Brig. Gen. Canlas and I want to thank YOU, the DLA Energy workforce, for your 

dedication to making DLA one of the best agencies to work. 

For the second time in a row, DLA Energy had the highest improvement rate 

among the DLA major subordinate commands. Your responses to the 2020 DLA 

Denison Culture/Climate Survey resulted in significant positive increases across 

all 12 indices. I want to share a few observations and highlights from the 2020 

results. The four items that received the highest scores are: 

 

 - Information is widely shared so that everyone can get the information he or 

 she needs when it’s needed

 - All members have a deep understanding of customer wants and needs

 - Work is organized so that each person can see the relationship between his 

 or her job and the goals of the organization

 - We make certain that the “right hand knows what the left hand is doing”

As a high performing organization, we want to sustain our successes and work 

on improving the lower scored areas. For example, our response rate dropped 

from 74% in 2018 to 66% in 2020. Part of this may be attributed to COVID and 

employees not being in the workplace, but what that score does tell us is that we 

must try harder to ensure our communication with the workforce is transparent 

and to nurture a continuous active dialogue between supervisors and employees.

 

In the coming weeks we’ll receive additional scores for our business units and 

regions. Stay Tuned!

RESULTS ARE IN!

ENERGY CONNECTION

 First, I want to say thank you for both 

your enthusiasm for this newsletter and for 

your input on ways to make it more valuable 

and informative. We will take all your 

considerations in to account as we develop 

each issue, working to incorporate your ideas 

and suggestions. 

 As you can see, we’ve changed the 

name to “Energy Connection.” This was a 

recommendation by Ms. Andrea Kincaid and 

several additional employees agreed. We 

feel this is a more inclusive title that speaks 

to all our missions and roles supporting 

the warfighters and whole of government 

partners.

 We want to make this bi-weekly newsletter 

a reliable and effective way to share 

information across the organization – both 

up and down the chain of command. If 

you have input to add or want to share an 

operational or career success story or simply 

want to give a shout out to a fellow colleague 

for a particularly job well done, send it to 

DLAEnergyPublicAffairs@dla.mil. Brig. 

Gen. Canlas and I are being briefed on every 

idea you offer and are keeping YOU in mind 

for every issue of this newsletter. 

 Also, the new electronic suggestion tool 

is up and running. Brig. Gen. Canlas and 

I are very pleased with the feedback we’re 

receiving. On page 2 of this newsletter, we’ve 

included some of the pertinent and timely 

questions and responses. 

 Very Respectfully,

 W. Eric Smith

A MESSAGE FROM 

THE DEPUTY 

COMMANDER 

Mr. W. Eric Smith

HQC/NCR COVID-19 Reconstitution Status:

Phase 0 - HPCON B 

 Volume 1, Issue 2 January 25, 2021
Comment Box

When will the fitness program be reinstated? 

DLA is still very active in the response to the COVID-19 

emergency. In support of these efforts, we made the difficult 

decision to suspend the Fitness and Wellness Program. There are 

still a variety of options available to continue to exercise during 

your duty day, pending supervisory approval. You could work a 

flexible schedule or extend your lunch for fitness activities and 

make up the time at the end of the day. You could also request to 

use earned credit hours, earned compensatory time, or annual leave 

for fitness. Another idea is to set aside the time you would have 

spent commuting for fitness activities. I encourage you to consider 

these flexibilities and to speak to your supervisor about what works 

for both you and your organization. Once this emergency ends 

and we return to more normal conditions, the DLA Fitness and 

Wellness Program will be reinstituted.

Appreciating our 

Partnerships

DLA Energy Hawaii Commander Navy CDR Eric Lockett 

presented Certificates of Appreciation and his command coin 

as to the Fleet Logistics Center Pearl Harbor Fuels Lab team 

on Jan. 13 in recognition of their service and support. Over the 

holidays, the lab team helped to isolate and mitigate particulate 

contamination fuel concerns by performing petroleum fuel 

sample lab testing on behalf of Defense Fuel Supply Point, 

Marine Corps Base Hawaii and 25th Combat Aviation Brigade. 

KUDOS

Korner

************Warfighter Support************

DLA Energy Okinawa gave 3rd Marine Division Commanding 

General MajGen James Bierman (center left) and a small team a 

brief on the DLA Energy Okinawa regional mission and a tour of 

the local Defense Fuel Support Point early January. 

Pictured left to right: NAVSUP FLCPH Fuels Commander LCDR 

Shannon Bencs, Supervisory Chemist Benjamin Fegurgur, DLA Energy 

Hawaii Commander CDR Eric Lockett, Chemist Charisse Chu, and 

Physical Science Technician Brooke Gregory.

DLA Energy Okinawa Commander Lt Col Tracy Gilmore (center right), 

Deputy Director Bill Davenport (far right) and DLA Energy employees 

Ken Brewer and David Moore with 3rd Marine Division members.

Federal employees and job applicants have 45 days from an 

alleged discriminatory act or the date they become aware of 

discrimination to file an EEO complaint? 

For that reason, employees should contact the EEO Office as soon 

as they feel discriminated against or have an inkling that there has 

been discrimination to prevent the potential dismissal of their case 

based on procedural timeliness.

Questions? Contact your DLA Energy EEO office at 

DLA.EnergyEEO@dla.mil 

Will annual leave be extended for carry over 

exceeding 240 hours for DLA Employees?

Per the recent NDAA, federal employees are eligible to 

carry over 25% more annual leave than the normal limit into 

the 2021 leave year, which is equivalent to 60 additional 

hours for most DLA employees. To be eligible, employees 

must first have forfeited “use or lose” annual leave in the 

2020 leave year and apply for the regular leave restoration 

process. Once completed, if any of the employee’s “use or 

lose” annual leave remains forfeited after application of 

the regular leave restoration process, then the higher leave 

carryover limit may be applied, i.e., carryover limit of 300 

hours vs. 240 hours. Any leave credited to an employee 

based on the higher leave carryover cap for 2021 must be 

used before the end of the 2021 leave year and before any 

other annual leave available to the employee—i.e., annual 

leave accrued in a past year, annual leave accrued during 

leave year 2021, advanced annual leave, donated annual 

leave, and restored leave. The additional carryover leave 

may not be donated and does not count toward lump-sum 

payments for unused annual leave for employees separating 

for retirement or other reasons. If you have any questions 

regarding the 2021 annual leave cap or restoration process, 

please contact DLAEnergyEAGLE@dla.mil.

Please reinforce the importance of integrity within the 

merit based hiring process.

HR personnel work very hard to ensure the accuracy of all 

applications and are diligent in following OPM and the Merit 

Based System to ensure these types of issues never happen. Also, 

Energy, ICW with Manpower, our CAM, and our Legal Office are 

in the process of developing a hiring action SOP.

EEO: DID YOU KNOW?