SUPPORTING WARFIGHTERS

DLA CENTRAL

LOGLINES

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY JANUARY – FEBRUARY 2014
from the

DIRECTOR

Navy Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek, USN

Director, Defense Logistics Agency

supplying troops still fighting terrorists 

there to making sure the equipment we leave 

behind is properly demilitarized.

This issue of Loglines focuses on our 

operations throughout the U.S. Central 

Command area of responsibility, and a lot 

of that ties directly into what we’re doing in 

Afghanistan. Last month, I got to witness 

firsthand all the great things our people 

are doing there right now. It all starts 

with the DLA Support Team-Afghanistan, 

embedded at all levels with our warfighters 

to make sure they get the world-class 

support they’ve come to expect from this 

outfit. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The disposition mission in Afghanistan 

is colossal. Our expeditionary disposal 

remediation teams are throughout the 

country helping our warfighters decide what 

to destroy. Those teams go where the troops 

go and have kept more than 4,000 escorted 

trucks off dangerous roads littered with 

improvised explosive devices. It doesn’t stop 

there though; we’re giving the same support 

to our coalition partners. Figuring out what 

to take home and what to leave behind or 

destroy is a challenge we all share.

While it’s a big part of our efforts in 

Afghanistan, disposition isn’t the only 

show in town. We still have to support 

T

his past year has been another great 

one for the Defense Logistics Agency. 

We expanded our goals to now save 

our customers $13 billion over six years, 

and every member of Team DLA has 

made it a priority to significantly improve 

performance while dramatically reducing 

costs. Our customers are counting on 

us to save that money. As we move into 

2014, I know this big logistics machine will 

continue finding ways to make those two 

principles a reality. 

As we move into a new year, I’m 

reminded just how important those efforts 

are to our warfighters in Afghanistan. No 

matter what our two countries’ leaders 

decide, the U.S. presence there will be 

dramatically different 12 months from 

now. These are historic times, because 

we’re drawing down while continuing to 

engage in kinetic operations. At the same 

time, we’re transitioning to our future 

mission of training, advising and equipping 

our Afghan partners. DLA is a big part of 

the Defense Department’s efforts, from 

our troops there. We’re doing it smarter 

and saving money by finding alternate 

ways to get stuff there. Using an airport in 

Azerbaijan, DLA and U.S. Transportation 

Command have managed to get food to our 

troops in a third of the time it takes over 

the Northern Distribution Network. We’ve 

also saved $250 million doing it. DLA’s 

efforts in Afghanistan even extend to our 

Afghan allies. DLA Troop Support used 

its established partnerships to supply the 

Afghan National Police with the uniforms 

and equipment its people are going to need 

now and after U.S. forces have left. 

Of course, Afghanistan isn’t the only 

country USCENTCOM covers. DLA 

Support Team-Kuwait works to support 

our people throughout the region, helping 

give the agency one face for our customers when they need the great services we 

provide. In Bahrain, our people ensure 

we have enough stuff forward stocked to 

support the Navy’s 5th Fleet in some of the 

world’s most crucial waters. 

DLA is doing awesome things everywhere, and I know we will continue to do so 

in the coming year. Whatever the challenge 

– in USCENTCOM or elsewhere – I know 

we’ll rise to it. Happy New Year, and keep 

up the great work! 

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

Navy Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek

DLA Vice Director

Ted Case 

Chief of Staff

Renee L. Roman

Director, Public Affairs

Douglas Ide

Deputy Director, Public Affairs

Jack Hooper

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

military and Joint Reserve Force 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 U.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: Jacob Boyer

Layout/Design: Paul Henry Crank

Writers: Beth Reece

Sara Moore

Amanda Neumann

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

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

the address below:

LogLineS StAff
CONTENTS

Loglines l January - February 2014 1

A Conversation with ... 10

LogPoints 20

I am DLA Back Cover

DEPARTMENTS

January - February 2014

2

9

12

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

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DLA on the Web

16

Beyond Afghanistan 2

DLA Support Team-Kuwait is helping support U. S. 

forces by serving as the point of contact for warfighters 

and their needs in the U.S. Central Command area of 

responsibility. 

Forward Stocking 6

A three-year-old initiative is helping support the U.S. 

Navy’s 5th Fleet by getting the right parts in the right 

quantity at the right place at the right time.

New Uniforms for Afghan National Police 9

Equipping a fledging police force with new uniforms 

is no easy task, but DLA Troop Support’s experience 

and customer service proves the organization is more 

than capable.

Food Delivered in Half the Time 12

Getting food to Afghanistan is a logistical challenge, 

but DLA is helping get it there in half the time, while 

saving $250 million a year in the process.

Allied Disposal 15

As the drawdown in Afghanistan continues, DLA 

Disposition Services is helping U.S. forces and eight 

allied nations with the retrograde and disposal of 

thousands of vehicles and tons of equipment.

Boots on the Ground 16

In Afghanistan, DLA Disposition Services personnel 

are embedding with troops in the field to get as close 

as they can to bring the disposal mission to where it’s 

needed most.

Surveying Assets 21

With facilities across the globe, DLA requested assistance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to perform 

a complete survey of assets to help bring DLA up to full 

audit readiness.

DLA CENTRAL

Supporting Warfighters
2 www.dla.mil

Story by Amanda Neumann

hile most military efforts focus on 

Afghanistan, a small concentration of 

Defense Logistics Agency personnel are 

hard at work elsewhere in the U.S. Central 

Command area of responsibility, providing 

much-needed support to the rest of the region.

Conducting the majority of that work is DLA 

Support Team-Kuwait, based out of Camp Arifjan. 

The team, which includes staff members from across 

the agency, provides logistical support to conflicts, 

natural disasters, emergencies, mobilizations and 

other contingency operations in areas including 

Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, Oman and Iraq, said Navy 

Capt. James Liberko, DST-Kuwait commander.

“We support [U.S. Central Command] units in 

most of the AOR with the exception of Afghanistan,” 

he said. “Our focus has been to close the remainder 

of military bases in Iraq as well as provide disposal 

for excess military items. Another main function is 

expediting parts and providing customer service for 

the assigned [military] services in this region, like the 

Army units in Jordan and the Air Force in Qatar.”

Overseeing a team of 11 DLA personnel from 

various field activities, Liberko is also responsible 

for accounting for all DLA personnel in the 

USCENTCOM region except for those in Bahrain 

and Afghanistan, including warfighter support 

representatives and food service representatives.

Due to the enormous size and scope of the 

region, DLA support teams are an essential presence 

overseas, and DST-Kuwait is no exception, former 

DST-Kuwait Commander Air Force Col. Mike 

Cannon said. 

“DSTs are designed to be quickly built up in any 

region where DLA needs a forward presence for 

oversight,” he said. “We had DSTs in Kuwait, Iraq 

hile most military efforts focus on 

Afghanistan, a small concentration of 

Defense Logistics Agency personnel are 

hard at work elsewhere in the U.S. Central 

Command area of responsibility, providing W

much-needed support to the rest of the region.

Beyond Afghanist 

A large project for Defense Logistics Agency Support 

Team-Kuwait involved the movement of a Granutech 

industrial shredder, weighing thousands of pounds, 

into Afghanistan from Kuwait. By enlisting the help of 

USCENTCOM’s Deployment Distribution Operations 

Center, DST-Kuwait was able to expedite the oversized 

equipment to a DLA Disposition Services Site.

— Photo by Air Force Col. Mike Cannon

2 www.dla.mil
Loglines l January - February 2014 3

an
4 www.dla.mil

and Afghanistan, and as we drew down, 

Iraq’s DST was absorbed into Kuwait’s 

DST. You can expect something similar 

to happen when Afghanistan draws down 

far enough. Eventually, it will all draw 

down into one central, enduring DST, and 

[DST-Kuwait] will be it, mainly because 

it’s at the same location as [U.S. Army 

Central] forward headquarters, the lead 

command.”

As the liaison between military forces 

in the region and the agency, DST-Kuwait 

receives hundreds of requests from 

customers each week, said Cannon, who 

served a six-month deployment to Kuwait 

in 2013.

“Our primary purpose is not to oversee 

and manage DLA’s supplies, it’s more to 

be a point of contact for the warfighter and 

a liaison between the [DLA field activities] 

back in the states and the warfighter on 

the ground,” he said. “Over the course 

of six months, we provided about 6,000 

requisition status updates, about 200-250 

a week, where customers would call in and 

say, ‘Hey what’s the status of my part?’ We 

also helped expedite 500 contract award 

requests. Customers would say, ‘This is 

the part we need. Can you help us get it in 

the system because we’re trying to get it on 

contract?’ We probably did 40-60 of those 

a week, as well.”

Having the right DLA personnel 

on the ground supporting the DST was 

essential since requests for support often 

ran the gamut, Cannon said.

“We ran pretty much any DLA issue, 

from food, fuel, clothing and textiles, 

and spare parts to contingency, and 

operational planning to the caring and 

feeding of DLA personnel rotating out 

of Afghanistan and into Kuwait to rotate 

home,” he said. “The question that you 

get could be anything from, ‘I need a 

wrench,’ to, ‘I’m trying to turn something 

in.’ to ‘I’m out of food in the chow hall,’ or 

‘I’ve got bad fuel.’ Typically, as a military 

officer, when you go out to a deployment 

like this, it’s command and control. 

In DLA, it’s more communicate and 

coordinate. You have the same mission 

set, you have the same focus, but you have 

to approach it a little differently. The DLA 

field activities do a good job of putting the 

right people out there.”

For Cannon, the one of the biggest 

challenges was making sure customers 

knew the DST existed.

“I think our biggest challenge was 

helping the customer understand DLA,” 

he said. “We are ‘one DLA,’ but at the 

same time, DLA has independent arms 

that do things differently. We actually 

went out recruiting customers because 

they didn’t know DLA was there and 

didn’t know we could help them.”

With such a large scope, Cannon and 

his team ran five large projects during 

his tenure, the biggest of which was the 

turnover of military sites in Iraq to the 

State Department.

“My focus was very heavily into Iraq, 

and part of my team was actually in 

Iraq, because we had a number of sites 

that had to close on a tight schedule,” he 

said. “While I was there, we were able to 

close four of the last five sites and turn 

them over to the Department of State’s 

control. Helping the Army and the Office 

of Security Cooperation-Iraq close those 

sites was a very big challenge. Those sites, 

like Tikrit and Tallil, have been open 

since the first days of our invasion into 

Iraq. With the last defense personnel out 

of Baghdad in December, Capt. Liberko 

closed the final site in Iraq, essentially 

ending DLA’s presence there.”

Although Iraq remained a top priority, 

developments in Syria soon caused 

Cannon’s DST-Kuwait to shift focus to 

refugees fleeing into Jordan.

“As things started heating up in Syria, 

we helped the Army send halal meals 

to Jordan to feed the Syrian refugees,” 

he said. “They’re basically a religiously 

appropriate [meal ready-to-eat] with 

no pork products in them. But these 

meals didn’t belong to DLA. They were 

excess, and we were storing them for the 

Army. After a few phone calls, they were 

brought to [Camp] Arifjan. I worked with 

the Army to get them put on air pallets, 

trucked them over to the Ali Al Salem [Air 

Base in Kuwait] and then called the Air 

Force to get them on C-130s to fly them 

into Jordan. We orchestrated more than 

200,000 halal meal movements from 

our DLA food warehouse in Kuwait into 

Jordan to the refugee camps.” 

In addition, Cannon said having a 

DLA Disposition Services yard in Kuwait 

was an asset in more ways than one. In 

addition to disposing of excess property 

Defense Logistics Agency Disposition 

Services personnel dispose of excess military 

equipment in Iraq.

Air Force Col. Mike Cannon
Loglines l January - February 2014 5

items received from the military services, 

Kuwait’s DLA Disposition Services site 

also offers items for reutilization within 

the Department of Defense.

“The DLA Disposition Services 

yard in Kuwait is the only yard in the 

AOR where we can reuse [items,]” he 

said. “All the others, it basically comes 

in and it never leaves; it’s disposed 

of. But in Kuwait, you can actually do 

withdrawals. That was great for us. They 

don’t spend the money on it, and we 

don’t have to cut it up. So we had things 

withdrawn for Jordan, like light carts, 

generators and tents, all that were being 

turned in as excess.”

Another DST-Kuwait project with 

the Army, the Mine Resistant, Ambush 

Protected vehicle-3 study, required DLA 

Disposition Services’ support, as well, 

Cannon said.

“In late March, the Army decided to 

divest themselves of thousands of excess 

MRAPs by model so they could reduce 

the number of models that they had to 

support,” he said. “Logistically that’s a 

great idea. But a lot of the older MRAPs, 

more than a thousand of them in Kuwait, 

just needed to be disposed of. Potentially 

about 1,200 MRAPs could have been 

turned into DLA Disposition Services for 

us to have to cut up, which would take 

close to a year.”

But by selling some of them to foreign 

militaries through the Foreign Military 

Sales program, the Army was able to 

greatly reduce its numbers of MRAPs, 

Cannon said, saving both taxpayer money 

and DLA Disposition Services’ time.

“The Army was exceptional in their 

ability to meet with other governments 

for Foreign Military Sales,” he said. “They 

sold somewhere between 500 and 800 

MRAPs. That reduced the number that 

we would have to cut up from 1,200 to 

potentially fewer than 300. When you cut 

up an MRAP, you get about $9,000 worth 

of scrap out of it, plus all the work that 

goes into it. But, when you sell an MRAP, 

you get $200,000 to $400,000 for it.”

To help support existing sites in the 

area, especially when moving things within 

the region, Cannon and his team also 

worked with USCENTCOM’s Deployment 

Distribution Operations Center.

“Our physical presence right next 

to the CDDOC really helped us expedite 

the movement of DLA commodities 

to our customers within the AOR and 

equipment to our DLA sites,” he said. 

“With the increase in the need for DLA 

Disposition Services in Afghanistan, we 

needed to orchestrate the movement 

of a large industrial shredder into 

Afghanistan from Kuwait. It’s thousands 

of pounds [and] can barely fit into a C-5 

[Galaxy military transport aircraft]. So 

I called the CDDOC, and collectively we 

figured out how to make it move.”

The next six months promise to be 

busy for Liberko. But, he said, with the 

help of his team, he’s confident that 

things will get done.

“One of the best things I’ve seen on 

the ground is the energy and devotion 

of all the DLA employees here and the 

job satisfaction that they have in doing 

their jobs. That goes from the parts 

expeditors all the way to the personnel 

in the DLA Disposition Services yards, 

he said. “They feel there’s something 

bigger than themselves, and they really 

get a lot of joy in helping the warfighters 

out in their respective areas. It’s 

motivational to be around this group 

and get things done.”

Although Cannon’s deployment is 

over, he said the experience gave him 

more knowledge than he could ever 

learn behind a desk stateside.

“Because I worked with the [DLA 

field activities] directly on DLA issues, 

I honestly can say I learned more about 

DLA as an agency in the six months 

there than I did the 18 months prior 

working at headquarters,” he said. 

“With just a dozen people, I had reps 

from every part of the agency. You’re all 

doing the same job, supporting the same 

customers, and we really do represent 

the entire agency. There’s no place in 

DLA that better represents ‘We Are 

DLA’ than a DST.” 

Defense Logistics Agency Support TeamKuwait at Kuwait’s Camp Arifjan provides 

logistical support to conicts, natural disasters, 

emergencies, mobilizations and other 

contingency operations in areas including 

Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, Oman and Iraq. 

Navy Capt. James Liberko

“You’re all doing the same job, supporting the same customers, and we 

really do represent the entire agency. There’s no place in DLA that better 

represents ‘We Are DLA’ than a DST.” 

— Air Force Col. Mike Cannon
6 www.dla.mil

Story by DLA Land and Maritime Public Affairs Ofce

three-year-old initiative supported 

by the Defense Logistics Agency is 

helping ensure forward-deployed 

Navy ships are mission-ready 

more quickly.

The forward stocking initiative began 

in early 2011 and involves DLA storing 

items closer to where they’ll be needed, 

specifically critical items that support 

several important Navy platforms, such 

as mine countermeasure ships, ballistic 

missile defense platforms and coastal 

patrol craft. 

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Young, the 

maritime readiness officer at DLA 

Land and Maritime who has overseen 

the forward stocking program since 

September, said it “has been a challenge, 

but it emphasizes DLA’s commitment to 

support the warfighter by putting material 

where it is needed most.”

three-year-old initiative supported 

by the Defense Logistics Agency is 

helping ensure forward-deployed 

Navy ships are mission-ready 

more quickly. A

The forward stocking initiative began 

Young is part of the Maritime 

Customer Operations directorate within 

DLA Land and Maritime, which plays a 

pivotal role in providing program and 

supply support for the platforms that keep 

America’s naval forces mission-ready. 

The forward stocking initiative began 

in response to a request by the Navy’s 

5th Fleet to position essential parts in 

support of the platforms mentioned above 

closer to the fight. Close work among 

Naval Supply Systems Command, the 

Navy national account manager at DLA 

Forward 

Stocking

Headquarters, and DLA Distribution 

helped identify key readiness items with 

high demand from within 5th Fleet’s 

area of responsibility, which includes the 

Persian Gulf. 

Navy Cmdr. Brian Vosberg, 

the maritime readiness officer who 

shepherded the forward stocking initiative 

for its first year, said more than 

1,000 items were included in the 

initial rollout, with most of them 

stocked initially in Bahrain. 

DLA Distribution depots at 

Sigonella, Italy, and Sasebo, 

Japan, were included later 

to improve support to Navy 

platforms in those regions.

Navy Cmdr. Scott Logan 

succeeded Vosberg as maritime 

readiness officer. Under Logan’s 

watch, the number of items in the 

6 www.dla.mil

The mine countermeasure ship USS Ardent is underway during the International Mine Countermeasures 

Exercise 2013. DLA is stocking items to support such 

ships closer to where they’re needed.

 — Photo by Navy Petty Ofcer 1st Class Gary Keen
Loglines l January - February 2014 7

forward stocking program grew to more 

than 6,000. The program aims to have 

designated items available where needed 

100 percent of the time.

Logan and Young explained forward 

stocking parts improves readiness, 

reduces logistics response time and 

reduces servicewide transportation costs.

“A dramatic improvement in overall 

support has been realized during the 

past year,” Young said. “The most recent 

statistics for the program show that DLA 

is achieving 100 percent material 

availability or very close to it for all 

three platforms and locations.”

As of mid-November, the 

material availability rate for mine 

countermeasure ships was 100 

percent in Bahrain and 99.52 

percent at Sasebo, while the rate 

for the ballistic missile defense 

platform was 100 percent at 

Sigonella and 99.56 at Bahrain. The 

material availability rate for coastal patrol 

crafts is 100 percent in Bahrain.

In addition, mine countermeasure 

ship readiness has improved by 10 percent; ballistic missile defense readiness 

has improved by 32 percent; patrol craft 

readiness improved by 6 percent. There 

has also been an 81 percent reduction 

in logistics response time in the past 

year. The Navy has saved $3 million in 

servicewide transportation costs. 

In order to achieve the 100 percent 

material availability objective, 

DLA stood up a dedicated forward 

stocking team. The cross-functional 

team includes employees from all 

DLA supply chains, to include: 

demand planners, supply planners, 

post award specialists, buyers, 

product specialists, weapon system 

support managers, customer 

account specialists, and the 

supply chain points of contact. 

Logan said the team aggressively 

reviewed demand and supply plans, 

expedited parts shortages, and 

adjusted systemic levers and levels 

to drive end-to-end supply chain 

Loglines l January - February 2014 7

Air Force Staff Sgt. Alex Smith prepares to 

issue one of the more than 2,000 forward 

positioned parts at DLA Distribution in Bahrain.

Yvonne Matthews
8 www.dla.mil

solutions for the new mission.

The results of the team’s efforts to 

have the right parts in the right quantity 

at the right place at the right time have 

received kudos from the Navy. 

“DLA’s involvement with forward 

staging and management of parts has 

resulted in a direct and measurable 

improvement in materiel readiness for 

the MCM, BMD and PC areas of interest,” 

said Navy Vice Adm. John Miller, 

commander of 5th Fleet. 

DLA Land and Maritime Commander 

Navy Rear Adm. David Pimpo also 

praised the efforts of the forward stocking 

team and its results. 

“We challenged ourselves to attain 

and maintain a very high standard in 

support of these critical platforms,” 

Pimpo said. “I could not be more proud 

of my forward stocking team and the 

results that they have achieved.”

Logan said his work on the forward 

stocking initiative provided him with a 

greater appreciation of the complexity 

of supporting both diverse and aging 

weapons systems. 

“I have learned the importance of 

adjusting support strategies to enhance 

the operational fleet mission,” he said. 

“It’s not just about working towards 

a number or percentage. You have to 

remember that there are customers on 

ships, and those customers are underway 

and they need their parts.” 

“The most recent statistics 

for the [forward stocking] 

program show that DLA 

is achieving 100 percent 

material availability or very 

close to it for all three 

platforms and locations.” 

— Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Young

The guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald 

launches a Standard Missile-3 as part of a joint 

ballistic missile defense exercise. DLA works 

to ensure ballistic missle defense platforms 

U.S. Navy Photo

have critical parts available.

Editor’s Note: Navy Cmdr. Scott Logan, former maritime readiness 

ofcer at DLA Land and Maritime, contributed to this article.
Loglines l January - February 2014 9

Story and Photo by Mikia Muhammad

efense Logistics Agency Troop 

Support is purchasing more 

than $50 million worth of 

uniform items for the Afghan 

National Police.

Personnel from the clothing and 

textiles supply chain worked with forwarddeployed customer representatives 

facilitating the requirement and American 

vendors to procure field jackets, boots, 

hats, trousers, tops and fabric by the end 

of fiscal 2013, Bruce Carson, a supervisory 

customer relationship management 

specialist, said.

Providing items for a brand new 

product line required a lot of coordination, 

Carson said.

“Because of our longstanding 

good relationships with our vendors, 

they became partners in the process 

and helped us to be able to get the 

requirements,” he said

Carson described the initial process 

as starting from scratch. Personnel 

from multiple divisions in the clothing 

and textiles supply chain, including 

contracting, supply and technical quality, 

worked together for solutions. Within 

efense Logistics Agency Troop 

Support is purchasing more 

than $50 million worth of 

uniform items for the Afghan 

National Police. D

Personnel from the clothing and 

three months, the team designed five 

different camouflage patterns based on 

Afghan National Police specifications 

and worked with vendors to assess their 

capabilities and resources, Carson said. 

“I was really pleased with how C&T’s 

folks came together and made it happen,” 

Carson said. “It’s a cliché, but that’s 

exactly what happened.”

The team participated in several 

teleconferences with U.S. Army Security 

Assistance Command and Combined 

Security Transition CommandAfghanistan, a facet of NATO Training 

Mission-Afghanistan, in conjunction with 

the ANP, Carson said.

A former C&T director of integrations, 

Army Col. Kevin Stoddard is now 

the CSTC-A director of procurement 

management. He initially approached 

DLA to procure the uniform items.

“In terms of having an agency like 

DLA to come back to as a world-class 

provider of materials and logistics, that 

naturally was a success,” Stoddard said. 

“I felt very comfortable going back to the 

C&T supply chain, which I know is quite 

capable, not only from their ability to just 

formulate contracts and put it into an 

acquisition strategy, but their familiarity 

with the supply chain itself.”

Stoddard also attributed the project’s 

success to good communication between 

DLA, the security assistance office and 

the ministry advisory committee for 

procurement, which works daily with the 

Afghan Ministry of Interior, the ANP’s 

governing body.

“To do something rapidly, it’s really 

about people coming together and not just 

doing one thing and handing it off to the 

next person,” Stoddard said.

Veteran-owned, small-business vendor 

Sterlingwear was awarded two contracts 

for nearly 1 million ANP uniform items in 

late September. Now left on the task list 

is arranging delivery times for the items 

and coordinating transportation, Carson 

said. The uniform items are scheduled for 

deliveries from January to March 2014. 

New

Uniforms

for Afghan National Police

Bruce Carson (left), DLA Troop Support Clothing 

and Textiles supervisory customer relationship 

management specialist, and Thomas Orlando, 

C&T contracting ofcer, display prototypes of 

trousers procured for the Afghan National Police. 

DLA personnel worked with forward-deployed 

U.S. security commands and American vendors 

to purchase more than $50 million worth of eld 

jackets, boots, hats, trousers, tops and fabric 

for the ANP. 

Mikia Muhammad is a public affairs specialist with DLA 

Troop Support.
A Conversation with . . .

10 www.dla.mil

What do you see as your most 

important function as commander 

of DLA Central?

My most important function is to 

ensure that our warfighter customers 

throughout the U.S. Central Command 

area of responsibility have the resources 

they need to accomplish their varied 

missions. At the same time, my team 

and I ensure we are taking care of the 

many uniformed and civilian personnel 

that make up the DLA workforce in the 

USCENTCOM AOR.

What do you see as your greatest 

challenge?

My greatest challenge is keeping 

ahead of warfighter requirements to 

guarantee DLA is prepared to support. 

The USCENTCOM AOR is extremely 

complex, dynamic and volatile. Because 

of this volatility, my staff and I must be 

fully integrated with the USCENTCOM 

staff and engaged in every aspect 

of planning and execution. Our top 

priority is for DLA to remain postured to 

respond to multiple simultaneous crises 

and to carry out missions in support of 

U.S. strategy in the region. 

What do you see as DLA Central’s 

strongest assets?

In my opinion, DLA’s strongest 

assets are its people, both civilian 

and military, and our ability to surge 

our capabilities in times of crisis. The 

majority of DLA Central’s personnel have 

served in the USCENTCOM AOR many 

times, multiple tours and over extended 

periods of time. They have worked side 

by side in Iraq and Afghanistan with 

the warfighters. This experience gives 

our workforce a strong understanding 

of how their efforts impact the Soldiers, 

Sailors, Airmen, Marines and civilians 

deployed in the AOR. Whether supplying 

commodities like food, fuel, construction 

material, etc., or providing services 

such as distribution or disposition, DLA 

stands ready to sustain ongoing combat 

operations, facilitate material-reduction 

Army Col.

Mark McCormick

DLA Central Commander Army Col. Mark McCormick.

DLA Central Commander Talks about his Organization’s Assets and Challenges Supporting Military 

Forces Throughout the U.S. Central Command Region.
DLA Public Affairs

Loglines l January - February 2014 11

efforts in Afghanistan, respond to major 

contingency operations, or support 

humanitarian assistance or disaster relief 

operations. Every time DLA is called upon 

to support warfighter requirements, we 

find a way to do it on short notice that 

exceeds warfighter expectations.

How is supporting the military services in the U.S. Central Command 

area of operations different than in 

other areas of the world?

The biggest difference is that U.S. 

Central Command has been at war since 

9/11. For the past 12 years, DLA Central 

has been supporting the warfighter with 

a small core cadre of staff in the United 

States and several DLA support teams 

deployed to multiple combined joint 

operating areas. We routinely deploy 

both civilian and military members on 

six-month rotations to positions not 

only in Afghanistan but throughout the 

AOR. This is a comprehensive program, 

both challenging and rewarding at the 

same time specifically because the DST 

deployers bring different perspectives 

and skill sets to the battlefield. The 

experience they gain is brought back 

to DLA and their respective primarylevel field activities. Consistently 

positive results for the warfighter 

speak for themselves; DLA has a 

well-trained, responsive workforce 

supporting the warfighters.

With operations in Afghanistan 

shifting more to being Afghan-led, 

how is DLA’s mission evolving in 

the country and the region?

DLA has become more focused on 

supporting U.S. Forces-Afghanistan’s 

retrograde and material reduction 

efforts. DLA is a key enabler to 

retrograde velocity. Thousands of 

vehicles and tremendous amounts of 

material have to be sorted, inspected 

and identified for disposal or retrograde. 

To assist forces with material-reduction 

efforts, DLA developed hub-based 

disposal operation teams to go out to 

forward operating bases to expedite 

retrograde and support their closure. 

Through these initiatives, DLA 

Disposition Services in Afghanistan has 

demilitarized and disposed of millions of 

pounds of material at record levels. DLA 

has developed implementing agreements 

with USCENTCOM’s coalition partners, 

including: Australia, Canada, Poland, the 

United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and 

the NATO Support Agency, to facilitate 

their retrograde efforts. We’re already 

working on their behalves to expedite 

this mission. DLA is also positioned to 

support U.S. military forces and other 

government agencies, the U.S. State 

Department for example, in Afghanistan 

for post-2014 missions.

At Army/DLA Day in October, 

Army Materiel Command’s Gen. 

Dennis Via discussed “retrograde 

under fire.” With U.S. forces preparing for withdrawal, what is 

DLA doing to support this effort?

DLA is a key partner in the baseclosure process for the International 

Security Assistance Force and 

USFOR-A. With the drawdown timeline, 

it is imperative to streamline and 

optimize the disposition of equipment 

and material in order to meet the 

administration’s goals. DLA teams 

are responsible for demilitarization, 

inspection and sale of scrap, as well 

as coordination of retrograde through 

land and air routes. As DLA coordinates 

the drawdown efforts, we continue to 

provide everyday support to deployed 

military forces.

In what ways is DLA still supporting the State Department in Iraq?

Since U.S. combat troops left Iraq 

nearly two years ago, the Department 

of Defense transferred the remaining 

missions – food, fuel and disposition 

services – to the Department of State. 

DLA remains side by side with DoS 

until that organization is ready to 

fully maintain the entire “life support” 

mission. Recently, DLA assisted in 

the closure of three State Department 

sites: Taji, Besamaya and the U.S. 

Embassy Military and Security 

Assistance Annex in Baghdad. DLA 

remains postured to support DoS with 

food, fuel and disposition support as 

long as we are needed.

Besides Afghanistan and Iraq, in 

what other areas is DLA supporting U.S. forces in the U.S. Central 

Command area of operations?

DLA supports the U.S. four-star 

headquarters in Afghanistan, service 

component commands in Bahrain, 

Qatar and Kuwait, and a theater 

sustainment command in Kuwait. 

USCENTCOM’s AOR includes 17 

additional countries; DLA maintains 

capabilities throughout the Middle 

East, Central Asian states and Southwest Asia to support our troops 

and to support major contingency 

and humanitarian efforts. Due to 

DLA’s global presence, we maintain 

capabilities in the U.S. European 

Command, U.S. Africa Command 

and U.S. Pacific Command AORs that 

sometimes support the USCENTCOM 

missions. This leveraging of capability is 

often transparent to the warfighter.

What kind of interactions do you 

and other DLA Central personnel 

have with USCENTCOM leaders 

and logisticians?

DLA Central is embedded and 

partnered with the USCENTCOM 

Directorate of Logistics staff in 

Tampa, Fla. My staff and I routinely 

attend USCENTCOM logistics boards, 

video teleconferences, key stakeholder 

meetings, planning conferences, etc. 

with our warfighter counterparts. Our 

director of logistics operations, Army 

Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dowd, frequently 

engages USCENTCOM leadership 

on operational issues. These 

interactions make for a hand-in-glove 

USCENTCOM/DLA team. 
12 www.dla.mil

Story by Beth Reece

Photos courtesy DLA Logistics Operations

he time it takes to supply food to 

troops in Afghanistan is now less 

than half of what it was during the 

war’s peak. 

Most food sent to the landlocked country has traveled along the 

Northern Distribution Network, where 

dangerous roads and multiple border 

crossings make it susceptible to spoilage 

and long transit times that averaged 

120 days. In early 2013, the Defense 

Logistics Agency and U.S. Transportation 

Command began focusing on the future 

of the NDN and other possible supply 

routes that could be used to provide about 

400 40-foot containers of food versus 

the 1,500 monthly average needed when 

troop strength was the highest.

 An airport in Baku, Azerbaijan, has 

become a focal point. USTRANSCOM was 

already using the location to pull material 

out of Afghanistan for retrograde, and 

Anham, the new subsistence prime vendor 

for Afghanistan, predicted it could save 

about $250 million a year by shipping 

food from the United States to Baku then 

flying it into Afghanistan. Another benefit: 

fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products 

and baked goods needed in dining 

facilities throughout the area of operation 

are readily available in Baku. 

T

locked country has traveled along the 

A worker at an airport in Baku, Azerbaijan, 

checks documentation for a pallet of 

food supplies destined for troops in 

Afghanistan. About 65 percent of the 

food DLA provides in Afghanistan is own 

through Baku. 

Today, about 65 percent of the food 

DLA provides in Afghanistan transits 

through Baku.

 “We’ve cut the supply chain in half. 

Using the NDN, it takes approximately 

120 days from picking up a can in the 

U.S. to delivering it in Kandahar, but it 

takes an average of just 45 days going 

through Baku. That’s critical, because 

every day that you have to have stuff in 

the supply line is a day that you have to 

maintain it in some fashion,” said Air 

Force Lt. Col. Adam Silverman, a joint 

strategic distribution officer for DLA 

Logistics Operations.

That DLA and USTRANSCOM were 

able to agree on Baku as a critical hub is 

testament of the close partnership the 

two organizations have forged, added 

Tom Shively, one of four DLA liaison 

officers to USTRANSCOM. 

“The idea that moving cargo via 

air could be as cheap as surface is 

really foreign to most people who’ve 

been working in transportation, and 

it’s probably true in a peacetime 

Food Delivery in 

Half the Time

12 www.dla.mil
Loglines l January - February 2014 13
14 www.dla.mil

environment, but in a wartime 

environment there’s a whole different 

level of complexity. So trying to introduce 

the concept up to USTRANSCOM and get 

some buy-in took a lot of partnering, a 

lot of trust, and plenty of data gathering,” 

Shively said. 

 DLA officials worked with 

USTRANSCOM to confirm that Baku 

could handle the volume and specific food 

temperature requirements. 

“Temperatures must be maintained 

from supplier all the way to the customer 

at the forward operating bases,” Air 

Force Col. Emily Buckman, chief of DLA 

Logistics Operation’s U.S. Transportation 

Command Support Division, said. She 

noted this “cold-chain custody” is the most 

important element of food distribution.

The group worked together to address 

operational and strategic concerns 

affecting not only DLA, but also impacting 

other USTRANSCOM customers, such as 

the General Services Administration and 

the Army and Air Force Exchange Service.

“It took I don’t know how many 

meetings to reach an agreement. It was 

making Baku a critical transportation 

hub creates a commercial trade route that 

extends from Turkey to China. 

“These long-term economic 

development concepts are in-line with 

military guidance and State Department 

intentions to set up economic zones that 

will live and propagate after we’ve left, so 

we’re not just leaving as big an economic 

hole as before we got there,” he said.

Buckman said officials in Baku have 

built a new airport and hired a company 

to ensure food is maintained at the proper 

temperature from the time it arrives in 

Baku until it is delivered to customers in 

Afghanistan. 

“They’re also getting approval to fly 

directly to the U.S. They’re doing all these 

things on their own to develop a hub that 

can have a stronghold in the international 

market,” she said. “This effort will live on 

long after our mission there is over.” 

Routing food through Baku allows DLA and its 

subsistence prime vendor to reduce the time it 

takes to deliver food to Afghanistan from about 

120 days to 40 days.

Air Force Lt. Col. Adam Silverman (left), a joint 

strategic distribution ofcer for DLA Logistics 

Operations, and Air Force Col. Emily Buckman, 

chief of DLA Logistics Operations Combatant 

Command Support Division, discuss Baku’s 

capabilities with an airport ofcial.

a challenge to overcome all the obstacles 

and address everyone’s concerns, but the 

team got it done,” Buckman said

Officials eventually agreed to deliver 

food via a combination of truck, air and 

sea routes.

“I think USTRANSCOM’s objectives are 

being met from a transportation viewpoint, 

and DLA’s intent to support warfighters as 

efficiently and economically as possible is 

being achieved,” Shively added. 

The effort also highlighted the 

need for more collaboration between 

USTRANSCOM and DLA when new 

contracts are being awarded and for 

information to be shared 

between contractors working 

for both organizations, 

Buckman said. 

“The contractor that moves 

our stuff through Baku is 

USTRANSCOM’s contractor, 

for example, so it’s really a 

joint effort. We’ve come a long 

way because ... we’ve come 

to a point where before they 

award, they’re bringing us into 

the fold,” she said. The closer 

we are to being of one logistics 

mind, the better we are.”

Silverman added that 
Loglines l January - February 2014 15

Story by Tim Hoyle

he Defense Logistics Agency has 

been heavily engaged with the 

drawdown of U.S. forces from 

Afghanistan, but many don’t know 

that the same helping hand is 

being extended to forces from eight other 

countries and NATO. 

Agreements are in place with Australia, 

Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Poland, 

the United Kingdom and the NATO Support 

Activity. Spain signed an agreement in 

late September, and the Netherlands is 

coordinating to complete the paperwork 

on its agreement. Like the countries 

themselves, each agreement is different. 

“Canada’s, Germany’s and Australia’s 

include green military gear, and, at 

least with Canada and Germany, this 

has involved Mine-Resistant, Ambush 

Protected vehicles and trucks,” explained 

Don Phillips, DLA Disposition Services 

Transformation Strategy Division chief and 

a former site manager at Bagram Air Base, 

Afghanistan. “Shredding or mutilation and, 

if required, demilitarization [to remove 

specific military capabilities] occur once 

we receive accountability like any other 

property in order to send it out as scrap.” 

Arthur Welsh, who is currently 

deployed to Afghanistan, said he considers 

it an “honor for the DLA Disposition 

he Defense Logistics Agency has 

been heavily engaged with the 

drawdown of U.S. forces from 

Afghanistan, but many don’t know 

that the same helping hand is 

being extended to forces from eight other 

T

Services personnel to work so closely with 

our allies and be able to assist with their 

disposal needs.” 

Coalition forces “are making the 

same sacrifices as our troops and fighting 

alongside them,” Welsh said.

“DLA Disposition Services employees 

are proud to serve the warfighter, and we 

understand the definition of warfighter 

to not only describe our troops, but also 

those of our allies,” he added.

Welsh explained DLA has been able 

to work with coalition forces – specifically 

German, Australian, Polish and Canadian 

forces – over the past several months, 

providing them support in disposing of 

vehicles and other excess equipment. This 

includes “white goods,” like commercially 

available appliances, which get destroyed 

after turn in, Phillips explained. 

“They get mashed up once they are 

drained, purged and freed of hazardous 

wastes like the battery,” Phillips said. 

If there are special requirements, 

Phillips explained, it is up to the coalition 

partner to supply technical expertise 

to facilitate safe and technically correct 

demilitarization. 

Like U.S. forces, Welsh said, coalition 

forces are working through the process 

of what should go and what should be 

disposed of during their exit from the 

country. Welsh said DLA Disposition 

Services assists these coalition forces with 

a crucial part of the retrograde process that 

brings them one step closer to being home. 

More than anything else, DLA 

Disposition Services personnel see 

vehicles “that have served their purpose 

and it would not financially prudent to 

have them shipped home,” Welsh said. 

Scrap from these vehicles is mixed in with 

scrap material from U.S. forces and sold 

locally. The scrap sales provide a boost 

to the economy and a source of material 

resources, he added. 

“In a small way, it is like we are 

combining our resources in a different 

manner and helping the economy of 

Afghanistan,” Welsh said. 

In the end, Welsh said, the vehicles 

may look different, the electronics may 

rely upon a different voltage, and the 

customer wears a different uniform, “but 

disposal is disposal, and we are there to 

provide the service.” 

Allied

Disposal

A container handler passes by the entrance of 

a material redistribution yard in Afghanistan. 

DLA has disposal agreements with military 

forces from several allied nations, providing 

them with support in disposing of vehicles and 

excess equipment throughout Afghanistan.

Tim Hoyle is a public affairs specialist with DLA Disposition 

Services.

Army 1st Lt. Henry Chan
16 www.dla.mil

Story by Sara Moore

n the fast-paced environment of 

Afghanistan, where U.S. forces 

are working on a major drawdown 

while balancing an ongoing security 

mission and training local forces, 

logistics needs can change quickly. 

Getting the right supplies at the 

right time becomes crucial. This is 

where Defense Logistics Agency Support 

Team-Afghanistan comes in. The team’s 

mix of military, civilian and contractor 

personnel covering all agency business 

areas work hand in hand on the ground 

with U.S. forces to plan and meet their 

logistics requirements.

Afghanistan, where U.S. forces 

while balancing an ongoing security 

logistics needs can change quickly. 

I Boots

on the 

Ground

16 www.dla.mil

Soldiers with 14th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry 

Division, break for lunch in Zhari district, Kandahar province, 

Afghanistan. Defense Logistics Agency Support Team-Afghanistan 

works directly with military leaders to ensure troops on the ground 

get the food, supplies and equipment they need.

— Photo by Army Spc. Jason Nolte 
Loglines l January - February 2014 17

“We’re nested, embedded, linked 

in with the warfighters at the tactical, 

operational and strategic levels,” said 

Navy Capt. Doug Noble, commander of 

DLA Support Team-Afghanistan. “The 

way we work with them and partner with 

them to deliver the capabilities we can 

deliver is really by living in their world 

and being a daily part of their business, 

day in and day out.”

Noble commands a team of about 

200 military and civilian personnel who 

represent DLA’s varied organizations. 

These professionals typically spend six 

months in theater, working directly 

with warfighters and tailoring support 

to changing mission requirements. The 

team’s headquarters shares office space 

with the chief of logistics for U.S. Forces 

Afghanistan in Kabul and has detachments 

embedded with the military units that 

have oversight in the other regions of the 

country, Noble said. The team also has 

expeditionary units and liaison officers 

placed in military units throughout the 

country, ensuring no aspect of support 

goes overlooked, he said. 

DLA Disposition Services’ 

expeditionary disposal remediation 

teams provide a clear example of DLA’s 

on-the-ground support and a resounding 

success story, Noble said. These teams 

were developed in response to requests 

from military commanders for on-site 

disposition support to help them reduce 

risk to service members transporting 

equipment to DLA Disposition Services 

sites. Consisting of a few disposition 

experts with light equipment, these 

teams travel to small installations or 

forward operating bases to process 

and demilitarize excess equipment and 

material, he said. EDRTs are a smaller 

version of hub-based disposal operations, 

which are also mobile but possess more 

equipment and stay for longer durations. 

DLA Disposition Services has seven 

HBDOs, which move around the country 

as bases close or new disposal missions 

develop, he said. Both HBDOs and 

EDRTs supplement the four larger DLA 

Loglines l January - February 2014 17
18 www.dla.mil

Disposition Services sites in Afghanistan, 

which offer full-scale disposal services to 

military units.

“An underlying theme to all three 

of those levels of capability in [DLA] 

Disposition Services is to get the disposition 

services team forward to where the scrap 

is so we can keep Soldiers off the road, we 

can keep trucks off the road,” Noble said. 

“If we can fly in a team of EDRTs and they 

can process the scrap, we minimize the 

touches. But most importantly, from a 

troop safety standpoint, we don’t have to 

put Soldiers on the road driving it from one 

base to another base just so they can turn it 

in at the other base. That’s really what the 

theater has asked of us; they want to keep 

Soldiers off the road, and we’ve been able to 

deliver that, and I think that’s been a huge 

success story for DLA.” 

The DLA Disposition Services mission 

has certainly been the most prominent for 

the agency as U.S. forces draw down their 

presence in Afghanistan, Noble said. 

The scale of the drawdown, coupled 

with the need to balance the ongoing 

missions in Afghanistan, makes this 

a historical time for U.S. forces and 

highlights the need for close coordination 

between the services and DLA, said Navy 

Lt. Cmdr. Manuel Ganuza, DLA Support 

Team Afghanistan liaison officer to U.S. 

Forces Afghanistan and 1st Theater 

Sustainment Command. Ganuza sits in 

the same office as the chief of logistics for 

USFOR-A and is closely involved with his 

day-to-day business and planning. 

“This is history in the making here, 

because we are withdrawing forces, 

reducing our forces here in Afghanistan, 

but at the same time, we’ve 

maintained a high pace of 

kinetic engagement and are 

setting ourselves up for the 

main mission, which is to 

train, advise and equip Afghan 

forces,” Ganuza said. 

Balancing these competing 

priorities means missions 

and requirements are often 

very time-sensitive and 

critical, he said, and constant 

communication is important. 

As a liaison officer, Ganuza 

said, he is involved in every 

aspect of the USFOR-A logistics 

mission, from sustainment to 

planning to problem-solving. 

“It helps that when I go 

to all these meetings, I hear 

their challenges as the senior 

leadership hears it,” he said. 

“The human balance, the 

interaction, is that they know 

they can count on a person here – a person 

in line of sight and arm’s reach.” 

As a service member, Ganuza said 

he performs military duties like guard 

duty and driving, giving him credibility 

and rapport with his counterparts and 

allowing him to build a network of people 

willing to help when emergencies or 

problems come up.

Ganuza works with military 

representatives at all levels, from action 

officers in the field to supply officers in 

headquarters, and he has ongoing dialogue 

with DLA personnel in the agency’s field 

activities and at DLA Headquarters, 

as well as other organizations like U.S. 

Transportation Command.

“We need to reach all organizations,” 

he said. “At the center of that, you’ve got 

DLA Central. They can continue some 

conversations while I’m sleeping so that 

the work continues in that collaborative 

effort 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

While the DLA Disposition Services 

mission is prominent as the U.S. 

continues its drawdown, the collaborative 

effort by the DLA Support Team 

stretches across all supply chains, Noble 

said. The team’s “bread and butter” is 

its direct customer support, which it 

offers for all classes of supply. Repair 

parts, construction material, fuel and 

subsistence are the main drivers of the 

DLA mission, and the supply experts for 

subsistence and fuel are also in charge of 

end-to-end supply chain management for 

their commodities, he said. 

Another mission that has been 

important for DLA is the DLA Distribution 

mission in theater, he said. DLA 

Distribution Kandahar was established 

to provide expeditionary distribution 

capabilities. For several years it played a 

crucial role as a wholesale stock point for 

all customers in theater. As U.S. forces 

scale down their mission in Afghanistan, 

DLA has determined that the depot in 

Kandahar is no longer necessary, so DLA 

Distribution personnel have begun the 

process of closing it, he said. 

The important thing about all the 

missions DLA performs in theater is 

that DLA experts are embedded at every 

Army Pfc. Shantel Goodmon, a 

petroleum supply specialist with 

1st Cavalry Division, drags a 

fuel hose up to a UH-60A Black 

Hawk helicopter to fuel it on 

Forward Operating Base Kunduz, 

Afghanistan. DLA Support TeamAfghanistan is staffed with experts 

from each supply chain, including 

DLA Energy, to provide tailored 

support to troops in Afghanistan. 

Army Sgt. Richard Wrigley
Loglines l January - February 2014 19

level, providing guidance and planning 

assistance, Noble said. In the northern 

part of Afghanistan, a DLA detachment 

works with the 101st Sustainment 

Brigade, sending representatives to 

every meeting and battle update briefing, 

and a DLA detachment works with 

15th Sustainment Brigade in southern 

Afghanistan. These DLA representatives, 

along with the tactical-level experts and 

the liaison officers at the headquarters 

level, provide total coverage for the 

military’s logistics needs, he said.

“I think we’ve made ourselves 

seamlessly integrated into that warfighter 

battle rhythm, and that’s how we stay 

linked in with them,” he said. 

From the warfighters’ perspective, 

DLA is seamlessly integrated into the 

mission and is an invaluable member of 

the team, said Army Col. Mark Simerly, 

chief of logistics for USFOR-A. Simerly 

cited DLA’s daily interaction with 

USFOR-A on the status of fuel supplies 

and deliveries, coordination on the 

transition of the subsistence prime vendor 

contract, and the agency’s expeditionary 

disposal capabilities as critical enablers to 

his command’s success 

in Afghanistan. 

“DLA’s role in 

ensuring we have the 

critical commodities 

is key to our success 

here,” Simerly said. 

“Even though we focus 

on redeployment, 

our primary mission 

is always to sustain 

ongoing combat 

operations, and DLA 

is a great champion for us in sustaining 

the current fight and the future fight with 

stockages of critical items necessary for 

warfighters to accomplish their mission.”

DLA’s expeditionary capabilities, 

along with its responsiveness and 

expertise, has also been crucial to the 

success of 1st Theater Sustainment 

Command, the Army command 

responsible for operational sustainment 

support in the U.S. Central Command 

area of operations, said Army Col. Derrin 

Williams, 1st TSC support operations 

officer. Members of the DLA Support 

Team work daily with 1st TSC, sitting 

in on all major meetings and briefings, 

he said. Having the DLA experts on the 

ground and accessible makes working 

on issues, such as the potential effects of 

the subsistence prime vendor contract 

transfer on the annual holiday meals, 

much easier, he said. 

“I can just go down 

the hallway and talk to 

the DLA Support Team, 

and they can work 

issues for me. That frees 

me up to work other 

issues,” Williams said. 

“It just really speaks 

to responsiveness. The 

quicker we can get 

answers and execute 

missions in support of 

the warfighters, the more beneficial it is to 

all involved.”

Williams has been in his position 

for 11 months and has seen the DLA 

Support Team transition through three 

different commanders, but he said the 

level of support and responsiveness has 

remained constant. Each commander 

has had different challenges, he said, 

like establishing expeditionary disposal 

operations and closing DLA Distribution 

Kandahar, but the quality support to 

warfighters has never wavered.

“They’re the leading edge for DLA 

in the theater,” he said. “In terms of 

responsiveness, it’s all generated by the 

support team. I couldn’t imagine doing it 

without them side by side with us here.”

The collaborative relationship between 

DLA and the military units in theater is 

one that will likely continue for a long 

time, in Afghanistan and elsewhere, the 

leaders all agreed. The end state for the 

U.S. in Afghanistan is yet to be determined, 

Simerly said, but the military will always 

need enablers to sustain the mission.

“We don’t know what our footprint is 

going to look like in the coming years, but 

we do know for certain that any operations 

we’re going to have in Afghanistan in the 

future will rely on the support of DLA, 

and we know that DLA will be there for 

us,” he said. “The quality of the people 

representing DLA that are forward with us 

here and the importance of their mission 

can’t be overstated. The senior leaders 

truly appreciate having their expertise 

here. This mission can’t be done virtually; 

you have to have boots on the ground, and 

DLA has boots on the ground.” 

Photo courtesy DLA Support Team Afghanistan 

DLA Logistics Operations Director Army 

Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dowd (center) poses for 

a photo with members of the DLA Support 

Team Afghanistan at Bagram Air Base, 

Afghanistan. Bagram Air Base is one of 

several locations where DLA Support TeamAfghanistan operates in country. 

“They’re the leading edge for 

DLA in the theater. In terms of 

responsiveness, it’s all generated 

by the support team. I couldn’t 

imagine doing it without them 

side by side with us here.”

— Army Col. Derrin Williams
LogPoints DLA Public Affairs

BY THE NUMBERS

“Our senior leaders understand that none of DLA’s success is possible without 

our people. We have our share of fiscal challenges, but we have a strong financial 

model, and part of our strategy is to continue investing in our people. We don’t 

view training and development as a ‘cost,’ we view it as an investment.”

— DLA Human Resources Director Brad Bunn in a blog highlighting the importance 

of rotational assignments in employee development. 

“Any challenge that comes our way, I know you guys are 

going to leap over it, run through it, dig a hole under it, go 

around it, crush it, eat it, and somehow overcome.”

— DLA Director Navy Vice. Adm. Mark Harnitchek speaking about DLA employees at the agency’s 46th Annual 

Employee Recognition Ceremony Dec. 5.

“We are continuing our support in every program in every 

way, just as we have committed to do. We want the Afghans 

to succeed. We want their army to succeed. We want their 

institutions to succeed. It’s in their interest. It’s in the 

interest of the people of this country. It’s in our interest. It’s 

in the region’s interest.”

— Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel discussing U.S. military support 

to Afghanistan, during a Dec. 7 visit to the Afghan capital, Kabul.

“Last week we entered our 13th year of combat in 

Afghanistan, while simultaneously delivering much-needed 

relief supplies in the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon 

Haiyan, and while maintaining a steady state of presence in 

the Arabian Gulf, in the Eastern Mediterranean, and in the 

Pacific as a backstop to our important diplomatic endeavors 

as a nation. So as we consider how to maintain our military 

strength, we must always remember our real strategic advantage, and that, of course, [is] the men and women who serve 

in uniform.”

— Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin 

Dempsey in a Dec. 4 Pentagon press briefing.

QUOTABLES

400:

Number of 40-foot containers of food for U.S. 

forces shipped into Afghanistan each month.

8: 

Number of countries other than the United 

States and NATO Support Element that 

DLA Disposition Services is providing 

with disposal support when units depart 

Afghanistan.

2,546: 

Gallons of sparkling grape juice DLA 

Troop Support supplied to U.S. forces in 

Afghanistan for special meals during the 

December holidays. 

600:

Number of military sites and installations 

that house Defense Logistics Agency 

assets. The Army Corps of Engineers is 

working on a survey of all DLA real property 

to help the agency become audit ready.

20 www.dla.mil
Loglines l January - February 2014 21

Story by Amanda Neumann

he Marshall Islands, Germany, 

Bahrain, Greenland: The list reads 

like a Fodor’s travel guide, but 

these countries are the homes of 

a few of the roughly 600 military 

sites and installations that house Defense 

Logistics Agency assets.

Having a clear picture of assets 

like warehouses, fuel tanks and other 

structures is integral to keeping DLA 

running effectively and efficiently 

worldwide. A top-to-bottom survey 

of those facilities being conducted by 

the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will 

soon give DLA that clear picture, said 

Bernard Murphy, a general engineer and 

he Marshall Islands, Germany, 

Bahrain, Greenland: The list reads 

like a Fodor’s travel guide, but 

these countries are the homes of 

a few of the roughly 600 military 

sites and installations that house Defense 

T

Story by Amanda Neumann

Surveying Assets

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers assessors 

conduct a facility condition assessment of a 

Defense Logistics Agency fuel area at the Naval 

Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans in 

Louisiana. Facility condition assessments grade 

DLA assets on a scale of 0 to 100, allowing for 

quick identication of deciencies. 

Photo courtesy U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

program manager for the survey in DLA 

Installation Support.

“This [survey] is the first 

comprehensive review of all of DLA’s 

assets,” he said. “We’re trying to look at 

DLA collectively, rather than what the [field 

activities] have been doing individually.”

Made up of three components – real 

property inventory, environmental 

condition assessments and facility 

condition assessments – the DLA Real 

Property Survey and Condition Assessment 

started in 2010 as a real property inventory 

to identify facilities deficiencies to be 

addressed through the Sustainment, 

Restoration and Modernization Program. 

Later, DLA shifted the focus to aid the 

agency’s audit readiness team, which 

needed additional data to prepare for 

upcoming audit requirements. The site 

visits were scheduled to be completed in 

December, but the October government 

shutdown required that 50 sites be 

rescheduled into 2014. Once the site 

surveys are completed, the survey 

report will give DLA a clear picture of its 
22 www.dla.mil

DLA ASSESSMENT LOCATIONS

22 www.dla.mil

Geographical maps such as these indicate some of the roughly 600 military sites and installations that house Defense Logistics Agency 

assets. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is helping DLA inventory assets, like warehouses, fuel tanks and other structures, as part 

of a joint survey venture.
Loglines l January - February 2014 23

assets and their condition, Murphy said. 

For DLA, a survey with this kind of 

scope meant going outside the agency and 

straight to the engineering and real estate 

experts at USACE, Murphy said.

“Because this is very intensive, you 

have to have people who know what 

they’re doing,” he said. “So DLA partnered 

with the corps’ Fort Worth, Texas, district 

because they have the capability to reach 

out to real property experts and other 

subject matter experts from districts 

around the country, if not the world, to do 

these surveys.”

Although each military service must 

report annually on the status and value 

of its real property, such as buildings, a 

physical inventory must be conducted every 

five years, according to a March 2006 Office 

of the Secretary of Defense instruction.

“We have people trained in real 

property inventory who actually walk the 

warehouse, fuel farm or whatever [DLA] 

field activities are present on site,” he said. 

“Other real property people are with the 

installation folks, who have all the asset files. 

They’re supposed to track the documentation 

from the beginning, when the building was 

built, all the way to its demolition. And they’re 

scanning the files so that we can load them 

into the Enterprise Business System,” 

DLA’s technology backbone to track 

business transactions.

Every building or structure has a DoD 

real property unique identifier number 

that stays with that asset throughout its 

service. Once a survey team arrives at a 

location, it compares data from DLA’s 

database to that of the military service, 

Murphy said.

“Every service has its own database 

for real property,” he said. “It gives the 

title of the installation, where it’s located, 

the state, the county, but then also the 

square footage, the year it was built, 

its latitude and longitude, and several 

other data elements. As a tenant on most 

installations, DLA is required to maintain 

its inventory, and we maintain it on EBS 

in a real property module that has similar 

data elements to the services’ databases. 

When the teams go out, we’re comparing 

the databases between the services and 

DLA to make sure they match.”

If discrepancies occur, the team tries 

to reconcile the differences, then submits 

the changes to either the services or DLA, 

Murphy said.

“When we look at the different data 

elements, if the square footage is different 

from one database to the other, the 

team notes that difference,” he said. “If 

it appears that the service’s database is 

correct but DLA’s is off by 10,000 square 

feet, they write in the change. When they 

get back to Fort Worth, the proposed 

changes are entered and submitted 

through us here for review, and those 

changes can then be made into EBS. If 

EBS is correct, then we go to the real 

property accountability officer, provide 

that information and ask them to review 

and upgrade the service’s database.”

Along with the real property team, 

an environmental team also conducts 

condition assessments, making note of 

any environmental concerns the building 

may have, Murphy said.

“They’ll look at a building that was 

built before 1970, and if it’s been painted 

20 times, they’ll check it off to say it has 

a possibility of having lead paint on it, 

but they’re not testing the paint,” he said. 

“It’s just a quick checklist to determine a 

baseline; they don’t do any testing.”

Conducted only on non-fuel assets, 

facility condition assessments evaluate 

buildings from top to bottom. The teams 

then give estimates on what needs to be 

replaced, repaired or redone, Murphy said.

“If we have a DLA Document Services 

print plant or a DLA Disposition Services 

Cracked sidewalks, like this one at Letterkenney 

Army Depot in Chambersburg, Pa., are being 

evaluated during facility condition assessments 

at military sites worldwide as part of the 

joint effort between the U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers and the Defense Logistics Agency. 

Loglines l January - February 2014 23

“This [survey] is the rst comprehensive review of all of DLA’s assets. 

We’re trying to look at DLA collectively, rather than what the [eld 

activities] have been doing individually.” 

— Bernard Murphy

Bernard Murphy
24 www.dla.mil

recycling yard, we bring engineers in to 

look at these buildings from foundation 

to roof to determine what needs to be 

replaced or repaired, like the electrical 

system, mechanical systems, window 

replacement, etc., [along with] estimates,” 

he said. “When they’re finished, the report 

lists all the deficiencies by building so that 

when DLA Distribution or any other field 

activity collects these reports, they can sort 

them to see all the roofs that need repair 

or all the electrical systems that may need 

repair. Then we can proceed to contracts 

to get them repaired to make sure that the 

buildings are kept operational.”

When the time comes for repairs, the 

facility condition assessment reports detail 

both major and minor problems, issues 

and concerns about the building, similar 

to a home inspection, Murphy said.

“If you own a home, it’s very similar,” 

he said. “If you buy a house, you bring in 

someone to do an inspection. They would 

come and look at your foundation and 

your basement, and they’re looking to see 

if there are any cracks in the floors or in 

the walls or if there’s any water damage. 

Then they would look at the heater, the 

air conditioner and the piping. Then they 

would step outside and see what kind of 

siding you have, what kind of windows 

you have, when the roof was replaced, etc. 

That’s the sort of thing these teams do, 

but in a more standardized methodology.”

Any improvements to a building, such 

as a new sprinkler system, needs to be 

carefully documented as well, Murphy 

added, since it impacts the building’s 

value and depreciation rate.

Melissa Dickerson, project coordinator 

from USACE’s Fort Worth District, credited 

her organization’s flexibility as the key to 

accomplishing the mission.

“Going into the site visit, I know about 

how many assets are there,” she said. 

“I’ve probably been on 15 to 20 trips, so 

I’ve done it enough to know what might 

happen, but there’s just so much you 

have to plan for all these things that could 

possibly happen and you hope they don’t. 

But the biggest thing we’ve got to have is 

flexibility, because there’s always going to 

be new assets that we didn’t know about 

when we get there. At the same time, I 

need to ensure that the team stays on 

track as much as possible. We are about 

quality, and not quantity, so if we need to 

make different decisions that vary off of 

the original plan, we’re able to do that.”

With a lot of work to do in a small 

amount of time, the teams rely on 

organization and multitasking to make the 

most of their visits. Over a five-year cycle, 

several things can complicate matters, 

such as an addition to a warehouse or the 

demolition of a building, Dickerson said. 

With trips to Germany, Guam and Cuba 

under her belt, Dickerson said she has had 

her fair share of surprises and memorable 

site visits.

“The last [trip] we were on was 

San Diego, Point Loma and Miramar 

[Calif.],” she said. “We were told that 

there was a lot of new construction, 

and we really didn’t know what we 

were going to end up running into. It 

turns out, of the 49 assets that we had 

on the tracker, only four of them were 

actually there. The other 45 had been 

demolished. When that happens, it 

presents a lot of additional work. Then 

we had two assets that nobody knew 

where they were. We spent half a day 

trying to find them; it turns out they 

had been demolished and there’s a gas 

station sitting on top of them. So that 

was a challenge, but we found them.”

Dickerson said the teamwork between 

the DLA and USACE has led to the 

survey’s success.

“I’m hoping that we accomplish what 

DLA expects of us, and in return, it will 

build a good reputation for us with DLA 

for future work,” she said.

Since 2011, specially trained teams 

that include more than 500 USACE 

personnel from 25 districts have been 

traveling the world, working hard to 

inventory DLA’s entire assets, said Alain 

Bernier, program manager and chief of 

the infrastructure assessment branch at 

USACE’s Fort Worth district.

He said cooperation between the two 

organizations is key.

“It’s not only USACE that goes,” 

Bernier said. “Oftentimes, we have DLA 

counterparts that are actually in the field 

supporting us, and they bring a lot of 

value to our visits.” 

With three to four teams on the ground 

at any one time, each team is typically on 

the road for a week. How many sites the 

teams can visit in a week depends on each 

installation’s location and size, Bernier said.

“We try and group as much as we 

feel that we can accomplish in a week’s 

time, and we try to knock out as many 

installations as possible,” he said. “Some 

of these trips, we go in with 15 people; 

some more. The Japan trip took 86 

people. It took three weeks and a large 

commitment on the part of the folks that 

went out there because it’s multifaceted. 

The most important part of the program 

is consistency. Whether its real estate, 

facility condition assessments, or 

environmental, we always have to look at 

everything in the same manner so we can 

ensure a consistent and solid product.”

With the next five-year cycle starting 

in September 2015, Bernier said he is 

confident that USACE’s partnership with 

DLA will continue saving taxpayers’ dollars.

“It’s really a good marriage too, 

uniting two government agencies, and 

just inherently, it’s pretty smart to go 

that route to make sure we have the right 

eyes on the mission,” he said. “We’re 

building a long-lasting relationship that 

makes logical sense in the long run. 

We’re dealing daily with economics and 

bringing savings, not only to DLA, but to 

the taxpayers.” 

“We’re building a long-lasting relationship that makes logical sense in the 

long run. We’re dealing daily with economics and bringing savings, not 

only to DLA, but to the taxpayers.” — Alain Bernier
Loglines l January - February 2014 25

BUILDER Sustainment Management System

The Defense Logistics Agency uses the BUILDER Sustainment Management System to assess and 

track facility conditions. The software is an estimation 

tool that calculates deciencies and repairs of DLA 

assets. By issuing a condition index on a scale of 0 to 

100, BUILDER can even predict when future repairs will 

be needed, said Bernard Murphy, a general engineer in 

DLA Installation Support.

“For example, if a roof was put on 18 years ago, 

BUILDER will crank out an estimate of what it will cost 

to replace that roof, and it will also say it should be 

replaced every 20 years,” Murphy said. “It will issue 

a condition index based on the life expectancy left. 

Anything under 70 means you should replace it now, 

since it could cause more damage if it’s not xed, 

not only to the building, but to the stuff that’s stored 

underneath that roof.”

One of BUILDER’s main uses is to determine how 

many roofs in DLA’s buildings will need to be replaced in 

a given period, Murphy said.

“As a facilities manager, if the emphasis is to make 

sure the building is safe and dry and the material isn’t 

damaged, I focus on getting my roofs xed rst,” he 

said. “It’s one thing to look at one building, but you can 

look at 1,000 buildings with this system. It allows you 

to sort all the roof deciencies or all the electrical or 

mechanical deciencies, or I can look at an individual 

building and say, ‘OK, it’s not only the roof, but the 

chiller needs replaced, etc., and this building needs 

$600,000 worth of repairs.’ And you can nd your worst 

roofs in the 1,000 buildings. That’s the idea; it’s not only 

to determine the deciency, but the priority and the 

funding it would need to get it done.”

BUILDER also helps DLA keep a current look at its 

inventory, said Alain Bernier, chief of the infrastructure 

assessment branch at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ 

Fort Worth, Texas, district.

“Once these deciencies are recorded, we never 

lose sight of them,” he said. “When they’re through 

being xed, there’s a document that updates the 

real property inventory and the condition of those 

deciencies that were just replaced. It keeps the whole 

health of your database system current at all times.”

Created by the U.S. Army Construction 

Engineering Research Laboratory in Champaign, 

Ill., which was honored in April by USACE with its 

Innovation of the Year Award, BUILDER is one of the 

leading facility condition assessment mechanisms in 

the industry, Bernier said.

“Because of DLA’s effort, BUILDER is really 

taking off and has been customized to support DLA’s 

requirements,” he said. “As one of the byproducts, it’s 

becoming a very sought-after software in the industry, 

both private and government. One thing that has 

happened recently is that DLA has asked [the research 

lab] to develop new software to support their fuels 

mission, their energy mission, and they’re going to call 

it FUELER.” 

In a change announced by Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and 

logistics in a Sept. 10 memo, BUILDER and its three 

sister modules – ROOFER, for assessing building 

conditions; PAVER, for paved surfaces; and RAILER, 

for railroad infrastructure – are now required for all 

Department of Defense facility condition assessments to 

help ensure standardization throughout the department. 

— Amanda Neumann

Photo courtesy U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Jonathan Simon from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Fort Worth, Texas, District demonstrates the BUILDER Sustainment Management System 

software for generating facility condition assessment reports for a Defense Logistics Agency site visit to Yorktown, Va.
I AM

My name is: 

James “J.D.” Sayre

Describe your job in a sentence:

I am the supervisory financial system analyst for DLA Finance in 

Columbus, Ohio. I supervise a team of eight individuals focusing on 

supporting our internal DLA Finance customers, with an emphasis on 

audit readiness.

How long have you worked for DLA?

I have worked for DLA for three years.

What is your favorite thing about working for DLA?

I truly enjoy interacting with my co-workers and working toward the 

common goal of DLA becoming completely audit ready.

What is your best memory of working here?

My best memory of DLA is being named the field 

command team finance lead for audit readiness, which gave 

me the opportunity to work with a lot of folks across various 

departments within this agency and build a strong relationship 

with a variety of good folks.

How do you make a difference to warfighters?

I make a difference by helping support the audit readiness 

and stewardship effort. Being good stewards of our resources 

allows our senior leaders to make the appropriate decisions 

that both track our resources and allow them to be used in the 

most efficient way to support our warfighters.

James “J.D.” Sayre