

September, Cody said.

“The main question is, can we 

still support the customer in the right 

manner without having to carry all of that 

additional inventory and all of the costs 

associated with it?” he said. “At this time it 

seems like we can.” 

Sailors assigned aboard the USS Ronald Reagan and Japanese relief 

workers load supplies to support earthquake and tsunami relief efforts near 

Sendai, Japan. DLA Troop Support counts humanitarian assistance items, 

such as rations, as part of its contingency retention stock. 

Navy Petty Ofcer 3rd Class Dylan McCord
Loglines l September - October 2014 11

hrough teamwork, agencywide 

collaboration and workforce 

involvement, the Defense 

Logistics Agency’s Time to Award 

initiative has made great strides 

over the past few months, producing 

notable results in reducing contract award 

times and standardizing processes. 

The initiative, which began in 

April 2013 with a team of 12 DLA 

representatives meeting several times a 

week to improve agency contract award 

procedures, is now in its implementation 

phase and is showing positive gains, said 

Yvette Burke, executive director for DLA 

Aviation contracting and acquisition 

management, who is leading the Time to 

Award initiative. 

“I think we’re doing very well,” 

Burke said. “The data shows a significant 

positive change in performance at the 

enterprise level.”

Those metrics, which come from 

reports from DLA’s field activities and 

measure progress from March to April, 

showed a 9 percent increase in timeliness 

of awards for simplified contracts, and a 

12 percent increase in timeliness for large 

contract awards, Burke said. There was also 

a five-day decrease in automated contract 

awards, which brings the agency to an 

Story by Sara Moore

TIME IS MONEY

hrough teamwork, agencywide 

collaboration and workforce 

involvement, the Defense 

Logistics Agency’s Time to Award 

initiative has made great strides T

over the past few months, producing 

Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Ryan Fromherz loads 

gear onto a plane in Indianapolis before 

leaving for Trondheim, Norway. DLA’s Time to 

Award initiative is helping the agency reduce 

contract processing time, getting supplies to 

warghters more quickly and efciently. 

— Photo by Marine Lance Cpl. Marcin Platek
12 www.dla.mil

In the past, DLA had engineers, quality assurance specialists and technical specialists, 

also called equipment specialists. Under the Time to Award initiative, those communities 

were combined to form the technical quality community, made up of newly designated 

product specialists.

average of 12 days for that process cycling 

time, close to the director’s goal of 10 days. 

The 10-day goal was actually an adjustment 

from a previous goal of 20 days, which the 

agency “blew away” quickly, she said. The 

agency also achieved a 1-day decrease in 

contract award time for simplified manual 

contracts, and the administrative lead time 

for large manual contracts is down to 219 

days, a 5-day decrease from April 201, 

when the initiative launched.

DLA field activities are now implementing new contract award procedures 

established by the Time to Award 

initiative, so the original team of 12 

representatives is no longer actively 

working on the effort, Burke said. 

Instead, DLA Logistics Operations and 

DLA Acquisition have taken charge 

of oversight and review of the initiative, and agency Lean Six Sigma black 

belts are guiding the process. The team 

working on contract procedures finished 

its formal work in September 2013, 

after producing reports on 23 areas that 

redesigned the contracting process. The 

team then worked with DLA Human 

Resources to turn the reports into 

formal policy and develop workforce 

training on the new procedures. That 

training was conducted in November, 

and the team members worked with 

personnel in DLA subordinate commands to develop new performance 

standards, which will be implemented in 

the coming months, she said. 

After the contracting team finished 

its work in September 2013, two 

technical quality teams were formed to 

go through the same redesign with the 

technical quality community, which is a 

new area established under the Time to 

Award initiative. In the past, DLA had 

engineers, quality assurance specialists 

and technical specialists, also called 

equipment specialists, Burke said. Under 

the Time to Award initiative, those 

communities were combined to form the 

technical quality community, made up of 

newly designated product specialists. 

That redesign process was much 

the same as the one in the contracting 

area, with data analysis, process 

mapping, focus groups and workforce 

interviews driving the decision making, 

but lessons learned in the first process 

made the technical quality redesign 

go more quickly, said Denise Price, a 

senior analyst in the continuous process 

improvement branch in DLA Logistics 

Operations who is leading the Time to 

Award implementation. 

“I would call it a rapid improvement, ́ 3rice said. “The big difference 

with the contracting process [was] we 

were struggling to get data, but at this 

juncture with the technical quality 

redesign, things were so mature that we 

had data coming out our ears. Not only 

did we have data to make decisions right 

away, but we also had data to control the 

processes at the same time, which has 

been a real luxury.”

Another lesson learned from the 

contracting process was to engage field 

activity personnel from the beginning, 

Burke said. Doing that in the technical 

quality phase made for speedy 

improvements and allowed the team to 

make changes in almost real time, as data 

came in. 

As the Time to Award initiative 

continues its implementation and review, 

DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Mark 

Harnitchek receives monthly updates on 

progress, and he tracks the two primary 

measures of administrative lead time 

and the number of purchase requests 

on hand, Burke said. Checking these 

Air Force Senior Airman Jacqueline Bongard 

conducts a contract le review at Eielson Air 

Force Base, Alaska. DLA’s Time to Award 

initiative is reducing the amount of time the 

agency spends on the contracting process, 

making the work of contracting specialists like 

Bongard more efcient and effective. 

Air Force Staff Sgt. Jim Araos
Loglines l September - October 2014 13

two measurements against each other 

gives a balanced perspective of how fast 

contracts are being awarded. She noted 

that the DLA organizations have worked 

very well together to arrive at decisions 

about new processes and communicating 

the changes to the workforce. 

As with any change to workflow and 

processes, transitioning the workforce 

to the new practices has required a lot 

of communication, training and leader 

involvement, Burke said. As the Time to 

Award team leaders went out and talked 

to the workforce, they found employees 

welcoming the changes, she said. This 

enthusiasm can probably be attributed 

to the level of engagement the team had 

with the workforce while developing the 

new practices; team members actively 

sought input from employees about their 

struggles, frustrations and best practices. 

In areas where supervisors have been 

very involved in implementing the new 

processes, employees have been even 

more successful, she said.

“This became more of a team sport, 

and everybody’s working much better 

together,” she said. “It’s great to have the 

workforce with open arms and welcoming 

the changes.”

Under the new contracting 

procedures, supervisors take a more 

active role in the work of their employees, 

helping to empower employees to make 

decisions at the lowest level possible, 

Price said.

“The supervisors are really going to 

have to change their role a little bit to 

be more integrators of the work than 

they have in the past,” she said. “They 

have to take a look at how the work is 

being prioritized on the buyer’s desk, the 

impact of these external requirements, 

whether they’re internal within the >field 

activities] or whether they have to go 

outside to the services, and then lastly, 

not requiring buyers to overprocess or 

overthink decisions.” 

Although it may be challenging 

to implement new practices and 

adapt to new ways of doing business, 

reducing the contract award time for 

DLA is important because it relates 

to the director’s goals of reducing 

inventory levels and saving money, 

Burke said. Speeding contract awards 

means customers get their goods 

faster, excess inventory doesn’t pile up 

after a customer’s needs change, and 

administrative costs go down, she noted. 

“We don’t want folks focusing on 

counting things; we want them to focus on 

speed, and obviously continued quality,” 

she said. “Quality’s inherent in this.” 

Sailors receive supplies aboard the USS Cape 

St. George while conducting an underway 

replenishment with the USNS Charles Drew 

in the Arabian Sea. DLA is reducing contract 

processing time through the Time to Award 

initiative. 

Navy Petty Ofcer 3rd Class Christopher S. Johnson 
14 www.dla.mil

Story by Beth Reece CHARTING 

NEW COURSES

he power of conversation is strong 

at the Defense Logistics Agency, 

where frequent discussions 

between agency and industry 

leaders have led to billions of 

dollars in savings.

Many critical conversations have 

come about during annual meetings with 

industry representatives in all of DLA’s 

supply chains. The meetings comprise the 

Captains of Industry Program, created 

in March 2012 to help the agency meet 

he power of conversation is strong 

at the Defense Logistics Agency, 

where frequent discussions 

between agency and industry 

leaders have led to billions of T

dollars in savings.
Loglines l September - October 2014 15

DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Mark 

Harnitchek’s goal of saving $13 billion 

through 2019. More than $8 billion of 

that is expected to be trimmed from 

material cost. As of the end of June, 

Captains of Industry participants had 

already identified 1. billion in savings 

and cost avoidances toward the effort. 

“We’ve got some fairly aggressive 

goals here, and you guys can help us 

with that because you’re part of this 

big process in terms of proposals and 

pricing,” Harnitchek said during a recent 

meeting with aviation suppliers. 

He estimated that 60 to 70 percent of 

new cost-savings ideas are born through 

the Captains of Industry Program.

The meetings are held in a three-hour 

roundtable format that encourages open 

discussion between DLA leaders and 

current and potential industry partners, as 

well as military leaders who attend to share 

their perspectives on changing demands 

from the military services. Separate events 

are held once a year for each of DLA’s 

diverse supply chains, allowing participants 

to focus on finding efficiencies that apply to 

specific commodities.

Captains of Industry meetings are held 

annually for each of DLA’s supply chains and 

bring together DLA leaders and current and 

potential industry partners in a roundtable 

setting in which participants can discuss better 

ways of doing business. 

Teodora Mocanu

Recent savings identified through 

the program range from the elimination 

of unproductive processes to increased 

use of performance-based logistics, said 

Navy Cdr. Steven Boycourt, who helps 

manage the program for DLA Acquisition. 

The performance-based logistics concept 

gives contractors partial responsibility for 

material readiness and typically reduces 
16 www.dla.mil

repair time and costs to the military.

Discussions on aviation repair 

parts led to new PBL contracts with 

Boeing, Honeywell, Raytheon and other 

manufacturers and resulted in $659 

million in savings, for example. 

In the 2013 meeting highlighting 

subsistence, vendors explained that 

commercial customers typically use 

much smaller food catalogs than military 

customers, so DLA Troop Support 

worked with vendors to reduce the 

number of types of items available via 

catalog by 52 percent. The effort saved 

money and made managing orders 

easier for vendors.

“This was one of the things that 

you guys suggested to us in terms of 

keeping the food quality great but 

taking some cost out. You told us that 

most of your commercial customers 

don’t have nearly the size of catalogs 

that we have. It’s not like we’ve gone 

to just one of everything, but a few of 

everything instead of 15 of everything. 

It makes your job a little easier in terms 

of management, and there’s some 

savings there as well,” Harnitchek told 

vendors in May.

When DLA leaders last met with bulk 

petroleum suppliers, they discovered 

procedures for filling fuel tanks still 

included obsolete military-specification 

requirements, thereby raising contract 

costs unnecessarily. DLA Energy worked 

with industry representatives to align 

government and commercial standards. 

The result was increased competition and 

a possible $35 million annual savings in 

fuel costs, officials said.

The Captains of Industry Program 

has also paved the way for collaboration 

between DLA and medical and 

pharmaceutical prime vendors. The 

agency is partnering with medical 

and surgical supplies distributor 

Air Force Airman 1st Class Calvin Bessette 

inspects a part from an F-16 Fighting Falcon. 

DLA has worked with manufacturers to get 

better prices for aviation repair parts.

Air Force Airman 1st Class Jonathon Alderman
Loglines l September - October 2014 17

Owens & Minor on commercial price 

benchmarking, an effort that includes 

working with the vendor base during 

negotiations to reduce the cost of material 

as well as tracking and evaluating 

Defense Department pricing strategies 

against industry best practices.

Industry representatives were 

initially wary of sharing information 

in the Captains of Industry meetings 

because they feared giving too much 

away to competitors and worried 

that DLA would shrink their profits, 

Boycourt said.

“Now that we’re into the third year, 

folks are opening up a lot more and 

sharing the great things they’ve done 

to win multiyear, multimillion-dollar 

contracts with us. It shows other vendors 

the possibilities when they come up with 

their own good ideas to cut costs and work 

more efficiently, ́ he added.

The dialog has become so intense 

in recent meetings that participants 

frequently go over the three-hour 

schedule. And while early meetings 

usually followed a script of DLA-led 

briefings, today they are widely used by 

vendors giving formal presentations on 

specific ways they can help the agency 

save more money. Food Services Inc. 

representatives have described how it’s 

exploring methods of combining loads 

of similar products provided by different 

suppliers to save container shipping costs, 

for example. And Ebrex Food Services 

is determining whether it can decrease 

operating costs by integrating dining 

facility menus among all the services. 

“We’ve had folks volunteer to give 

us their expertise, and we’ve also had 

companies come in and talk about the 

strides they’ve made that are external 

to us. It generates a lot of discussion 

and new ideas that we hadn’t thought of 

before,” Boycourt said.

The meetings have also shed light on 

the fact that, while many companies are 

regarded as competitors to one another, 

some are actually partners, as well.

“In many of our supply chains, one 

company may supply the commodity while 

another one supplies the transportation. 

Or one company might supply the 

packaging and another company provides 

transportation or the commodity,” 

Boycourt said. “So even though there is 

direct competition, there’s a lot of potential 

for partnership and collaboration.”

DLA is also able to better monitor 

industrial health through the Captains of 

Industry Program because participants 

range from original equipment manufacturers to small businesses owned by 

minorities and service-disabled veterans.

“A lot of these companies exist only to 

fill orders by the 8.S. government, such 

as those that make uniforms, uniform 

insignia and boots. If these companies 

weren’t in business, we’d have a hard 

time meeting requirements for militaryspecific gear, ́ Boycourt added.

While the program has led to 

improvements for DLA and vendors alike, 

customers are the main benefactors. 

“We pass these savings directly back 

to our customer through reduced material 

costs and recovery rates. That’s what this 

is all about,” he said. 

Air Force Staff Sgt. Amber Lloyd scans 

medications at the pharmacy at Ellsworth Air 

Force Base, South Dakota. DLA’s Captains 

of Industry Program has enabled the 

agency to get better prices on medical and 

pharmaceutical items.

Dining facility managers now have an easier 

time ordering food items thanks to DLA Troop 

Support’s work with prime vendors to streamline catalogs and save money, an effort that 

resulted from the 2013 Captains of Industry 

meeting highlighting subsistence.

Wallace McBride

Air Force Airman 1st Class Zachary Hada
18 www.dla.mil

n a time of fiscal caution, buyers 

want to ensure they’re getting the 

best product for the best value. The 

traditional process of comparing 

prices with numerous vendors is 

economical, but time consuming. A DLA 

initiative known as reverse auctions 

is helping bring new suppliers to the 

agency’s customers while ensuring they 

still get the lowest price.

Typical auctions reward the bidder 

willing to pay the highest price, but reverse 

auctions have vendors bid down to the 

lowest price to win a contract. The result 

is that DLA is able to provide services and 

products at the best price possible.

“It’s a great way to save money for the 

n a time of fiscal caution, buyers 

want to ensure they’re getting the 

best product for the best value. The 

traditional process of comparing 

prices with numerous vendors is 

economical, but time consuming. A DLA 

I

THE BOTTOM 

DOLLAR VALUE

Story by Navy Petty Ofcer 1st Class Daniel Garas

ta[payers and to engage with our supplier 

base, ́ said Charles +owerton, DLA’s 

reverse auction program manager.

The program traces its origins to 

2009, when +owerton was contacted 

by DLA Troop Support representatives 

asking to piggyback off of a 1avy contract 

to perform a reverse auction. 

“They called headquarters and said, 

μ+ey, can we do this"’ ́ +owerton said. 

“Ever since then, reverse auctions have 

been a strong success story for DLA, and 

it’s gotten stronger over time. ́

*lenn Starks, division chief for DLA 

Acquisition 3rograms, said reverse 

auctions also support contracting 

specialists who previously relied on 

vendors to quote an accurate market 

value. The open market bidding of the 

initiative means the true market is based 

purely on competition.

“<ou are getting a realistic quote on 

what that market item price really is, ́ 

Starks said. “When the market forces 

vendors to compete against one another, 

they’re going to be more realistic, because 

they all know the true market value and 

what the real costs of the items are. ́

The program’s success has had a big 

economic impact. Reverse auctions have 

saved DLA 2.2 billion dollars since their 

implementation in 2012. 

Starks e[plained that commercial 

items with strong price histories and 

multiple manufacturers make good 

candidates for reverse auctions. +e added 

that while reverse auctions are not used as 

heavily for services contracts, that option 

is being analy]ed for greater use in the 

near future.

Customers aren’t the only ones who 

benefit from the deal. +owerton said 

businesses that understand their costs 

and know their bottom line could profit 

tremendously.

Starks e[plained that reverse auctions 

also give smaller vendors a chance to 

compete at a federal level.

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Edgar Miller packs his 

mobility bag with body armor. DLA’s reverse 

auction program has saved more than $2.2 billion 

since its implementation in 2012 and allows for a 

wider variety of vendors to keep troops supplied 

with essentials like personal gear, body armor 

and equipment.

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Caycee Watson
Loglines l September - October 2014 19

successful suppliers are those that know 

their break-even point and pricing and 

come ready to negotiate. 

“<ou’ve got to get in there and give it 

your best, ́ he said. “If you’re prepared, 

you can take advantage of a competitor’s 

lack of preparation. ́

Similar auctions hosted 

and controlled by third-party 

vendors for other agencies can 

lead to additional costs, but 

DLA conducts its own auctions.

“2ur auctions are 100 

percent conducted and 

controlled by our government 

contracting specialists, ́ 

Starks said. “We’re doing all 

the work, so we really are 

saving a lot of money. ́

DLA also offers training 

to both its own employees 

and private industry representatives to 

keep the rapid pace of the auctions from 

intimidating new suppliers and limiting the 

number of bidders, Starks said.

“We actually walk them through a 

mock auction to show them how it works 

“In the old environment, a large 

business could basically run a small 

business out just by coming in with a really 

low price, ́ he said. “But now, everyone 

can see what the actual price being bid 

is, so it really gives them openness and 

transparency with one another. ́

+owerton said he 

believes this transparency 

breaks down barriers that 

previously kept small 

suppliers from competing 

on a larger scale.

“If you’re a supplier 

that’s hungry « to reduce 

your costs, reverse 

auctions are the way to 

go, ́ +owerton said. “It 

levels the playing field. ́

DLA begins a reverse 

auction by announcing a 

solicitation online. After the agency sets 

up a date, time and link, suppliers log into 

an application that allows them to track 

the auction and place bids. 

+owerton said auctions last about 

0 minutes on average and that the most 

before we do a live one, ́ he said. 

DLA also holds biweekly conference 

calls with buyers at the agency’s field 

activities to ensure their personnel are 

trained on how to use reverse auctions 

and share best practices. 

“If one activity learns a good practice 

or tool, we share that with everybody so 

that everyone can learn the same thing, ́ 

+owerton said. “That helps everyone get 

the most out of reverse auctions. ́

+owerton said he believes the 

fle[ibility, structure and transparency of 

reverse auctions are a win-win for everyone 

involved. Suppliers benefit because they get 

a fair shot at quoting on the price, and they 

know what their competitors are bidding, 

as well. This means DLA gets products at 

the lowest price.

“This is the perfect opportunity for 

suppliers, if they’re efficient, to get that 

business, ́ he said. “In a competitive 

environment, they can benefit from this 

kind of situation. ́ 

“You’ve got to get 

in there and give it 

your best. If you’re 

prepared, you can 

take advantage of a 

competitor’s lack of 

preparation.”

— Charles Howerton

Marine Corps recruit Erika Esparza holds 

up her newly issued equipment shortly after 

arriving for boot camp. The open-market 

bidding process of reverse auctions drives 

down costs on items troops may nd in their 

everyday gear issue.

Reverse auctions use a Web-based pricing tool that fosters competition between 

contractors to reduce the price the government pays for a particular item. By requesting 

items from multiple suppliers, DLA is able to get those suppliers to bid against each 

other to offer the best price for the item. 

Marine Lance Cpl. Vaniah Temple
A Conversation with . . .

20 www.dla.mil

Since you first took over, you’ve 

referred to DLA in large terms 

– from its “colossal” mission to 

your directive to “go big and go 

early.” What is it about the agency 

and its missions that makes that 

comparison so accurate?

I’ve always thought of DLA as 

a monster of an outfit because 

of the gargantuan missions we 

take in stride and overcome. 

Navy Vice Adm.

Mark Harnitchek

DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek.

DLA’s director talks about the agency’s accomplishments during his tenure.

Look at some of the recent ones 

± our response to +urricane 

Sandy, our efforts to put money 

back in our customers’ pockets 

without skipping a beat in the 

services we provide, and all 

the work we’ve done to get 

equipment in and then out of 

Iraq and Afghanistan – and 

you can see that DLA doesn’t 

back down from huge, comple[ 

logistics challenges. 1o one 

knows this stuff better than us, 

and the DLA team acts like it 

every time it’s called upon. The 

team simply says, “We can, we 

will, ́ and then succeeds.

In your time here, what do you 

look at as DLA’s big moments?

How we respond in adverse 

conditions has always resulted in 

big moments for us. We do things 

that astound me and leaders 

across our organi]ation daily. 

When 3akistan closed its borders 

to movement into Afghanistan, 

how we responded made it almost 

invisible on the ground that 

one of our major supply lines 

had closed. Sandy was another 

e[ample. We just had the DLA 

Energy change of command in 

July, and I highlighted how we 

responded when we were asked 

to provide fuel to gas stations in 

1ew <ork and 1ew -ersey. We 

just said, “Sure, we can do that, ́ 

and we had no idea how. But 

we figured it out and helped get 

people on the East Coast back on 

their feet one mission at a time. 

Teodora Mocanu
DLA Public Affairs

Loglines l September - October 2014 21

What do you think are some 

of the biggest challenges the 

agency has faced during your 

time as its director?

Adjusting to changing how we 

do business. I think that’s the 

hardest thing for any of us to do 

personally. We all have patterns 

in our lives, and it can be tough 

to change from the routine and 

try something new. We’ve done 

a great job focusing on our “Big 

Ideas ́ ± finding 1 billion in 

savings that we can give back 

to the services is no small task, 

but we’re doing it. Across the 

agency, folks have risen to 

the challenge and found ways 

where we can do things more 

efficiently and stop doing things 

that don’t add value.

You’ve often said that nothing 

keeps you up at night, because 

you know DLA’s workforce can 

handle anything. How does that 

help when a new challenge – be 

it a hurricane or a government 

shutdown – surfaces?

It’s true, I say that all the 

time. I also follow it up with 

it’s the DLA workforce that 

gives me that tremendous 

confidence. 2ne of the things 

that comes with doing military 

logistics for over  years is 

knowing “what right looks 

like. ́ And DLA not only looks 

right, it is right in terms of 

an organi]ation that can 

handle any logistics challenge 

anytime, anywhere. So having 

the great honor of leading 

an organi]ation like DLA, I 

simply don’t spend a second 

worrying about the ne[t crisis 

or challenge. And I don’t worry 

because I know DLA and our 

partners in the Log 1ation will 

simply figure it out. 

In your 2014 Director’s 

Guidance, you wrote, “We are 

living in historic times ... doing 

things we’ve never done before 

... make some history yourself.” 

What mark do you hope you are 

leaving on DLA?

I hope that I have left the 

agency in a position to adapt 

to the changing environment 

more quickly. I know we have 

shown we are more than 

capable of responding to crisis 

situations, and in fact we do this 

in our day-to-day business. I 

believe I am leaving the agency 

with a culture of professional 

logisticians that know their 

business better than anyone in 

the world, and they are ready to 

prove it on any given day. 

Where do you think the agency 

is going over the next five to 

10 years?

We need to continue our 

unrelenting focus on delighting 

our customers, on being ready in 

the increasingly uncertain joint 

operating environment and on 

driving out cost. 

Is there anything else you’d like to 

talk about?

My time at DLA has been 

a pivotal time in military 

logistics, and I want to give 

special thanks and recognition 

to our civil servants. When you 

look at the big DoD logistics 

organi]ations like DLA, it’s 

our great civilian logisticians 

who know this business, who 

understand it and know how 

to operate it so great things 

happen. So “Bravo =ulu ́ to all 

my civilian shipmates at DLA 

and throughout the Log 1ation. 

Thanks and good on you

“My time at DLA has been a pivotal time in military logistics, and I want to give special 

thanks and recognition to our civil servants. When you look at the big DoD logistics 

organizations like DLA, it’s our great civilian logisticians who know this business, who 

understand it and know how to operate it so great things happen.”

— Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek
22 www.dla.mil

Sailors aboard the USS Essex paint the hull 

of the ship during a maintenance period. 

Hazardous materials can include items such 

as solvents for applying paint, the paint itself 

or even cleanup debris, like rags and brushes. 

— Photo by Navy Petty Ofcer 2nd Class Frank Andrews

partnership between the Defense 

Logistics Agency and Naval Sea 

Systems Command has helped 

implement a new system for 

managing hazardous materials 

and waste compliance reporting at four 

naval shipyards.

The Hazardous Material Management 

System replaced the Navy’s hazardous 

materials and hazardous waste system 

that was being retired, said Carolyn 

Liebeck, program manager for chemical 

management services in DLA Logistics 

Operations. DLA took responsibility 

for this mission as part of the Base 

Realignment and Closure Act of 2005.

“This was a huge endeavor,” she said. 

“These shipyards are the four largest 

industrial sites for the Navy; they’re 

massive facilities. So the partnership and 

teamwork with NAVSEA was essential in 

making this program a success.”

NAVSEA’s four shipyards are 

Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, 

Virginia; Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard 

and Intermediate Maintenance Facility 

in Hawaii; Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 

Kittery, Maine; and Puget Sound Naval 

Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance 

Facility in Bremerton, Washington, said 

Navy Capt. Michael Renegar, the former 

head of the shipyard material program at 

NAVSEA, who retired in July.

“Each of the shipyards was basically 

an individual project in itself,” he said. 

Story by Amanda Neumann

partnership between the Defense 

Logistics Agency and Naval Sea 

Systems Command has helped 

implement a new system for 

managing hazardous materials A

and waste compliance reporting at four 

“This new system 

standardizes all the business 

processes and procedures across 

the shipyards to allow them to manage 

and track hazardous material from its 

initial acquisition all the way through 

to its disposal in one system. For DLA, 

as a customer service advocate, that’s 

huge. Now end users don’t have to ask 

for assistance on different processes at 

different locations. ́

According to the NAVSEA 

website, naval shipyards perform 

logistics support and work in 

STANDARDIZING

SUPPORT
Loglines l September - October 2014 23

Navy Seaman Joseph Engle paints a bulkhead in the 

upper vehicle deck aboard the USS Boxer. Maintenance 

shops at shipyards can now request reports to see what 

hazardous material they have using the Navy’s new 

Hazardous Material Management System. 

— Photo by Navy Petty Ofcer 3rd Class Robert R. Sanchez
24 www.dla.mil

connection with ship conversion, 

overhaul, repair, alternation, dry docking, 

outfitting, manufacturing, recycling, 

research, redevelopment and test work. 

This kind of work often requires materials 

that are considered hazardous, such as 

paints, adhesives and oils, Renegar said.

“Each of the shipyards has federal, 

state and Environmental Protection 

Agency standards and protocols they 

have to follow on hazardous materials,” 

he said. “Now, [the Hazardous Material 

Management System] allows them to 

have more accountability and visibility 

of all of the hazardous 

material on the shipyard, 

not just what’s in the storage 

warehouse, but even what’s 

stored in the end users’ 

lockers too.”

Before the project started, 

a testing phase was conducted 

to ensure that HMMS would 

be able to meet each shipyard’s 

requirements, Renegar said. 

Site visits were conducted 

and hands-on training was 

provided to users at each 

location. Data from the old 

system was then migrated into 

HMMS before the system went 

live at each of the sites a few 

days later.

“Three shipyards were 

basically being worked on 

at one time,” he said. “The 

challenge was getting one 

started, then bringing the next 

one online to shadow, while still 

working with the completed 

one on follow-up. So there was 

a lot of strategic planning and 

communication with the key 

players involved to ensure the 

successful implementation of 

the project at each location.”

Weekly calls were held 

with stakeholders at each 

shipyard during the 15-month 

project, which ended with the 

last, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, 

going live April 25, Liebeck said. 

“We had calls on a weekly basis so 

we could capitalize on lessons learned 

from each shipyard going forward,” 

she said. “During the project, [our 

contractor] brought in a ‘tiger team’ to 

re-label all the items in the warehouse 

and the waterfront lockers. We also hired 

a [computer technician] to stay on each 

site for a year to help with the system 

functionality and user questions.”

Dacia Long, a hazardous material 

manager in DLA Distribution, works with 

the Hazardous Material Management 

System at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

“We receive the hazardous material, 

then the other half of the warehouse 

processes it and puts the hazardous 

labels on it,” she said. “We then store it in 

the warehouse until the shipyard needs 

it. From that point onward, we track it 

throughout the shipyard using HMMS 

until it is disposed of or used up. Then 

it gets handled by the [environmental 

operations branch of the] shipyard.”

As one of the largest naval bases in 

the world, Norfolk Naval Shipyard sends 

almost 1 million pounds of hazardous 

waste off-site a year, said Amos Webb, 

environmental operations branch head for 

the Navy. He said the Hazardous Material 

Management System has allowed his office 

to do several things they could not do in 

the past with the old system.

“)or us, the real benefit has been the 

ability for everyone to be able to utilize 

HMMS to extract data,” he said. “That 

was very, very limited with our other 

system to only one to two people at a 

site. Now one of the big things that we’re 

working toward is printing all of our 

labels for our waste containers, which 

our old system didn’t support. In a lot of 

cases, we’re hoping to be able to use the 

information on the container number to 

figure out where the material came from, 

thereby figuring out how much it costs to 

do certain activities.”

Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s work on the 

nuclear-powered fleet is a 2 operation, 

Webb said, and usually averages 10 

containers of hazardous waste per day.

“When maintaining ships, it can be 

items like solvents for applying paint, the 

paint itself or the cleanup debris, like rags 

and brushes that would be waste at the 

end of the day,” he said. “It’s important 

that as soon as a waste container is full 

and turned in, we begin the process of 

shipping it out. HMMS also helps us with 

that. The two important things you have 

to properly identify are what it is and 

when it was generated or put into storage. 

Previously, human error was always an 

issue. You would look at two containers 

Navy Seaman Quevaris Brigman paints a bulkhead in 

the hangar bay aboard the USS Boxer. The Navy’s new 

Hazardous Material Management System can manage and 

track hazardous material from its initial acquisition to its 

disposal in one system.

Navy Seaman Veronica Mammina
Loglines l September - October 2014 25

named the same thing with different 

underlying data. Now with HMMS, that 

has been done away with.”

William Fales, a DLA Land and 

Maritime Storage Branch manager, 

uses the new system to track hazardous 

materials at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. 

He said maintenance shops on the 

shipyard, and sometimes the mechanics 

themselves, will often request reports to 

see what hazardous material they have in 

their possession.

“In June, we had more than 

9,200 individual pieces of hazardous 

material in use out in the shipyard,” he 

said. “Since [the Hazardous Material 

Management System] helps us keep 

an accurate inventory, we can pull up 

those reconciliation reports and find that 

information out when requested. It’s been 

great. HMMS has gone above and beyond 

what we thought it could be used for.”

Tim Dunn, an environmental 

management program manager, served 

as the Navy’s lead for the Hazardous 

Material Management System 

implementation effort at 

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. 

He said several internal 

changes made in advance 

helped ease the transition for 

shipyard employees.

“First, we had to learn 

new terminology for a lot 

of the items associated with 

HMMS,” he said. “We also 

had to do a lot of cleanup 

from our old system since 

that information was later 

used to populate HMMS. And there were 

a lot of data migration errors that we had 

to troubleshoot through. But all of that 

actually helped us in the long run because 

it allowed us to make policy decisions that 

we hadn’t thought of before the HMMS 

implementation.”

Part of Portsmouth’s implementation 

included re-barcoding all of the shipyard’s 

hazardous materials on-site, including 

0,000 items sitting in warehouses and 

5,000 individual items located in the 

shipyard’s waterfront lockers, he said.

“It was a challenge,” 

Dunn said. “With more 

than 121,000 pounds of new 

hazardous material received 

every year, it was important 

for us to get the stuff out in 

the shipyard done quickly 

and then work on the bulk 

of the material, which were 

the items in the warehouse. 

For us, HMMS really came 

about at a good time. We 

were already focusing on 

hazardous materials, but HMMS allowed 

us to tighten that focus.”

2ther systemwide benefits of the 

Hazardous Material Management 

System, including a streamlined process 

for generating reports and a significant 

cost savings over the previous system, 

have made HMMS an all-around asset 

for both DLA and NAVSEA personnel, 

Liebeck said.

“As a partnership between NAVSEA 

headquarters and DLA Headquarters, it 

was a huge success for both of us to turn 

something like this around in 15 months,” 

she said. “It was a constant movement 

back and forth. But our partnership was 

phenomenal. We both had the end state in 

mind and said we will successfully achieve 

this, no matter what. And we did.” 

“For us, HMMS really 

came about at a good 

time. We were already 

focusing on hazardous 

materials, but HMMS 

allowed us to tighten 

that focus.”

— Tim Dunn

Shipyards such as Pearl Harbor Naval 

Shipyard perform logistics support and 

work in connection with ship construction, 

conversion, overhaul, repair, alternation, dry 

docking, outtting, manufacturing research, 

redevelopment and test work. This work often 

requires the use of hazardous materials that 

can now be tracked through the Navy’s new 

Hazardous Material Management System. 

Coast Guard Petty Ofcer 2nd Class Patrick Kelley Randall Wisinger

Hazardous materials at Norfolk Naval Shipyard 

in Portsmouth, Virginia, sit in a warehouse 

before use. As one of the largest naval bases 

in the world, Norfolk Naval Shipyard sends 

almost 1 million pounds of hazardous waste 

off-site a year. 
26 www.dla.mil

1775 1800

ilitary rations and mess halls have drawn plenty of 

criticism from troops yearning for the home-cooked 

meals they grew up eating. But some have savored 

military cuisine, such as Sgt. Phillip Aquila, an 

Italian-American from New York who served during 

World War II. 

“It just burns me up when people squawk about Army food,” 

Aquila wrote to his sister during the war. In another letter home he 

bragged about eating “a nice piece of steak.” And while his family 

celebrated Thanksgiving 1944 with chicken, potatoes and soup, 

Aquila enjoyed turkey and was offered more trimmings than he 

could pile onto his plate.

“Soldiers stationed stateside were very well provided for 

then, even though American families were dealing with the Great 

Depression and food was rationed. In fact, many Army recruits 

gained so much weight during basic training they needed new 

clothes afterward,” said Chrissie Reilly, one of two historians 

recently hired to archive the Defense Logistics Agency’s history 

and support historical projects at all of the agency’s field activities. 

Menus and rations have changed throughout the years, but 

the problems of supplying food to service members are the same 

today as they were during the Revolutionary War, Reilly said.

“We still have to figure out how to get food from point 

A to point B, and perishability is still a big challenge. The 

bottom line is everyone needs food; you can only go so long 

without eating,” she added. 

Story by Beth Reece

M

A look at the evolution of combat rations used 

by the United States military through the past 

239 years.

Union Army Provost Marshall Capt. J. 

W. Forsyth sits on a crate of hardtack, 

a cracker-like bread served to Soldiers 

during the Civil War. — Library of Congress Photo 

COMBAT CHOW 

MILESTONES

COMBAT

CHOW

First U.S. Army ration established by 

congressional resolution – enough food 

for one person for one day.

1800s: Airtight tin food 

preservation invented. In 1785, the spirit ration 

was established at 4 ounces 

of rum.
Loglines l September - October 2014 27

1825 1850 1875

Military leaders have always 

recognized the connection between 

service members’ morale and how 

well they’re fed, but providing 

food during the Revolutionary and 

Civil wars was more about basic 

sustainment than pleasing palates. 

After years of unsuccessfully counting on the colonies to provide 

food for their own militias, Gen. George Washington appointed 

a commissary general to oversee procurement and distribution. 

And in 1775, the Continental Congress established a per person 

daily allowance of 16 ounces 

of beef, 18 ounces of flour, 16 

ounces of milk, 6.8 ounces of 

peas, 1.4 ounces of rice and 1 

quart of spruce beer. Troops 

didn’t always get their daily 

ration, however.

“They had bad winter 

weather. And while 

farmlands and food 

were plentiful in nearby 

Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the 

Army didn’t have enough 

wagons to make the threeday ride to deliver it to Washington’s troops at Valley Forge,” 

Reilly said. 

Some troops had to hunt for their food. Others relied on 

civilian merchants who set up small stores outside of Army posts 

or away from defense lines.

By the Civil War, troop rations grew to include coffee, sugar, 

potatoes, yeast powder and pepper. But inadequate supplies and 

inconsistent delivery continued. Hardtack, an inexpensive, longlasting cracker made from flour and water, became a staple food 

that troops jokingly called “digestible leather” and “teeth dullers.” 

Soldiers who tried softening it with coffee typically found bugs 

floating to the top of their tin cups.

“At that time, troops didn’t always have the option to not eat 

something just because it was spoiled. If all they had was beef 

with worms in it or hardtack infested with insects, they ate it,” 

Reilly said. “Food was meant to be sustenance; how it tasted 

didn’t really matter.”

Improved quality rations made 

their debut on the battlefields in World 

War I, which also brought larger troop 

movements and the need to send supplies overseas. The Army 

developed specialized rations, including the emergency ration and 

trench ration. The trench ration included enough canned bread 

and meat to feed 25 men for a day, as well as sugar, salt, coffee 

and cigarettes. It was packed in large, galvanized containers and 

could be prepared as a hot or cold meal. The emergency ration 

was carried by troops to use when no other food was available 

and contained three 3-ounce cakes of beef powder and wheat 

along with a 31-ounce chocolate bar.

A nationwide food shortage and the United States’ need to 

supply food to allies made it hard for the military to get enough 

George Washington’s mess kit is one of 

the artifacts in the Smithsonian Institution’s 

Museum of American History. Revolutionary 

War-era Soldiers would have carried their 

own plates, cups and utensils. 

Army Master Sgt. Victor Horwath, from the 174th Infantry, New York National 

Guard, tests the Army’s new C-ration in 1940.

In 1832, the spirit ration was replaced 

with a ration of coffee and sugar.

The Union Army had experienced quartermasters, more 

food production facilities than the Confederate Army, and 

established infrastructure for moving food.

 Canned goods are introduced. The U.S. military introduces the travel 

ration, a self-contained standard ration 

containing meat, hard bread, coffee 

and sugar. Although canned foods were 

no longer a new item by the 

1860s, their use was still 

novel and not widespread.

U.S. Army Photo
28 www.dla.mil

of it to the front lines, Reilly said, so President Woodrow Wilson 

created the U.S. Food Administration.

“This was a unique program, because it appealed to the 

American spirit of volunteerism and asked Americans to give up 

meat, wheat, sugar and fat to ensure there was enough for the 

armed forces,” she said.

Citizens were asked to grow as much of their own food as 

possible.

“If people weren’t buying it, there’d be more available for the 

military, and because there was less demand, they could get it at a 

better price,” she added.

The military began storing food in warehouses 

and depots after World War I for use in stateside 

dining facilities. With the impending threat of World 

War II, it also began developing more than 20 versions of field 

rations that could be used when field kitchens weren’t practical. 

Among the best-known were C- and K-rations. The first C-rations 

consisted of six cans and included precooked meat, vegetables, 

crackers, sugar and coffee. They were bulky and cumbersome for 

troops who depended on mobility for survival, so the pocket-sized 

K-ration was later introduced. 

Field rations were becoming standard 

battlefield fare, and most dining facilities 

were steadily stocked, but wartime needs 

were so great that American families were 

issued ration books that limited the amount 

of goods they could buy. The “Signal Corps 

Message,” a weekly newspaper at Fort 

Monmouth, New Jersey, reported that the 

Army alone received 15 percent of all the food 

in the nation during 1944. 

“Citizens were told it was their patriotic 

duty to make sure those who were fighting the 

war had the best food available,” Reilly said. 

Just before Thanksgiving 1944, the War 

Food Administration restricted the sale of turkeys to civilians 

until the military bought what it wanted.

By the middle of the war, Hormel Foods was producing 15 

million cans of a precooked meat called Spam for the military. 

Troops often griped about its abundance, and in 1966, retired 

Army Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote this to Hormel: “I 

ate my share of Spam along with millions of soldiers. I’ll even 

confess to a few unkind remarks about it. As former commander 

in chief, I officially forgive you your only sin: sending us so much 

of it.”

Spam was an ideal combat ration, because it was prepackaged, 

easy to ship and stayed fresh for months, Reilly said.

Although the military increased research on battlefield 

nutrition, Korean War troops were mostly stuck with C-rations, 

which had evolved to cans of spaghetti and meatballs, beef stew, 

or franks and beans; hard bread; crackers; chocolate or hard 

candy; cigarettes; chewing gum; and coffee. Canned fruit and 

cakes were sometimes added. 

The effort to procure perishable food and rations 

was started in 1953 by the newly established Defense 

Subsistence Supply Center, which became part of the 

Defense Supply Agency in 1961. Food logisticians were 

1900 1925 1950

Rations change little from the late 1800s. 

Canned meat, hard bread, coffee and sugar 

remain the staples of Soldiers’ ration.

The United States Food Administration was 

established in 1917 to oversee food reserves.

1930s: Hormel introduces Spam.

C-ration, or combat ration, begins 

development. Ration components 

remain the same, packed in a box 

for Soldiers to carry.

Korean War Soldiers use mainly B-rations 

and leftover C-rations from WWII.

The Army issues the 

newly developed MCI – 

Meal, Combat, Individual 

– to each Soldier.

A Soldier provides a cooking demonstration stateside during World War II.

National Archives
Loglines l September - October 2014 29

money by reducing storage 

requirements and spoilage 

costs for the entire 

Defense Department. 

The program currently 

uses more than 

40 commercial 

distributors, such as 

those who deliver 

to grocery stores 

and restaurants, to 

deliver food and beverages to service members stationed 

throughout the world. 

“Before we went with the prime vendor program, we had 

businesses that existed for the sole purpose of providing food 

to the military. They didn’t have a commercial outlet for their 

products, so they didn’t look like commercial products or taste 

like commercial products,” said Rich Faso, director of customer 

operations for DLA Troop Support Subsistence.

Variety was also limited, and customers were lucky to get 

even a single item added every six months, he said.

“Now customers can order new items every week if they want. 

It’s understood that if they want something, we’ll get it for them,” 

Faso continued. 

While DLA works closely with customers to ensure more 

health-conscious foods are available, the agency also partners 

with the Combat Feeding Directorate at Natick, Massachusetts, 

during the development and testing of new rations. Among items 

being tested now is one that troops have requested for years: a 

pizza entrée for MREs. 

“It’s in prototype right now, but we’ve got to be careful, 

because everybody has an expectation of pizza. You’re not going 

to fool anybody by pushing out a cardboard triangle with some 

tomato sauce on it,” Faso said.

The desire to give service members food they want to eat is 

stronger than ever, Reilly added.

“It took time for technology to catch up,” she said. “And 

now we have professional tasters who evaluate food for 

palatability and texture. It’s all about giving troops food that’s 

good for them that they actually want to eat.” 

The DLA History Office contributed to this article. 

It provides historical support to all of the agency’s 

activities. It assists field activities with historical 

projects, compiles and publishes annual histories, 

conducts oral history interviews, collects historical 

documents and organizes them in archives, and 

conducts leader development activities such as 

senior leader staff rides. 

To contact the DLA History Ofce:

history@dla.mil

1975 2000 Present

The MRE – Meal, Readyto-Eat – is developed.

The Fielded Individual Ration Improvement Program 

changed the menu of rations each year and 

expanded the number of meals available.

1993: Flameless 

Ration Heater 

debuted.

2008: First Strike 

Ration developed.

Service members in locations such as Afghanistan typically have 

access to hot meals at indoor dining facilities that serve a variety of 

entrees for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Today’s MREs contain entrees ranging 

from cheese tortellini to southwest beef 

with black beans. They also come in 

kosher and vegetarian versions.

especially tested with the military 

buildup in Vietnam, because 

there was no clearly defined 

fighting front. They worked 

with American manufacturers to 

develop mobile kitchen trailers that 

allowed troops to carry food with them. 

The Defense Subsistence Supply Center 

also focused on providing food to all branches of the military 

instead of just a single service, a mission fulfilled today by DLA 

Troop Support.

 Troops involved in operations Desert Storm and Desert 

Shield in the early 1990s were the first to deploy with readyto-eat meals known as MREs. The first MREs included one of 

more than a dozen main courses such as ham, chicken loaf, pork 

patties, and beef slices in barbecue sauce. They were nicknamed 

“meals rejected by the enemy,” but were updated with new items 

according to service members’ likes and dislikes. Today’s MREs 

contain entrees like cheese tortellini, and southwest beef with 

black beans. They also come in kosher and vegetarian versions 

and include brand-name items such as M&Ms and Tabasco sauce.

Food service support greatly changed in 1993 when DLA 

implemented the prime vendor program, which instantly saved 

Air Force Senior Airman Wesley Farnsworth
I AM

My name is: 

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Faye S. Roque.

I am (job title): 

A Navy Reserve logistics specialist with DLA Disposition Services.

Describe your job in a sentence: 

I provide assistance managing, segregating and disposing of 

materials in Afghanistan.

How long have you worked for DLA?

More than five years.

What is your favorite thing about working for DLA? 

Working with individuals who willingly share their knowledge, talents and 

expertise in different divisions and aspects to understand the purpose of the 

mission, and providing assistance to our warfighters.

What is your best memory of working for DLA? 

I have numerous memories: working and integrating with other 

branches of the military; the opportunity to learn how to operate computer 

programs and have the ability to perform hands-on 

training on various machines operated by DLA and 

the “family concept” addressed by DLA, which 

constitutes securing your safety and your loved 

ones while performing your duties in Afghanistan.

How do you make a difference to warfighters? 

By carrying out the whole mission of DLA with pride 

and enthusiasm in a Navy uniform.

Faye S. Roque