Special Insert in this Issue

DLA 50th Anniversary Timeline Poster

LOGLINES

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY JULY – AUGUST 2012

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Europe & Africa
DIRECTOR

O

ne of my enduring messages when I 

talk to people outside of the agency 

is, “This is not your father’s DLA,” 

like the old saying, “not your father’s 

Oldsmobile.” I’ve been a customer of 

DLA my entire Navy career, and we’re 

doing things today I don’t think anyone 

believed would be possible 30 years ago, 

or even several years ago. You are truly 

making history. 

Today, wherever the military services 

are located, you’ll find DLA employees — 

military and civilians — working side-byside with warfighters ensuring they have 

the best possible logistics support. And 

Navy Vice Adm. Mark D. Harnitchek, SC, USN

Director, Defense Logistics Agency

from the

we continue looking for ways to make our 

support even better, and at less cost to 

the warfighter and American taxpayers. 

As I travel to our sites around the 

world, I’m continually amazed by the 

great work DLA employees are doing. 

From the gargantuan task the DLA 

Disposition Services team undertook 

as we brought our forces home from 

Iraq and the support our DLA Energy 

and Troop Support teams continue to 

provide to the State Department, to the 

tremendous amount of food and fuel 

we’ve been able to pour into Afghanistan 

to supply our forces despite the closure 

of ground transportation routes through 

Pakistan in November, we haven’t missed 

a beat. 

This issue of Loglines focuses on DLA’s 

support to U.S. European Command and 

U.S. Africa Command. DLA Europe & 

Africa serves as our face to the combatant 

commanders in those two theaters. DLA 

Disposition Services Europe & Africa 

works with the State Department to get 

excess property into the hands of those 

who need it in Eastern Europe. In Djibouti, 

we’ve provided disposition services for 

U.S. forces participating in training 

and partnership missions throughout 

Africa. And DLA Distribution Europe & 

Africa is consolidating its facilities at the 

Germersheim Army Depot into the new 

Logistics Distribution Center Europe, 

a “green” facility that will reduce the 

organization’s footprint from 22 buildings 

to nine. The work we’re doing on these 

two continents — in both traditional and 

austere environments — is vital to DLA’s 

continued commitment to providing 

effective, efficient warfighter support. 

Moving forward, we’ll continue to 

challenge ourselves as an agency — 

continually raising the bar on innovative 

ideas to provide the critical logistics 

support our warfighters have come to 

expect from us for more than 50 years. 

When faced with a task, no matter how 

daunting, Team DLA proves there is 

nothing we can’t do.

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dodlogisticsagency

Headquarters, Defense Logistics Agency

Office of Strategic Communications

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 D. Harnitchek

DLA Vice Director

Ted Case 

Chief of Staff

Frederick M. Baillie

Director, Strategic Communications

Douglas Ide

Deputy Director, Strategic Communications

Jack Hooper

Loglines Staff

Managing Editor Kathleen T. Rhem

Editor Jacob Boyer

Writer Beth Reece

Writer Sara Moore

Layout/Design Paul Henry Crank

Design Assistant Joy Brunk

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 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 following address:

Official Flagship Publication of the Defense Logistics Agency

LOGLINES
Loglines l July - August 2012 1

CONTENTS July - August 2012

pg 2

pg 7

pg 18

pg 14

DLA Europe & Africa 2

DLA employees help warfighters in 50 countries on two continents

with a wide range of logistics issues.

DLA Troop Support Europe & Africa 5

Warfighters in Europe, Africa and Afghanistan get food via a variety 

of methods managed by Team DLA.

DLA Distribution Europe 7

DLA’s distribution center in Germersheim, Germany, moves supplies 

to warfighters in Europe, Africa and Afghanistan.

DLA Energy Europe & Africa 11

Constantly shifting operational tempos, and their effect on energy 

demand, are a challenge for the DLA team responsible for fuel 

support. 

DLA Disposition Services 14

Disposition teams throughout Europe and Africa ensure equipment 

is demilitarized, disposed of or reused properly, even helping those in 

need in Eastern Europe.

A Fresh Set of Eyes 18

DLA Internal Review teams throughout the agency help leaders 

ensure their activities are doing things the best way possible.

A Conversation with ... 20

NewsWire 23

We are DLA 25

Money Matters 28

I am DLA Back Cover

DEPARTMENTS

EUROPE & AFRICA

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

Additional Resources

Find video clips and stories about DLA Europe & 

Africa and other DLA activities that provide logistics 

support to America’s warfighters across the globe at 

http://www.dla.mil/DLA_Media_Center/videos/.
2 www.dla.mil

Story by Beth Reece

hen U.S. Army Europe’s 

21st Theater Sustainment 

Command needed help 

housing about 100 troops 

at a remote site in Turkey, 

Steve Soisson gave them three options 

to choose from. One: order tents already 

on the shelves at nearby Defense 

Logistics Agency Distribution Europe, in 

Germersheim, Germany. Two: pull from 

internal Army stocks back in the United 

States. Or three: use Air Force assets 

sitting unused in Luxembourg. 

Soisson could have stopped at 

number one. But as a warfighter support 

representative who’s worked for DLA 

since 1992, he’s acquired a broad range 

of experience that enables him to present 

customers with numerous logistics 

solutions. 

“Those other options were completely 

outside of DLA, but having worked with 

the Air Force in another DLA job, I knew 

they had something that’s basically a 

‘[forward operating base] in a box.’ It’s 

everything you need to set up a forward 

operating base, complete with housing, 

showers and even a dining facility. So I 

hooked them up with the right people 

over at Ramstein [Air Base],” he said. 

hen U.S. Army Europe’s 

21st Theater Sustainment 

Command needed help 

housing about 100 troops 

at a remote site in Turkey, W

Steve Soisson gave them three options 

The 21st TSC ended up using Armyowned property, but Soisson said a loss 

of logistics expertise within the military 

services has caused DLA’s customers to rely 

on knowledge within the agency now more 

than ever.

“People come to DLA because they 

know we know logistics inside and out. 

With all the rotations and deployments, 

military members [often aren’t] in a job 

long enough to become an expert,” he said. 

“They need us.”

Headquartered at Kaiserslautern, 

Germany, Defense Logistics Agency 

Europe & Africa has about 800 personnel 

serving customers in 50 countries. From 

food and fuel needed during training 

exercises in Africa and Europe to repair 

parts needed to refurbish equipment 

returning from Afghanistan, DLA 

personnel provide face-to-face assistance 

every day. 

“We want our customers to think 

of DLA as part of their team. In fact, 

we attend all of their logistics planning 

and operations meetings to help them 

identify logistics requirements,” DLA 

Europe & Africa Deputy Commander 

Adriaan Adendorff said.

Warfighter support reps and liaison 

officers are co-located with U.S. 

European Command, U.S. Africa 

Command and each service component. 

While customers view them as experts 

on all the commodities and services 

DLA provides, representatives from 

DLA Energy and DLA Troop Support 

are also available in Kaiserslautern to 

DEFENSE

LOGISTICS AGENCY Europe & Africa

Defense Logistics Agency Europe & Africa
Loglines l July - August 2012 3

help with commodity-specific support 

when necessary.

A big chunk of DLA’s business in 

Afghanistan and Iraq also originates in 

DLA Europe & Africa. Most of the fuel 

provided to the Department of State in 

Iraq is sourced from DLA Energy contracts 

and inspected by members of DLA Energy 

Europe & Africa. And employees from 

DLA Troop Support Europe & Africa are 

often deployed to places like Uzbekistan, 

establishing contracts for local procurement 

of food for dining facilities in Afghanistan.

“One of our biggest successes is 

the continued support of [U.S. Central 

Command] even though the ground lines 

Marines with Air Delivery Platoon, 2nd Marine 

Logistics Group Forward, prepare to load 

supplies from DLA Distribution Europe onto a 

C-130 Hercules aircraft for delivery to Camp 

Bastion, Afghanistan. 

Marine Corps Cpl. Michael Augusto

Loglines l July - August 2012 3
4 www.dla.mil

of communication through Pakistan have 

been closed,” Adendorff said. “We had an 

initial reduction in the days of supply on 

the ground, but now, with the GLOC still 

closed, we’ve managed to build the days 

of supply back up to what it was before 

the closure.”

When supply routes through 

Pakistan closed in November 2011, DLA 

Distribution employees in Germany were 

already working with USCENTCOM, 

USEUCOM and their counterparts 

at DLA Distribution Headquarters in 

Susquehanna, Pa., to find an alternate 

truck route. It’s commonly referred to as 

the “Europe to Afghanistan (E2A) route.”

“We used to go from here to Iraq by 

ground, so we took that same concept 

and put trucks on the road directly to 

Afghanistan. Right now, it’s about a 55-day 

transit time, sometimes as low as 40 in 

the summer and [as high as] 90 in the 

winter,” DLA Distribution Europe Deputy 

Commander Brian Burkholder said.

The route from Europe takes 43 days 

less than moving material in through the 

Northern Distribution Network, added 

Army Lt. Col. Robert Abbott, chief of 

DLA Europe & Africa’s Joint Logistics 

Operations Center.

DLA Europe & Africa will also play a 

role in the return of material as U.S. forces 

leave Afghanistan. The Army Field Support 

Battalion–Italy, part of the 405th Army 

Field Support Brigade, in Livorno, Italy, is 

expected to receive more than 4,000 Mine 

Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles that 

need refurbishing, so DLA representatives 

at DLA Distribution Europe and the DLA 

Disposition Services site in Sigonella, 

Italy, are preparing to meet the demand 

for repair parts, Abbott said.

DLA employees have shown they 

are so skilled at meeting logistics needs 

in dangerous and remote locations that 

leaders are asking for more, Adendorff 

added. USAFRICOM leaders asked 

DLA Distribution early this year to take 

over warehouse operations at Camp 

Lemonnier, Djibouti, the only enduring 

U.S. installation in Africa.

“[DLA] Distribution did a study of 

the operation and determined they could 

reduce the number of parts stocked in 

Djibouti by putting them in Germersheim, 

Bahrain or Sigonella and still get the 

items there as quickly as the customer 

needs them,” he said. “And by reducing 

the footprint in Djibouti, they could also 

reduce contract requirements and provide 

savings to the customer.”

 Logistics support for special operations teams in Africa accounts for a small 

piece of DLA’s business, Adendorff added. 

“But it’s a difficult mission for us to 

support. And if something really flared up 

in Africa, from fighting or terrorist efforts, 

it could become a large and even more 

difficult operation for us to support.”

Much of the difficulty stems from 

political and social instability, long 

distances, a lack of roads, and different 

customs regulations at the border of each 

of the continent’s 53 nations. 

“You may have prime vendors in 

multiple countries in the region, but 

they’re still hundreds of miles away from 

the customer with no real infrastructure 

established to go from sea and air ports,” 

Abbott said. “It’s not like supporting 

customers in Europe, where we’ve been 

operating for a number of years and 

things are pretty well-defined.”

Soldiers unload boxes of food from a UH-60 

Black Hawk helicopter at an outpost in 

Kunduz province, Afghanistan. The meals were 

provided by DLA and distributed to Soldiers at 

three outposts in the province who otherwise 

would have eaten meals, ready to eat for 

Christmas dinner. 

Army Spc. Jeanita C. Pisachubbe

Defense Logistics Agency Europe & Africa

— continued on page 6
Loglines l July - August 2012 5

The Military Sealift Command dry cargo and ammunition ship USNS Sacagawea (left) and the amphibious transport dock ship USS Mesa Verde 

conduct an underway replenishment in the Mediterranean Sea during Operation Unied Protector. DLA Energy provided 209 million gallons of fuel 

products to U.S. forces during the operation. 

Navy Seaman Josue Escobosa

DLA TROOP SUPPORT

Of the $14 billion in sales that Defense 

Logistics Agency Troop Support 

generates annually, just over a third is 

handled by employees assigned to DLA Troop 

Support Europe & Africa. While some of it goes 

toward supplying dining facilities throughout 

Europe or supporting construction projects by 

Navy Seabees in Africa, most of it is for food 

consumed by warfighters in Afghanistan.

“We went from supporting two locations 

in Afghanistan to having a peak of 270 delivery 

locations,” said Al Gross, commander of DLA 

Troop Support Europe & Africa.

The organization has relied on prime vendors 

to supply and deliver subsistence since the 

1990s, but this is the first time a prime vendor has 

ever operated entirely within a combat zone, said 

Tim Schmidt, DLA Troop Support’s team lead for 

customer support in Afghanistan. 

“It’s completely different from food support 

in Iraq, where everything was formed outside 

the combat area and escorted in by military 

vehicles. In Afghanistan, everything comes in 

via shipments to the prime vendor’s facilities, 

which are located within the combat zone, and 

they’re then distributed out using a combination 

of road and air deliveries,” he said. 

To feed troops in remote areas in Eastern 

Europe and Africa, DLA Troop Support sends 

contracting officers out in search of local 

vendors with quality products that are willing to 

do business with DLA.

“In Kosovo, for example, a lot of folks 

wanted us to buy local bread, water, etc. It just 

makes good business sense to use a vendor 

right around the corner instead of shipping it all 

the way from Germany. Money is part of it, but if 

you ship fresh bread from Germany, for example, 

it’s not going to keep for more than four to six 

days,” Gross said. 

 Contracting officers have completed market 

research with 13 possible new vendors in six 

countries in the past two and a half years. It is 

a labor-intensive process that requires working 

with U.S. embassies and economic advisers 

and involves quality and sanitation checks of 

prospective vendors’ facilities.

“In a lot of these places, especially Africa, 

you can’t just walk in and say, ‘I want to see 

your operation.’ You have to give them advance 

notification, tell them what you want to do, get 

a translator, get a driver who can read the road 

signs if there even are roads, and maybe even 

an escort from the consulate,” Gross said.

 Supporting contingency operations can 

also be a challenge for DLA Troop Support. 

During operations Odyssey Dawn and Unified 

Protector in Libya, for example, the organization 

went from supporting one ship in the 

Mediterranean Sea to 28. 

“They all came overnight, and they all 

wanted food. The prime vendor down there was 

used to supporting just a few dining facilities and 

one ship, so we had to arrange massive airlifts to 

fly food in,” Gross added.

But like DLA activities around the world, 

Gross said, his organization is staffed by dedicated people, many of them prior military members.

 “A lot of our civilian employees have been 

where the customer is at. They’ve sat in their 

chairs, crashed in their foxholes, and they know 

what it’s like out there. So our people are here to 

do whatever it takes to support them,” he added.

— Beth Reece

DLA TROOP SUPPORT Europe & Africa

Loglines l July - August 2012 5
6 www.dla.mil

With customers in so many places 

looking to DLA as their logistics provider, 

DLA Europe & Africa Commander Army 

Col. Joseph Ladner has made unifying the 

various components of DLA in Europe his 

priority. He hosts biweekly meetings in 

which leaders of each primary-level field 

activity share information on operations 

in their specific areas.

“Most of our customers don’t know 

the inner workings of DLA and all of 

the support that DLA brings to the 

table. They may approach a DLA Troop 

Support planner and talk about energy 

or disposition, so it’s incumbent upon 

everyone to not just be technical in their 

own field, but to also have an overall 

understanding of what we’re doing here 

and what capabilities exist across the 

enterprise,” Ladner said.

He is also focused on making sure 

the services DLA provides continue to 

adequately meet customers’ needs after the 

war in Afghanistan ends and the drawdown 

in Europe is complete. As the services 

become more involved in expeditionary 

missions, he said, he expects the agency will 

need to become more flexible.

“Our operating environment is 

changing, and as it changes, it may 

become prudent for us to do more local 

procurement with blanket purchase 

agreements that include indefinite delivery 

times and locations,” Ladner said. “I don’t 

think we’re going to continue to have big 

requirements that can be supported by 

long-term contracts, so we need to become 

flexible with our business model.”

Combatant command and service 

component leaders in Europe and Africa 

are clearly voicing their need for DLA in 

the future, Adendorff added.

“We’re hearing the same message from 

all of them, and that is that they need us to 

fill their logistics expertise gaps,” he said. 

“‘We need you to continue to fill those 

voids that we have and will continue to 

have in the future,’ they say.” 

Marines with the 4th Artillery Battalion load a round into an M777 155 mm Howitzer at Camp Draa 

near TanTan, Morocco, during Exercise African Lion. DLA Europe & Africa employees provide 

continual logistics support to exercises in Africa that are designed to promote interoperability 

and mutual understanding of each nation’s military tactics, techniques and procedures. 

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Sean M. Worrell

Defense Logistics Agency Europe & Africa

— continued from page 4
Loglines l July - August 2012 7

DLA Distribution

Story and Photos by Beth Reece

ozens of boxes in various weights 

and sizes are piled on the floor 

when Dustin McDonald and 

Brandon Cain show up for the 

day shift at Defense Logistics 

Agency Distribution Europe. It’s the same 

every day, and each man knows where to 

start. McDonald stretches a tape measure 

across several boxes and calculates which 

ones fit best on the bottom of an air 

pallet, while Cain presses down on the 

lids to see which ones aren’t quite full. 

“Sometimes we can get a lot more 

stuff on a pallet by cutting the boxes 

down to a smaller size or by combining 

boxes. It could make all the difference 

between something the troops really need 

going out today or staying another day, 

so we do what we can to make everything 

possible fit,” Cain said. 

Work at the Germersheim, Germany, 

distribution center is relentless. Whether 

material handlers are picking items off 

the shelves for customers’ orders or 

forklift operators are replenishing stock 

for any of the 41,000 line items kept on 

hand there, day and night crews rush to 

keep up with demands of customers in 

Europe, Africa and Afghanistan. 

“You’d think our mission would have 

dropped some as the number of forces in 

Europe reduced, but we’ve also become 

ozens of boxes in various weights 

and sizes are piled on the floor 

when Dustin McDonald and 

Brandon Cain show up for the 

day shift at Defense Logistics 

Agency Distribution Europe. It’s the same 

D

Brandon Cain loads supplies destined 

for Afghanistan onto an air pallet at DLA 

Distribution Europe in Germersheim, Germany.

DLA Distribution Europe 

Loglines l July - August 2012 7
8 www.dla.mil

a significant player for U.S. Central 

Command,” said Army Lt. Col. Andre 

Baldanza, DLA Distribution Europe 

commander. “We’re now a primary hub 

for getting supplies into Afghanistan. And 

while the demand for construction materials there has pretty much died down, the 

demand for everything else has gone up.”

 The DLA Distribution Europe team 

packs enough material for 37 truck 

deliveries direct from Germersheim 

to Afghanistan and an average of 100 

containers on the Northern Distribution 

Network each week, as well as 50 to 60 

air pallets destined for forward operating 

bases and combat outposts. 

“If the material is going to a 

location on the top of a mountain 

in the middle of Afghanistan, we 

build that pallet ‘pure’ so it only 

contains what that particular 

customer needs. It then goes to 

Ramstein Air Base on a truck, gets 

put on a plane to Afghanistan that 

ends up at the customer’s location, 

all in 8.1 days. The process is so 

good that units in Afghanistan 

that issue material from their 

stock can’t get it there faster than 

we can,” Baldanza said.

Support for customers 

conducting humanitarian aid 

and counterterrorism training in 

Africa has also grown, he added. 

With more than 50 nations and 

different customs requirements at 

each border, delivering supplies 

throughout the continent is 

difficult. But DLA Distribution 

Europe fills containers of basic 

items such as food, water for 

exercise support, and various 

classes of supply in support of 

counterterrorism, then arranges 

shipment so they arrive at customers’ 

destination just before operations kick off. 

Baldanza’s staff also stores uniforms, 

radio equipment and other gear that special 

operations forces issue to African military 

forces during counterterrorism training.

“Otherwise they would have to go out 

and rent a building to store the material 

and hire people to manage it,” he said. 

“It’s really not a whole lot of material, but it 

is does impact their mission significantly.”

Army customers throughout Europe 

have also come to depend on the 

organization through the serviceableexcess program. The program allows Army 

units to send usable, excess material to 

Germersheim, where it is added to the 

Distribution Standard System and stored 

until another Army customer anywhere in 

the world needs it. About 13,000 nationalstock-numbered items, all still Armyowned, are included in the program.

“It’s become a big business for us 

and is a great value for the Army,” DLA 

Distribution Europe Deputy Commander 

Brian Burkholder said. “Some customers 

have even said they’re disposing of a lot 

less material because of the program.”

DLA Distribution Europe’s assumption of DLA Distribution Mapping Europe 

operations is yet another example of how 

DLA employees are working to provide 

seamless support to customers, he added. 

The move shifts an additional 18,000 

national-stock-numbered items to DLA 

Distribution Europe’s inventory. 

“Before, mapping was a separate eighthour-a-day, five-day-a-week operation 

with its own infrastructure and personnel. 

By incorporating it into our command and 

control, we’re able to provide service 24 

“The process is so good that units in Afghanistan that issue material from their 

stock can’t get it there faster than we can.”

— Army Lt. Col. Andre Baldanza

New cabinets with various-sized 

compartments will improve storage capacity at the new Logistics 

Distribution Center Europe, which is 

expected to open in September.

Defense Logistics Agency Europe & Africa
Loglines l July - August 2012 9

hours a day, six days a week with better 

utilization of personnel, facilities and 

equipment,” Burkholder said. 

Warfighters’ needs shape most of its 

mission, but DLA Distribution Europe 

also supports other federal agencies, 

such as the U.S. Agency for International 

Development. Following the magnitude 

7.2 earthquake that rocked eastern 

Turkey in October 2011, the 

team scrambled to provide 

cots, sleeping bags, hygiene 

kits and other relief supplies. 

Within 12 hours of the request, 

eight trucks were loaded and at 

Ramstein ready for movement. 

“We got the call at 5:30 

p.m. on a Friday, but they were 

dedicated to supporting the 

mission. I was absolutely in awe 

of what these guys were able to 

accomplish,” Baldanza said.

Even teachers working for any of the 

84 schools run throughout Europe by 

the Department of Defense Education 

Activity get routine deliveries from DLA 

Distribution Europe. Material used to be 

received and then stored in Germersheim 

until there was enough to justify 

paying for a truck to move it. But now, 

distribution process workers simply load 

the material onto trucks that run daily 

deliveries to the same communities. 

Somewhere in the daily workflow, 

members of the Issue and Inventory 

divisions are also moving stock into the 

Logistics Distribution Center Europe, a 

new $38 million facility expected to open 

in September. The move will take DLA 

Distribution Europe from 22 buildings to 

just nine. The smaller footprint 

includes several enhanced 

features that will improve 

operations, Burkholder said.

“We just took a commonsense approach with 

the team’s learning and 

understanding so that we’ll 

have fewer limitations in 

the new facility and just the 

right mix of automation and 

human touch. In the walkand-pick area, for example, 

includes several enhanced 

features that will improve 

operations, Burkholder said.

sense approach with 

the team’s learning and 

understanding so that we’ll 

have fewer limitations in 

the new facility and just the 

right mix of automation and 

human touch. In the walk- The new Logistics Distribution Center Europe will feature energy-efcient 

amenities including skylights, solar panels and heat-ambient oors that 

are warmed by hot water owing through tubes in the concrete.

Andrea Lener, a material handler for DLA Distribution Europe’s Issue Division, collects items for customers’ orders.

Loglines l July - August 2012 9
10 www.dla.mil

we’re switching to manual push carts. 

The automated stock selectors used now 

only allow one person to pick material 

from a row, but we’ll be able to put as 

many folks on a row as we need in the 

facility,” Burkholder said.

Charles Crumb, chief of the Issue 

Division, said a smaller footprint also 

means his 70 employees can work faster 

because they won’t have to travel as far 

to get material from the shelves to the 

proper shipping area.

Storage capacity was another issue 

needing improvement. Instead of storing 

items in the same size bins regardless of 

how small an item may be, new cabinets 

with various-sized compartments will be 

used, Crumb said.

“Not only is it more efficient, it will give 

us a lot more storage density,” he said. 

Built by the Army Corps of Engineers, 

the building is also being touted as one 

of the Defense Department’s “greenest” 

facilities. Its energy-efficient amenities 

include skylights, solar panels and 

heat-ambient floors that are warmed by 

hot water flowing through tubes in the 

concrete.

Baldanza said the building is a model 

of what can be done elsewhere.

 “We took all that we’ve learned with 

our current operation and combined 

it with current industry standards, but 

what we don’t know is what additional 

benefits we’re going to find once we get 

in there,” he said. “We’re going to learn 

how to do business even better than we 

do it now, and we’ll continue to get better as time goes on. That’s exciting news 

for DLA Distribution and a great bonus 

to our customers.” 

Dustin McDonald measures a box to determine 

how it will t on an air pallet that will be driven 

to Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and own to 

warghters in Afghanistan.

Defense Logistics Agency Europe & Africa
Loglines l July - August 2012 11

Story and Photos by Beth Reece

hether they’re checking the 

quality of fuel at a refinery in 

Greece or inspecting a vendor in 

one of the most poverty-stricken 

countries in Africa, quality 

assurance representatives working for 

Defense Logistics Agency Energy Europe 

& Africa expect to get their hands dirty.

“They’re the ones out there accepting 

fuel and pulling samples to make sure it 

meets specifications. And often, they’re 

working in intense heat or cold, with heavy 

stress and a heavy workload,” said Lanny 

Collums, a supervisory quality assurance 

specialist who leads about half of the 20 

quality assurance representatives assigned 

throughout Europe and Africa.

More than 770 million gallons of fuel 

were issued to customers in Europe, Africa, 

Iraq and Turkey in fiscal 2011, primarily 

at 60 defense fuel support points, and 87 

into-plane and 25 bunker locations. The 

largest consumer was Ramstein Air Base, 

Germany, which is a major hub for supplies 

going into Afghanistan. 

In that time frame, DLA Energy 

Europe & Africa supported about 70 

exercises and operations with everything 

from jet fuel to various grades of ground 

products, and even helium for Army 

hether they’re checking the 

quality of fuel at a refinery in 

Greece or inspecting a vendor in 

one of the most poverty-stricken 

countries in Africa, quality W

assurance representatives working for 

DLA Energy

DLA Energy quality assurance specialist Axel 

Spear prepares fuel for testing at the fuel lab 

in Kaiserslautern, Germany. The lab is the only

one of its kind in Europe.

Europe & Africa

Loglines l July - August 2012 11
12 www.dla.mil

aerostats that provide surveillance, 

said Air Force Capt. Carissa Deeney, 

operations officer.

DLA Energy Europe & Africa Deputy 

Director Chuck Gross said increasing 

military operations in austere locations 

in Africa and Turkey and declining 

resources are daily challenges for his 

85-member team. 

“The reality is, these days we’re 

being asked to support the warfighter 

in more remote locations, far from 

established bases, in areas with little 

to no infrastructure. That also means 

finding and dealing with new suppliers 

and working with government agencies to 

resolve complicated customs regulations 

and tax issues that aren’t an issue in the 

U.S. and Western Europe,” he said.

Liaison officers partner with the 

logistics staffs at U.S. European Command 

and U.S. Africa Command to help forecast 

customers’ need for fuel. But providing 

fuel for military exercises and contingency 

operations has become especially difficult 

due to the fluid nature of those operations, 

added Army Col. Robert Weaver, commander of DLA Energy Europe & Africa. 

Contracting representatives are 

currently working on a blanket ordering 

agreement that Weaver said will enable 

his organization to better meet shortnotice requirements for troops in Africa. 

“With the blanket ordering agreement, we’ll have vendors that are already 

vetted, so when a requirement does come 

Lanny Collums (front), a supervisory quality assurance specialist for DLA Energy Europe & Africa, 

checks a fuel sample at the 86th Logistics Readiness Squadron with Air Force Staff Sgt. Philip 

Scott and Senior Airman Michael Mandelbaum.

(Left) Tests at the DLA Energy Fuel Lab in Kaiserslautern, Germany, ensure the fuel used by 

military customers throughout Europe and Africa meets military specications.

“The reality is, these days we’re being asked to support the 

warghter in more remote locations, far from established 

bases, in areas with little to no infrastructure.”

— Chuck Gross

Defense Logistics Agency Europe & Africa
Loglines l July - August 2012 13

up, the solicitation process will be faster,” 

he said.

Depending on the quantity of fuel 

needed and the duration of the requirement, DLA Energy Europe & Africa can 

also turn to local purchase agreements, 

direct-delivery contracts and one-time 

spot buys, Deeney added. 

When U.S. forces launched Operation 

Odyssey Dawn with airstrikes in Libya 

in March 2011 on short notice, energy 

experts in Europe scrambled to cover a 125 

percent increase in jet fuel consumption 

to the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano Air 

Base, Italy, said Phillip Greene, a DLA 

warfighter support representative who 

serves customers in northern Italy and 

U.S. Army Africa. 

The effort was renamed Operation 

Unified Protector on March 31, when 

NATO assumed command. Between then 

and October 2011, DLA Energy Europe 

& Africa provided 209 million gallons of 

fuel products to U.S. forces and another 

40 million to coalition partners. 

The organization also arranged 

direct delivery of fuel from Turkey for 

the Department of State as it assumed 

responsibility for operations in Iraq. The 

effort meant a huge learning curve for DLA 

and DoS alike, said Air Force Maj. Todd 

McDowell, operations officer.

“Dealing with clearance requirements 

from newly formed organizations in the 

Iraqi government, reacting to detained 

convoys and drivers, and making sure our 

vendors are providing quality product on 

time have been a huge challenge,” he said. 

DLA representatives also trained 

State Department officials on fuel inventory management and standard operating 

procedures for ordering, coordinating 

delivery and receiving fuel products.

In November, officials setting up a 

remote site in eastern Turkey requested 

DLA’s help to determine why fuel wasn’t 

flowing properly into generators that run 

the system. 

“The site is over an hour from the 

closest town, and securing fuel to run the 

generators and vehicles presented a big 

challenge, which was complicated by poor 

roads and severe weather,” Deeney said. 

Subzero temperatures and a lack 

of filtration capability were keeping 

fuel from getting into the generators, 

so Army Sgt. 1st Class Juan Nieves, an 

operations noncommissioned officer 

assigned to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, 

was sent to the site. Finding that the 

equipment had been set up wrong, 

Nieves helped identify equipment needs 

and familiarized site operators with fuel 

maintenance procedures.

“The difference we were able to make 

there and elsewhere is a testament to our 

team’s expertise and to their willingness 

to help warfighters whenever possible,” 

Gross said. 

Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Howard Heisey, 86th Logistics Readiness Squadron fuels manager, discusses fuel quality with Lanny Collums, a 

supervisory quality assurance specialist for DLA Energy Europe & Africa.

Loglines l July - August 2012 13
14 www.dla.mil

DLA Disposition

Services Story and Photos by Beth Reece

en Waller was an operations 

officer for 28th Transportation 

Battalion in Mannheim, Germany, 

when he and his supply staff 

went scrounging at the Defense 

Logistics Agency Disposition Services site 

in Kaiserslautern in 2004. The unit was 

headed to Iraq and desperately needed 

Kevlar blankets that would line the floors 

of their Humvees and protect passengers 

from roadside bombs.

“We basically just went in and walked 

en Waller was an operations 

officer for 28th Transportation 

Battalion in Mannheim, Germany, 

when he and his supply staff 

went scrounging at the Defense B

Logistics Agency Disposition Services site 

around until we found it,” he said. 

“Things are more automated now, so 

customers have an easier time finding 

material, but we were grateful to find 

what we needed back then.” 

Waller has since retired from the 

Army, and in 2011, he returned to the 

Kaiserslautern site – not as a customer, 

but as its leader. 

The site is just one element of DLA 

Disposition Services Europe & Africa. 

Headquartered in Kaiserslautern, 

Germany, the activity operates 14 sites 

in six countries – Germany, Italy, 

Spain, Turkey, Portugal and the United 

Kingdom – where customers can turn in 

or receive excess property. While there 

are no DLA Disposition Services sites 

in Africa, the activity keeps one service 

member at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, 

to accept property from units that are 

on the continent for nation building and 

humanitarian assistance exercises. 

Property turn-ins have steadily 

increased in recent years with units 

across Europe relocating or deactivating 

as part of troop reductions throughout 

the continent. Steve Soisson, DLA’s 

warfighter support representative to 

21st Theater Sustainment Command, 

facilitated the turn-in of about 48,000 

pieces of equipment belonging to 170th 

Infantry Brigade Combat Team. The 

unit recently returned to Baumholder 

from Afghanistan and is scheduled to 

deactivate by the end of summer. Some of 

its equipment will go to other Army units, 

but Soisson said much of it will end up at 

DLA Disposition Services for reutilization 

through several different programs or 

demilitarization and disposal.

“We’ve got several tools in place to 

help us take care of our customers, and 

our goal is to make it easy for them to get 

DLA DISPOSITION SERVICES EUROPE & AFRICA

SPAIN

PORTUGAL

UNITED 

KINGDOM

TURKEY

ITALY

TURKEY SPAIN

PORTUGAL UNITED 

KINGDOM

DLA maintains one service member at Camp 

Lemonnier, Djibouti, for equipment turn-in in 

Africa. There is no disposition site in Africa. Djibouti

Kaiserslautern

Germersheim

Schweinfurt

Grafenwoehr

Heidelberg

Vicenza

Aviano

Livorno

Naples

Sigonella

Incirlik Rota

Lajes

Molesworth

SPAIN

TURKEY

PORTUGAL

ITALY

TURKEY SPAIN

PORTUGAL UNITED 

KINGDOM

DLA maintains one service member at Camp 

Lemonnier, Djibouti, for equipment turn-in in 

Africa. There is no disposition site in Africa.

Kaiserslautern

Germersheim

Schweinfurt

Grafenwoehr

Heidelberg

Vicenza

Aviano

Livorno

Naples

Sigonella

Incirlik Rota

Lajes

Molesworth

Defense Logistics Agency Europe & Africa

ITALY

DJIBOUTI

GERMANY

There are 14 disposition 

activities operating in 6 

countries throughout Europe, 

with headquarters located in 

Kaiserslautern, Germany.

GERMANY
Loglines l July - August 2012 15

rid of excess property as we reutilize that 

property to the greatest extent possible,” 

said Stephen O’Brian, deputy director of 

DLA Disposition Services Europe & Africa. 

Like DLA Disposition Services sites 

throughout the world, those in Europe and 

Africa strive to reissue serviceable items 

to other military members within 423 

days. Most items are photographed, and 

information is posted on DLA Disposition 

Services’ website, where potential customDemilitarization Coordinator Larry Tate (right) 

reviews item numbers for weapons parts that 

are about to be destroyed with the help of 

contracted employees.

Kaiserslautern’s Centralized 

Demilitarization Division 

is the only place in the 

European and African 

theaters where U.S. military 

equipment is stripped of its 

offensive capability.

Loglines l July - August 2012 15
16 www.dla.mil

ers can screen available property. 

Disposal experts have several other 

options for reusing material that’s no 

longer needed by military customers. 

Items such as government vehicles, 

electronics and furniture can be sold 

through a “usable term sale,” in which 

local contractors agree to buy a set amount 

of certain items for one to three years.

“This program gives us more power 

to move property,” O’Brian said. “It’s 

different from a one-time sale because 

we predict how much of a particular item 

we’re going to bring in over a period of 

time. Then we negotiate a price with a 

contractor who is willing to accept that 

material on a repetitive basis.”

 Usable term sales have brought in 

more than $5.5 million since they began 

in October 2009. O’Brian said he expects 

the program’s success to continue, 

especially as the military pushes older 

material out of its system.

Material unneeded by Defense 

Department customers can also be 

offered to other federal customers or 

donated through such programs as the 

Humanitarian Assistance Program. HAP 

provides material to international charities 

as well as the U.S. State Department and 

its embassies, which in turn give it to 

hospitals, orphanages, schools and other 

facilities in need throughout Eastern 

Europe. Linda Wagner, DLA Disposition 

Services’ HAP coordinator, travels to 

military installations each week in search 

of excess material that’s being prepared for 

turn-in. 

“Why bring the equipment here only 

to move it again when Linda can go on site 

and work with customers to take it out of 

their area and send it straight to the country in need?” Waller said. “Things like this 

show that DLA Disposition Services does 

more than just move stuff around. We use 

it to help others.

“Our military customers don’t want 

things like old furniture, but they’re 

greatly appreciated by people who are 

less fortunate than we are,” she added. 

Waller’s staff also matches excess 

material with Foreign Military Sales 

customers. The FMS program allows 

eligible foreign governments to 

purchase U.S. government vehicles, 

equipment and other goods and services 

for their militaries. 

“They like to come through and look 

in our warehouses to see what types of 

items we have. Then they’ll give us a wish 

list of things they need. For example, 

African nations usually want medical and 

sanitation equipment, so when it comes 

in we’ll call their FMS case manager and 

let them know it’s here,” Waller said.

Staff members at Kaiserslautern’s 

Centralized Demilitarization Division do 

all they can to save property. The site is 

the only place in the European and African 

theaters where U.S. military equipment 

is stripped of its offensive capability so it 

can’t be used against U.S. forces.

Demilitarization Coordinator Larry 

Tate said he felt “deep down” it would 

be wrong to immediately demilitarize 53

decontamination units that were turned 

Julio Adon identies parts for an outdated 

radar system he is turning in to DLA Disposition 

Services for a Mannheim, Germany-based unit 

scheduled to deactivate this year.

Defense Logistics Agency Europe & Africa
Loglines l July - August 2012 17

in without ever being used. Originally 

designed for decontamination following 

nuclear, biological or chemical attacks, 

the units could also be used in response 

to disease outbreaks. 

“The units were about $17,000 each, 

brand new, still in the box. So I took 

pictures of them and put them on our 

website. I just didn’t feel right destroying 

that stuff when I knew somebody, 

somewhere could use it,” he said. 

FMS customers in Israel acquired the 

units this summer.

When disposal is necessary, 

contractors located on DLA Disposition 

Services’ sites strip property of recyclable 

material that is later released on a scrap 

contract. The monetary return is based 

on the European waste index code and is 

used to pay for the cost of the contract.

“This program helps us make sure 

we’re in compliance with the rules and 

regulations that go with recycling,” 

O’Brian said. “That’s really important 

in places like Europe and Africa 

because the laws in various countries 

change frequently.” 

Disposal experts also travel 

throughout Europe and Africa to assist 

customers, especially when large turn-ins 

are expected. For example, following a 

military plane crash in 2011, Waller sent 

a team to the site to help the unit prepare 

parts for turn-in. 

“We made the unit’s life a lot easier 

by doing that,” he said. “To me, that’s 

world-class customer support.” 

That kind of service was a relief 

for Julio Adon, who arrived at the 

Demilitarization Division in April with 

hopes of turning in an outdated radar 

system for a Mannheim-based unit 

scheduled to deactivate this year. Adon 

wanted to turn in the system as a single 

piece of equipment, but demilitarization 

rules require that each individual part be 

separately identified to ensure the proper 

level of demilitarization. 

Instead of wasting money sending the 

property back to Mannheim, disposition 

experts invited Adon to stay with the 

equipment at the site, where they would 

teach him how to use DLA Disposition 

Services’ website to identify each part. 

“They could have told me to pack it all 

up and find another truck to get it back to 

Mannheim, but they offered to help me 

so I could train the rest of the unit, which 

still has a warehouse full of equipment that 

needs to be turned in,” he said. “What I’ve 

learned here, I’ll be sharing with others.” 

An employee at the Centralized Demilitarization 

Division in Kaiserslautern, Germany, destroys 

weapons parts so they can’t be used against 

U.S. forces. The facility is the only place in 

the European and African theaters where U.S. 

military equipment is stripped of its offensive 

capability. 

Excess equipment turned in at DLA Disposition 

Services Europe & Africa in Kaiserslautern, 

Germany, is stored neatly in indoor facilities 

and outdoors.

Loglines l July - August 2012 17
18 www.dla.mil

A Fresh Set 

of Eyes

Story by Jacob Boyer

hile the Defense Logistics 

Agency’s various field activities 

and corporate activities 

are part of one overarching 

enterprise, they all encounter 

unique challenges. Their commanders and 

directors need the ability to look into their 

range of operations and ensure they are 

working properly and, if not, find ways to 

fix problems that are encountered.

Each of these organizations has an 

Office of Internal Review designed to do 

just that. When the agency established 

the DLA Office of the Inspector General 

hile the Defense Logistics 

Agency’s various field activities 

and corporate activities 

are part of one overarching 

enterprise, they all encounter 

unique challenges. Their commanders and 

W in 2011, those offices, which had 

previously received guidance from the 

DLA Accountability Office, were separated 

from the OIG. IR offices look into a wide 

variety of local issues approved by their 

commander or director, and they share 

their findings and recommendations with 

DLA Strategic Plans and Policy and the 

DLA Stewardship Committee.

“We coordinate and help collaborate 

amongst the different IR offices out there 

so that if DLA Troop Support’s doing 

something really great that could affect 

DLA Aviation or DLA Land and Maritime, 

everybody is in the know about it,” said 

Kristin Kremer, a program and management analyst with DLA Strategic Plans 

and Policy. “That way, others could learn 

from that, pick up pieces, and go on and 

look at the same areas.”

While the teams look at a variety of 

issues, from time card accuracy to property 

accountability, they focus primarily on 

business processes, Peter Battaglia, also 

a program and management analyst with 

DLA Strategic Plans and Policy, said.

“They’re looking at the end-to-end 

business process for a specific item or 

event,” he said. “They’re reviewing it in 

terms of adequacy, failure rates, problems 

associated with it like timeliness, and a 

number of different lenses. When they 

find an issue, they’ll analyze it and make a 

recommendation. 

“For example, they could look at 

contract lead times,” Battaglia continued. 

“They’d look at how we obtain a 

requirement, how it flows through the 

contracting areas within a specific field 

activity to the point of award. After that, 

they can say, ‘Because you’ve got this step 

in here, it’s delaying it by an additional 10 

days, so you can cut that step out because 

it’s a duplicate.’”

Taking out that extra step speaks to 

another important role of IR, Kremer said. 

DLA Strategic Plans and Policy helps offices 

follow up and make sure approved actions 

are implemented and followed up on. 

“We’re not dictating to IR offices 

and commanders what action needs to 

be taken, but looking at whether that 

action is getting the results they were 

looking for,” she said. “We believe this is 

a critical function of IR. The follow-ups 

lead to improved processes within DLA 

... by ensuring the requisite actions were 

enacted and are effective.”

When DLA Land and Maritime 

Commander Army Brig. Gen. Darrell 

Williams wanted a close look at how his 

primary-level field activity was managing 
Loglines l July - August 2012 19

more than $1.4 billion in funds from 

the military services for Mine Resistant 

Ambush Protected vehicles, he turned to 

his Office of Internal Review.

 “We did the initial review and a 

follow-up review, which was recently 

signed as final,” Melanie Schmechel, DLA 

Land and Maritime IR director, said. “At 

the direction of Brig. Gen. Williams, we 

will brief the DLA Office of the Inspector 

General and [DLA Strategic Plans and 

Policy] on the results of the review. It’s a 

relationship where we’re working for our 

commander and sharing the results with 

a wider audience.”

DLA Strategic Plans and Policy 

took responsibility for developing and 

disseminating policy and standards for 

the agency’s internal review function in 

2011, Phyllisa Goldenberg, DLA Strategic 

Plans and Policy director, said.

“The focus is to ensure quality and 

overarching enterprise consistency in the 

function, which is executed by the offices 

of internal review to support their leaders’ review priorities,” she said. 

During the past year, DLA Strategic 

Plans and Policy has developed a policy 

instruction and a procedures manual, 

both aimed at establishing minimum 

standards and a consistency of approach 

for the function at DLA field activity sites, 

Goldenberg said. Recently, the team has 

worked with the individual offices to establish standard IR reporting templates. 

“These actions will ensure the DLA 

IR function will be executed consistently 

across DLA, with standard practices for 

documenting findings, recommendations, 

and supporting evidence,” she said.

Battaglia said the IR process is 

identifying risks in a business process.

“By risk, I don’t mean the traditional 

implication,” he said. “It’s more along the 

lines of what’s going to stop them from 

achieving their business goal. They’re going 

to find those, make sure there are adequate 

controls against them or processes to deal 

with them, or recommend those if someone 

hasn’t already identified them.”

The various IR teams and representatives from DLA Strategic Plans and Policy 

also met in May in Philadelphia to share 

how they work within their particular 

organizations and network.

“It was an opportunity to do some 

team building and networking with other 

offices and sharing information with 

those offices, sort of, ‘This is how we do 

things in Columbus, how are you doing 

it?’” Schmechel said. “We’re all different 

because we work for our [individual]

commanders. The conference was a terrific experience.”

Schmechel said her office gives her 

commander a fresh set of eyes.

“We are the group that is going 

to work with management,” she said. 

“There’s an active relationship there, 

so when we present something to the 

commander, we can say, ‘Here’s what 

we found.’ And many times, we can say, 

‘And here’s what they’re doing to fix it.’ 

It’s an opportunity for him to know that 

there is a professional group of people 

out there looking at the processes and the 

things that [DLA] Land and Maritime is 

responsible for.” 

“We coordinate and help 

collaborate amongst the different 

IR ofces out there so that if DLA 

Troop Support’s doing something 

really great that could affect 

DLA Aviation or DLA Land and 

Maritime, everybody is in the 

know about it.” 

— Kristin Kremer

Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles await pickup in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The Ofce of Internal Review at DLA Land and Maritime helped 

ensure the more than $1.4 billion in MRAP funding the primary-level eld activity handles was managed well.

Army Spc. Elisebet Freeburg
A Conversation with . . .

20 www.dla.mil

In addition to being the deputy 

director of DLA Finance, you are 

also now the program manager 

for the agency’s audit readiness 

efforts. How much of your time 

and energy would you say goes to 

each of your roles with the agency?

I am dedicated full time to 

the pursuit of audit readiness 

in order to ensure achievement 

of the director’s “Big Ideas” 

and Defense Secretary Leon 

Panetta’s goal of auditable 

financial statements.

DLA has been working toward 

audit readiness for the past five 

years. How has Panetta’s emphasis 

on the topic departmentwide 

changed those efforts?

The agency has always 

taken the concept of being a 

good steward of its resources 

very seriously, and goals 

associated with stewardship 

have featured prominently in 

the DLA Director’s Guidance 

over the past several years. 

Secretary Panetta’s guidance 

brought more attention and 

focus across the department, 

to include requiring it as a 

performance criteria within 

the senior executive ranks. It 

also got us to change the focus 

of the agency from improving 

stewardship with a successful 

audit being a natural outcome 

of well-documented processes 

Simone A. Reba

DLA’s Deputy Director for Finance Talks About How She Sees Her New Role Managing the Agency’s 

Audit Readiness Efforts

and good internal controls to 

getting audit ready. Therefore, 

we’ve shifted our focus to 

be more surgical in how we 

approach getting a successful 

audit. Previously we worked 

on bettering the entire business 

process, from event initiation 

(e.g., receiving a customer’s 

requisition) to its conclusion 

(e.g., billing and collecting from 

the customer and its recording 

in the financial records). Now 

we’re approaching it the way an 

auditor would, beginning with the 

financial statements and working 

back through the documentation 

to the requisition. 

We’ve hired KPMG to help 

us understand what is required 

and have put actions in place 

to help us get there. We added 

many more hands on deck to 

ensure we get there faster and 

can develop a culture of audit 

readiness so we can sustain 

audits from now through 

perpetuity. Additionally, we 

Simone Reba

Defense Logistics Agency Photo
DLA Strategic Communications 

Loglines l July - August 2012 21

have unparalleled support at 

the highest levels of senior 

leadership across the agency 

who are committed to the 

achievement of auditability. This 

is further demonstrated by the 

fact that the director made audit 

readiness one of his Big Ideas.

What are some of the successes the 

agency has seen in the past five 

years of working on this? 

We have a much better 

understanding of our processes 

and internal controls. Our 

stewardship efforts changed 

how DLA looks at its business 

processes, aligning them with the 

Defense Department Business 

Enterprise Architecture, and in 

how DLA systems are designed 

and documented. DLA also 

established and published 

standards and criteria outlining 

the expected capabilities that 

enable operational excellence 

and achieve audit readiness.

We also learned that 

becoming audit ready was 

a herculean task, so in May 

about 300 people from across 

the agency came together for 

training to begin the new audit 

readiness effort.

When they finish their training, 

what are their next steps as the 

audit readiness team?

In May, a startup team 

began pulling data and defining 

the rules, tools and scope of the 

audit readiness effort. In June, 

all team members – more than 

500 DLA and KPMG resources 

in total – will receive training 

and work packages that were 

developed by the startup team so 

we can more rapidly develop the 

audit readiness documentation, 

identify internal controls and 

test them to make sure they 

work, and ensure the numbers 

we reflect in our financials are 

accurate and can be proven. 

Panetta’s Oct. 13, 2011, memo set a 

deadline of 2014 for audit readiness 

for particular areas across the 

Defense Department in advance 

of the 2017 deadline for DoD to be 

fully audit ready. With less than 

two years to go, what are the areas 

in which the agency really needs to 

focus to make it happen?

Two assertions of auditability will occur in fiscal 2012: 

Appropriations Received and 

Fund Balance with Treasury. 

In regard to Appropriations 

Received, we have to prove that 

when we receive funding from the 

Pentagon, we have distributed 

it to DLA organizations in a way 

that demonstrates it was done 

accurately and effectively. 

The Fund Balance with 

Treasury assertion is akin to 

managing the DLA checkbook. 

Initially, we have to prove that 

we have a process for reconciling 

the DLA checkbook with the 

U.S. Treasury checkbook and 

that we have a process to identify all the documents associated 

with those balances, analogous 

to deposit slips and checks. 

In fiscal 2014, we have to 

prove that we have control over 

our spending, as demonstrated 

by the Statement of Budgetary 

Resources, for our activities that 

are funded by Congressional 

appropriations. We also have 

to show that we can prove the 

inventory (i.e., materiel warehoused), general property (such 

as forklifts), and real property 

(i.e., buildings) that we reflect in 

our Working Capital Fund financial statements match our physical counts and are demonstrated 

as accurate in our records. 

We have to prove all these 

assertions to the auditors. They 

will look at the numbers we have 

in our financials and want to see 

documents that prove the balances are correct. They’ll want 

to make sure we know where 

our controls are in the process 

and ensure that they work. If we 

can’t prove it, we’ll fail, or in the 

audit world, receive a disclaimer 

of opinion.

What are some of the challenges 

along the way?

The biggest challenge I see 

is getting everyone, from senior 

leaders to individual employees, to understand their roles 

and responsibilities in regard 
A Conversation with . . .

22 www.dla.mil

to audit readiness. When the 

auditors come out to take a 

look at us, they may talk to any 

DLA employee to understand 

our processes and controls, find 

audit-related documentation, 

etc., so it’s crucial everyone 

understand the role they play in 

audit readiness. 

Additionally, many think 

audit readiness is solely a 

financial exercise, and it’s not. 

Financial postings are a result 

of business decisions that 

happened upstream. Therefore, 

it’s crucial for all employees to 

understand what the rules are for 

their particular functional area, 

put processes and controls in 

place to ensure compliance with 

those rules, and ensure they are 

following them every day. 

Following the rules 

shouldn’t be something we do 

if we have the time; it needs 

to be a way of life. They are in 

place to protect employees and 

DLA’s resources. Supervisors 

need to follow up to ensure 

their employees are following 

the rules. This is not a one-time 

academic exercise that we can 

check the box and say we’re 

done. Auditors will audit us 

every year after we assert that 

our financial statements are 

accurate, potentially living with 

us, year in and year out, nine 

months or more each year to 

assess our financial statements. 

Audit readiness needs to 

become a cultural norm.

I believe the other big hurdle 

to overcome will be streamlining 

and standardizing our 

processes as much as possible 

and reducing the numbers of 

unique processes. Complexity 

creates more risk as well as 

increases the audit readiness 

workload and associated audit 

sustainment costs. It creates 

additional infrastructure and 

training needs. Bottom line, it’s 

expensive and can be inefficient. 

With diminishing budgets and 

emphasis on cost reduction, we 

will need to continue to figure 

out how to do more with less 

without affecting our customer 

performance. Understanding 

our process costs and reducing 

non-standard processes is a 

good place to start.

Being audit ready enables 

cost reduction, increases public 

confidence, reduces agency risk, 

and helps improve decision 

making – win, win, win, win. 

What is the Enterprise Business 

System’s role in DLA’s auditability?

If you have a good system 

with the proper controls in place 

so data is not easily manipulated 

and there is proper separation 

of duties so no one person has 

too much authority to do key 

transactions in the system, risk 

is reduced and data accurately 

reflects how much we’ve spent 

and earned. Therefore, when 

the audit readiness team looks 

at EBS, we have to ensure it has 

those controls in place, that they 

are working as designed, and 

that they are effective. Right 

now, although EBS does many 

things in conformance with 

audit readiness goals and is a 

vast improvement over legacy 

systems, there is still much work 

to do to ensure the system does 

everything required of an audit. 

Additionally, many systemsrelated audit issues are based 

on the business processes we’ve 

adapted over time that were 

replicated in the system. We 

will have to modify our current 

business practices in order to 

become audit ready. 

In what other ways does audit 

readiness help overall DLA 

stewardship efforts? 

From an enterprise risk 

perspective, financial data can 

often be a good indicator that 

something is amiss with our 

business processes. If we have 

a good understanding of our 

numbers, we can use those 

numbers to determine where 

we may be vulnerable to fraud, 

where we have inefficient and 

ineffective processes, and 

whether our current efforts 

to ensure compliance with 

regulations, policies, processes 

and laws are effective. From a 

cost-cutting perspective, it can 

help us determine where we can 

reduce costs without sacrificing 

performance. 
— By Christine Born

DLA Strategic Communications

When Defense Logistics Agency 

Vice Director Ted Case and Equal 

Employment Opportunity Office Acting 

Director Anita Boush put pen to paper 

in May to sign the charter for the DLA 

Disability Advisory Council, it put 

into motion a commitment by DLA to 

eliminate physical and electronic barriers 

to people with disabilities.

“The signing of this charter is a 

very critical and historic event,” Eric 

Spanbauer, DLA Disability Program 

and Workforce Recruitment Program 

manager said. “This is a giant step toward 

making DLA an inclusive workplace for 

people with disabilities and will preserve 

our integrity as a model employer of 

people with disabilities.”

Boush credited DLA leaders with 

making the DAC and its governing charter 

a reality. In June 2010, the DLA Alignment 

Group, at the time lead by DLA Human 

Resources Director Brad Bunn, charged 

a group of individuals from across the 

enterprise to come together to form the 

Americans with Disability Act Reasonable 

Accommodation Cross-Functional 

Workgroup, the predecessor to the DAC.

“The AG’s proactive philosophy 

centered on the importance of having full 

access to [information technology] systems 

and facilities for all employees,” she said. 

“Our leaders’ vision made this happen. We 

are now executing that vision.” 

The DAC membership consists of one 

representative from each staff directorate, 

director’s staff offices and primary-level 

field activities. The council serves as an 

advisory group to the DLA Alignment 

DLA Takes Historic 

Step Forward in 

Employing People 

with Disabilities

Group under the auspices of DLA Chief of 

Staff Fred Baillie.

Baillie said he is looking forward to 

seeing the progress the DAC makes.

“DLA is already a leader in many 

areas of workplace accommodation. We 

are committed to continually striving 

to make DLA a world-class employer of 

people with disabilities and in meeting 

our goals of hiring and maintaining 

people with targeted disabilities,” he said. 

The members review, evaluate and 

address enterprisewide issues, policies 

and practices that have a negative impact 

on hiring, retention and employment 

benefits of people with disabilities and 

find solutions to those barriers.

Peter Apgar, a budget analyst in DLA 

Finance, was a member of the original 

working group.

“The charter is an excellent example of 

DLA management ensuring the enterprise 

moves forward as a whole,” he said.

NewsWire DLA Strategic Communications 

Loglines l July - August 2012 23
Defense Logistics Agency Troop 

Support is now ensuring that U.S. service 

members can dine on short-order entrees 

while on missions in locations with no 

dining facility.

As of April 9, the unitized group 

ration-A menu has options for ordering 

meals that include: Philly steak hoagies, 

chicken nuggets, Italian sausage subs, beef 

enchiladas, chicken wings, pepperoni and 

cheese stromboli, hamburgers and hotdogs.

The UGR-A short-order is a supplement to the original UGR-A dinners that 

contain entrees like prime rib, chicken 

cordon blue, and spaghetti and meatballs, 

Killian said.

“It’s been an amazing opportunity to 

be involved in the implementation of these 

new menus that hopefully boost morale,” 

Noreen Killian, a DLA Troop Support 

Subsistence contract specialist, said.

Joanne Jaworski, chief of DLA Troop 

Support’s Subsistence 

Group Rations Branch, 

and Karla Thompkins, 

a contracting officer, 

worked with Killian to 

manage the contract for 

the new menu additions.

Each UGR-A shortorder contains three 

boxes with perishable 

and non-perishable 

items that can accommodate up to 50 

people, Thompkins said.

The newly added short-order foods 

give service members more options for 

dinner, Jaworski said.

 “Instead of meatloaf, they can have 

DLA Troop Support 

Now Offers ShortOrder Entrees in 

Group Rations

— By Nick Sistrun, DLA Troop Support

chicken nuggets or a hamburger,” she said. 

Because the food will be served in the 

field, there are special requirements for 

storage of the meals.

The rations must be prepared and 

stored in a mobile kitchen containing 

refrigeration, Jaworski said.

DLA Troop Support worked closely 

with the U.S. Army Quartermaster Joint 

Culinary Center of Excellence and the 

U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center 

to make the items available.

Alphonzo Byrd, 

chief of the Quality 

Assurance Division at 

the JCCOE, conceived 

the idea to create shortorder rations.

Based on his experience working with 

the Army and listening 

to Soldier’s feedback 

on food, Byrd said he 

wanted to bring dining facility options 

to the field. Byrd introduced the idea to 

NSSC, where the meals are designed.

The JCCOE was responsible for 

conducting the research and testing for 

the new rations, Jaworski said.

Beverly Hamlette, a JCCOE quality 

assurance specialist, conducted a taste 

test over a six-month period with Soldiers 

at Fort Irwin, Calif.

“Variety is always a good thing for 

Soldiers, and they were excited about 

having the opportunity to have an 

additional choice,” she said. “The Philly 

steak hoagie was served hot off the grill, 

and the diners loved it.”

Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Javier 

Torres, a food adviser trainer at Fort 

Irwin, agreed.

“The new short-order rations are a 

great compliment to the other UGRs, and I 

will use them wherever I go,” Torres said.

Since the new menu became available, 

more than 4,500 UGR-A short orders have 

been ordered, Thompkins said.

All UGR-A short-order rations 

include a combination of nutritional 

food groups including vegetables, 

beverages, meat, poultry, desserts and 

condiments, which provide a balanced 

diet for service members working in the 

field, Jaworski said.

Soldiers at Fort Irwin, Calif., cook Philly steak hoagies for a taste testing of new short-order items 

in the unitized group ration-A meals. DLA Troop Support was responsible for procuring eight 

new items added to the menu. 

Beverly Hamlette

chief of the Quality 

Assurance Division at 

the JCCOE, conceived 

the idea to create shortorder rations.

rience working with 

the Army and listening 

to Soldier’s feedback 

on food, Byrd said he 

For a current look at 

DLA Troop Support’s 

Subsistence Program, visit

http://dlavideoprograms.

hq.dla.mil/videos/ 

Subsistence.wmv

24 www.dla.mil

NewsWire DLA Strategic Communications 
We are DLA

Defense Logistics Agency

ithout quality logistics data, it 

would be impossible to run a 

functioning logistics program. 

The Defense Logistics Agency 

Logistics Information Service 

exists to ensure military readiness by 

providing and maintaining that critical data.

“Logistics data is the foundation upon 

which the entire logistics infrastructure 

and supply chain is built,” said Ray 

Zingaretti, deputy director of DLA 

Logistics Information Service. “Without 

accurate and timely data, military 

readiness is negatively impacted.”

ithout quality logistics data, it 

would be impossible to run a 

functioning logistics program. 

The Defense Logistics Agency 

Logistics Information Service 

exists to ensure military readiness by 

W

Idaho National Guard Soldiers work under the 

hood of a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected 

vehicle. DLA Logistics Information Service 

ensures parts for vehicles are properly cataloged.

– Photo by Army Sgt. Belynda Faulkner

The organization specializes in 

logistics data with a mission to enhance 

global defense readiness through logistics 

information solutions. From offices in 

Battle Creek, Mich., logistics information 

specialists execute that mission, at 

times traveling to forward areas and 

U.S. bases overseas. Some types of 

support they provide include installing 

and maintaining communications and 

data systems, training on DLA products 

and services, and aiding with the rapid 

deployment of critical items such as Mine 

Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles.

For example, in 2007 the organization 

was faced with the challenge of assigning 

more than 4,000 national stock numbers to 

support the rapid fielding and sustainment 

of MRAPs, explained Jami Treat, a member 

of the DLA MRAP Team. Since standard 

processing was not an option, Treat said, 

a joint team of personnel from throughout 

DLA and the military services formulated 

a series of work-around processes for the 

initial rollout that reduced the two- to 

three-month process down to one week.

“Today, our MRAP population is over 

40,000 NSNs, and we continue to work 

DLA Strategic Communications

Loglines l July- August 2012 25

Defense Logistics Agency

LOGISTICS

INFORMATION 

SERVICE

Story by DLA Logistics Information Service 

Public Affairs Staff

25
Phillip Messner (third from the right), the DLA 

Logistics Information Service’s Logistics 

Data Analysis Division chief, deployed to Iraq 

to coordinate with the Iraqi Security Force 

Logistics Operations Center staff. 

with our DLA and military service 

partners to ensure accelerated and 

timely support,” Treat said. “This kind 

of commitment is a direct correlation 

of how the entire organization is fully 

dedicated to supporting our ultimate 

customer, the warfighter.” 

The origins of the DLA Logistics 

Information Service date back to World 

War II, when each military service 

operated an independent system for 

cataloging items of supply. Identical 

items of supply often were given different 

names, making efficient use of available 

stock impossible. Two key laws were 

enacted after World War II to address the 

problem. Public Law 81-152, the Federal 

Property & Administration Services 

Act of 1949, established a common 

logistics language known as the Federal 

Catalog System. The first federal stock 

number was assigned by the Army-Navy 

Munitions Board in 1949. In the 1950s, 

Public Law 82-436, known as the Defense 

Cataloging and Standardization Act, 

assigned the creation and maintenance of 

this system to the Defense Department. 

In turn, the department established the 

Armed Forces Supply Support Center in 

Washington, D.C., with the mission to 

administer the FCS. 

“The creation and administration of 

the FCS is a critical component in the 

supply chain,” said Justin Voshel, Federal 

Logistics Information System Sustainment 

and Data Management Branch chief. “The 

customer has one place to go to identify 

what parts are being purchased ... and 

who is supplying the parts. This system 

eliminates duplication across the services, 

allows cost advantages through increased 

buying power during acquisition, and 

provides a standardized classification 

methodology.” 

Today, the organization has evolved 

and achieved its goals of providing a 

unified cataloging system and becoming 

a logistics information broker. The 

organization continues to consolidate and 

streamline efforts in areas such as customer 

contact support with the establishment 

of an enterprisewide help desk system for 

support of DLA systems users.

In the Logistics Systems Directorate, 

personnel provide project and program 

management, systems development 

management, and systems maintenance 

support for initiatives and automated 

information systems such as DoD EMALL 

and the DLA Map Catalog. 

“DoD EMALL is an online ordering 

service for efficient point, click and ship 

of items required for support,” Phil 

Deboe, DoD EMALL system manager, 

said. “It provides ready access to items 

from office supplies to national-stocknumbered items and provides research 

tools as well as order status 24 hours a 

day, seven days a week. It contains more 

than 24 million items and is used by 

more than 36,000 people supporting the 

warfighter globally.” 

The Logistics Systems Directorate’s 

Photo courtesy DLA Logistics Information Service

A DLA employee displays microlm and 

catalogs that documented supplies in past 

years. DLA Logistics Information Service 

has moved from these hard copies to 

digital listings.

Photo courtesy DLA Logistics Information Service

26 www.dla.mil

We are DLA
scope of work includes new logistics 

initiatives and system programs, 

sustainment of existing systems, and 

the retirement of old systems. Much 

of the data being shared comes from 

the Logistics Data Directorate, which 

provides logistics data services for the 

military services, federal agencies, 

and international allied and industry 

partners. The directorate is responsible for 

operational control and accomplishment 

of cataloging support for all nationalstock-numbered items and other items of 

supply used or managed by the Defense 

Department, other federal agencies, NATO 

and other allied nations. 

“There are currently over 6.6 million 

NSNs in the Federal Catalog System,” 

said Earl Young, logistics support liaison 

for DLA Logistics Information Service. 

“The use of these NSNs facilitates the 

standardization of item names, supply 

language, characteristics and management 

data and aids in reducing duplicate items 

in the federal inventory. It is effective in 

promoting competition and increasing 

vendor sources, which directly reduces 

overall costs.” 

The Customer Support Directorate’s 

members coordinate the worldwide dissemination of DLA Logistics Information 

Service products and services through 

the operation of the DLA Customer 

Interaction Center, customer outreach 

activities and the training they offer 

to U.S. government and military 

agencies, NATO and other foreign 

governments.

Its personnel have become the 

teachers for logisticians around 

the world through annual courses 

offered via the National Codification 

Bureau College, which teaches attendees 

about the NATO Codification System and 

operating a National Codification Bureau. 

It has become an important platform 

for discussing issues and sharing ideas 

about codification. The NCB College has 

graduated 162 students from 48 countries 

over the past 12 years 

“The intent of this training program is 

to provide a forum in which nations facing 

the challenges of implementing the NATO 

Codification System may be exposed to 

different approaches and lessons learned 

from other nations,” said Chris Nozicka, 

course director of the NCB College. “Our 

vision is to expand the scope of international codification learning opportunities 

by working with other NCBs to offer this 

type of training in their home countries.” 

When a new DLA support team needs 

to deploy or DLA Disposition Services 

needs a new site in a forward area, 

it is the members of the Information 

Technology Directorate who set up and 

configure the equipment needed to 

support the deployment. They serve as 

the principle support to DLA Logistics 

Information Service, DLA Disposition 

Services, DLA Installation Support at 

Battle Creek and DLA Finance. This 

responsibility requires them to provide 

guidance, planning and administration, 

and management.

Deputy Director Zingaretti noted 

that DLA Logistics Information Service 

will continue to provide interoperable, 

integrated, quality logistics data and 

enterprise solutions for joint warfighters, 

the military services, the Defense 

Department, other federal agencies 

and international partners to ensure the 

effectiveness and efficiency of the defense 

supply chain.

“We will continue to take advantage 

of emerging technologies to provide our 

customers with equal or better service at a 

reduced cost,” he said. 

Defense Department employees search 

for catalogs to find the right parts in this 

undated photo. The DLA Logistics Information 

Service’s digital catalogs save time for the 

same tasks today.

the operation of the DLA Customer 

Interaction Center, customer outreach 

activities and the training they offer 

offered via the National Codification 

Bureau College, which teaches attendees 

to deploy or DLA Disposition Services 

needs a new site in a forward area, 

integrated, quality logistics data and 

enterprise solutions for joint warfighters, 

the military services, the Defense 

Department, other federal agencies 

and international partners to ensure the 

effectiveness and efficiency of the defense 

supply chain.

of emerging technologies to provide our 

customers with equal or better service at a 

Bureau College, which teaches attendees reduced cost,” he said. 

the military services, the Defense 

Department, other federal agencies 

and international partners to ensure the 

effectiveness and efficiency of the defense 

supply chain.

of emerging technologies to provide our 

customers with equal or better service at a 

reduced cost,” he said. 

Photo courtesy DLA Logistics Information Service

DLA Strategic Communications

Loglines l July - August 2012 27
Money Matters

28 www.dla.mil

mployees at Defense Logistics Agency Distribution 

Susquehanna, Pa., have been working to prove the concept 

that full containers lead to reduced costs to customers 

through improvements in how containers are filled 

at the Eastern Distribution Center Consolidation 

and Containerization Point.

 “DLA Distribution’s overall goal is a container 

utilization rate of 85 percent,” said Perry Knight, 

DLA Distribution Current Operations deputy 

director. “Simply put, ideally no container 

would ship at less than 85 percent 

capacity.”

To reach this goal, leaders at DLA 

Distribution headquarters and 

DLA Distribution 

Susquehanna had 

to implement 

several materialconsolidation 

initiatives and 

mployees at Defense Logistics Agency Distribution 

Susquehanna, Pa., have been working to prove the concept 

that full containers lead to reduced costs to customers 

through improvements in how containers are filled 

at the Eastern Distribution Center Consolidation 

and Containerization Point.

E

REDUCING

DISTRIBUTION 

COSTS

maintain an 

integrated material 

delivery system in 

Afghanistan, while 

ultimately reducing end-toend distribution transportation 

costs with minimal impact to 

velocity. 

With a container-utilization rate 

of 62 percent in February, officials at DLA 

Distribution Susquehanna realized the need to 

measure utilization for all containers shipped. By 

May, utilization rates for nearly 900 containers had 

been captured.

One of the more significant finds from the data 

was the fact that multiple warehouses owned by DLA 

Distribution Susquehanna were simultaneously shipping underutilized containers to the same customer. 

As a result, all containers were vetted through the 

EDC for “top-off,” ensuring best utilization. 

Concurrently, within the first month of data tracking, leaders developed a baseline and formed the basis 

for revamping all standard operating procedures for 

loading containers. By applying these standards in the 

work areas, team and work leaders began sharing best 

Emily Tsambiras is a writer for DLA Distribution

Story by Emily Tsambiras
DLA Strategic Communications

Loglines l July - August 2012 29

practices among the workforce. One best 

practice was use of a container utilization database. The database captures all 

exception data and images for containers 

that do not meet the minimal 85 percent 

requirement. Exceptions can be due to 

the size, shape, fragility or classification 

of material that could prevent loaders 

from stacking freight on freight.

As a result of these practices, Knight 

said, rates have steadily increased. 

DLA Distribution Susquehanna 

raised its average container utilization 

from 60 percent to above 70 percent, 

with some weeks’ performance hitting 75 percent overall utilization 

across the network, he said.

DLA Distribution 

Susquehanna Deputy 

Commander Edward Visker 

said he is proud the 

distribution center could 

facilitate such a large 

accomplishment in a 

small timeframe. 

This success was 

driven by teamwork, 

lane consolidation 

and improved load 

planning, he said. 

“The increased 

utilization saved the use 

of 69 containers that 

would have otherwise 

been shipped at the 

previous fill rates,” 

he said. 

Particularly 

noteworthy was 

the load team’s 

enthusiasm 

toward meeting 

the challenge, and 

to date they have reached 100 percent 

utilization on 35 containers.”

The improvements were so significant 

that, as an offshoot to a larger visit to 

DLA Distribution headquarters April 27, 

Army Lt. Gen. Kathleen Gainey, deputy 

commander of U.S. Transportation 

Command and a former DLA Distribution 

commander, and Army Brig. Gen. Susan 

Davidson, deputy commander and 

director of operations for Military Surface 

Deployment and Distribution Command 

and incoming DLA Distribution 

commander, visited CCP operations to 

view the outloading operations.

While on site, Gainey recognized 

several employees who contributed to 

the organization’s increasing container 

utilization. She presented coins to 

distribution process workers John Rhoads, 

Jane Moquin, Cathy Boyer and Sherry 

Baker and supply technician Paul Arnold. 

Most of these employees have achieved 

consistent container utilization of more 

than 85 percent.

Next up for the distribution center is a 

renewed focus on its lower rate shipment 

lanes and the development of solution 

sets to achieve similar improvements for 

those lanes challenged by low volume or 

odd-dimensional and non-stackable cargo, 

Knight said. Loaders are performing 

individual shipment weight/cube 

validation based on the minimal 

load requirement and 

tracking their progress 

on handheld devices 

during the load process. 

“DLA Distribution 

exists to provide best 

value to our customer, 

the warfighter. And 

by ensuring we meet 

container utilization 

goals, we are able to 

pass the savings on 

to the customer,” 

Knight said. 

Photo by Army Staff Sgt. Joshua A. Montgomery
I AM

Rainer 

Schulz-Armstrong

My name is: 

Rainer Schulz-Armstrong

I am: 

A supervisory contract specialist and contracting officer

Describe your job in a sentence: 

I am the senior contracting officer in charge of purchasing beverages 

and dairy products from local sources for DLA Troop Support and have the 

responsibility to provide subsistence items to troops throughout Europe and 

Africa. I also search for new sources of supply in remote areas and establish 

new contractual relationships with such vendors.

How long have you worked for DLA? 

I have been working for the U.S. government in contracting for a total of 

32 years. I’ve been with DLA for 17 years.

What is your favorite thing about working for DLA? 

 It’s a challenge to find new sources of supply throughout the theater and 

to assure that the warfighters will receive their subsistence items and water 

even in the most remote locations. Oftentimes this is done in coordination with 

host-nation government authorities and U.S. embassies.

What is your best memory of working here?

 Establishing a suboffice for DLA Troop Support in Budapest, 

Hungary, and working with the Hungarian Ministry of Defense 

to do market assessments for sources to supply subsistence 

products to troops stationed in Hungary, Kosovo and Croatia in 

the late ‘90s.

How do you make a difference to warghters? 

 By establishing contracts with local vendors, I help make sure all 

military troops throughout the European and African theaters, either 

at dining facilities or on Navy vessels, in combat or during exercises 

and peace missions, will be provided fresh subsistence items, healthy 

water, juices and bakery products in a timely manner, giving the troops 

a taste of home. It’s an honor to be part of DLA and to provide my 

services to U.S. warfighters and help support their missions.