DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY SUPPORT TEAMS

CIVILIANS ON THE 

FRONT LINE

 DLA Civilians Volunteer

 for Tough Assignments

 Around the World 

The Right Solution — On Time, Every Time March / April 2018

Airworthy Heritage

As Military Aviation Grew, Logistics

Support Evolved. Enter DLA Aviation

Safely in Hand

DLA Distribution Helps the Army

Deliver New Pistols to Warfighters 

 Power Projection

DLA Helps Move Generators for Task 

Force Temporary Emergency Power
DLA DIRECTOR 

Army Lt. Gen. Darrell K. Williams

DLA VICE DIRECTOR

Ted Case

ACTING CHIEF OF STAFF

David Kless

DIRECTOR, PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Joseph M. Yoswa

DEPUTY DIRECTOR, PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Patrick H. Mackin

MANAGING EDITOR

Phil Prater

SENIOR EDITOR

John R. Bell

WRITERS

Beth Reece

Dianne Ryder

LAYOUT AND DESIGN

Paul Henry Crank

LOGLINES

THE OFFICIAL FLAGSHIP PUBLICATION OF THE 

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY 

Army Lt. Gen. Darrell K. Williams

Director, Defense Logistics Agency

From the Director

Every year, a national poll shows that America’s military is one of the 

institutions the public respects the most. This is no surprise to me, 

as I’ve seen the unwavering professionalism of our military men and 

women at home and abroad. Those who wear the uniform are a special 

breed who have volunteered to be in harm’s way, if necessary — and they 

deserve our respect and appreciation.

I have the same respect and appreciation for civilians who 

voluntarily deploy to support our mission. DLA civilian volunteers work 

shoulder-to-shoulder with our military in some of the most austere and 

forbidding locations in the world. 

Whether they support our troops in Afghanistan or help provide 

relief to Americans in Puerto Rico, DLA civilians choose to be in harm’s 

way to support the mission and their contributions are invaluable. In this 

issue, you’ll meet DLA’s deployable team members, read about what they 

do and learn why they do it.

Deployments, civilian and military, are key to DLA’s strategy 

as we stay prepared for immediate action anywhere in the world. 

Nowhere was this more apparent when three hurricanes struck the U.S. 

mainland, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands last fall — putting 

DLA Distribution to the test when all three of its expeditionary teams 

deployed at once. You’ll get a firsthand account of the decisions behind 

that effort — and more — in a conversation with the commander of DLA 

Distribution, Army Brig. Gen. John Laskodi. 

Even long after the storms, DLA still supports hurricane relief — 

for example, through DLA Troop Support. Puerto Rico’s electrical 

grid has required extensive and long-range repairs; months later, parts 

of the U.S. territory are still without permanent power. Troop Support 

has sent hundreds of generators to keep the power on for many. It’s an 

incredible effort. 

Hurricanes aren’t the only fast-moving phenomenon; technology 

also changes at breakneck speed. Read here how DLA Information 

Operations created an “innovation boot camp” to help senior leaders 

understand technical challenges, stay ahead of the curve and keep the 

agency relevant to the mission.

This issue is packed with great stories about the dedication of our 

DLA workforce around the world. I am proud to lead this global, agile 

and innovative agency, whose world-class professionals are at the heart 

of everything we do. 

Enjoy this issue of Loglines. Warfighter First! LL

LOGLINES is the authorized publication for the Defense 

Logistics Agency’s workforce of federal civilians, activeduty 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 address below:

Headquarters, Defense Logistics Agency 

Office of Public Affairs 

8725 John J. Kingman Road, Suite 2545 

Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-6221

DLA ON THE WEB www.dla.mil www.facebook.com/dla.mil

SUBSCRIBE TO LOGLINES MAGAZINE

If you would like to be on the Loglines mailing list, 

please email loglines@dla.mil with your name, 

organization and complete mailing address.
Civilians on the Front Line ..................02

DLA civilians volunteer for tough assignments around the 

world to give customers immediate help ordering and 

tracking supplies. 

Airworthy Heritage ...............................08

Military aviation is about a century old, and for most of those 

decades, it didn’t have DLA Aviation to rely on. 

Safely in Hand ........................................ 12

When the Army need to issue its new service pistol to 

soldiers around the world, it counted on DLA Distribution to 

get them there safely and efficiently.

Boot Camp, Bots and Business ........... 18

Senior leaders at DLA developed potential technology solutions 

at a ‘boot camp’ hosted by DLA Information Operations. 

Power Projection ................................... 23

Months after three hurricanes hit Puerto Rico, DLA Troop 

Support is still hard at work, helping Americans regain electrical 

power with the help of new generators.

02

12

08

23

Features

Departments

A Conversation with ... ......................... 15

Army Brig. Gen. John Laskodi

DLA NewsWire ....................................... 21

I am DLA ..................................Back Cover

Terry Russell

www.twitter.com/dlamil www.youtube.com/dodlogisticsagency UPCOMING
page

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DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

THE NATION’S COMBAT LOGISTICS SUPPORT AGENCY

Civilians on the

Front 

Line

Story by Beth Reece

Having a predominantly civilian 

workforce hasn’t stopped the 

Defense Logistics Agency from 

being on the battlefield or operating 

in austere locations. Hundreds of 

DLA civilians volunteer each year for 

deployments to dangerous spots like 

Afghanistan and hurricane-stricken 

Puerto Rico. Some do it for the 

adventure; others want to advance their 

careers. But what they all seem to have 

in common is the desire to be a part of 

something bigger and help others. 

Joe Roshinko had worked at DLA 

Troop Support for 10 years when he 

deployed to Kuwait for six months with a 

DLA Support Team in November 2016. 

“It’s so easy for people to lose sight 

of the fact that all of our work is done 

to help warfighters, but we’re not just 

pushing parts. We’re supporting men and 

women who’ve put their lives on the line 

for our benefit,” he said.

Phil Messner is a project manager 

for DLA Logistics Operations who first 

Jason Reed
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March / April 2018 3

LOGLINES

DLA’S OFFICIAL FLAGSHIP PUBLICATION

deployed to Baghdad in November 2010 

for a six-month tour. In 2016 he served 

as the DLA Support Team Afghanistan 

deputy commander. For him, working 

alongside customers is the best way to 

understand their needs.

When the fuel supply was cut off to 

a remote Afghan base during his last 

deployment, troops set up an impromptu 

meeting with DLA fuel experts on the 

ground and operations officials. Watching 

the group’s quick response and seeing 

how each player processed information 

to make decisions helped convince 

Messner that having DLA employees on 

the front lines is the best way to support 

the mission and help ensure readiness.

“For sudden emergencies, you really 

have to be sitting at the customer’s side 

to make the biggest difference,” he said.

Business on the Battlefield

DSTs like those in Afghanistan and 

Kuwait were created at the start of 

operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring 

Freedom. For the first time, DLA began 

sending civilians to the battlefield in 

teams of subject matter experts from 

each major subordinate command. 

New technology and business practices 

allowed specialists in food, fuel, building 

material and repair parts to work 

alongside uniformed customers, getting 

parts and supplies where they were 

needed faster. 

Marian Hunter, a DLA Aviation 

employee currently deployed to Bagram 

on what she calls her ninth and final 

deployment, was among the first to 

deploy there in 2007. The chance to 

attend unit maintenance meetings 

and talk directly with service members 

helped the agency better solve 

problems, she said. “The end result is 

what we all want: well-equipped, wellprotected warfighters.” 

DLA still sends about 80 employees, 

mostly volunteers, on six-month DST 

deployments to Afghanistan and Kuwait 

each year. The teams are projected to 

continue through 2021 and are managed 

by the DLA Joint Logistics Operations 

Center’s Mission Support Branch.

Mission Support also oversees DLA’s 

other headquarters-level deployment 

capability, the Rapid Deployment 

Teams. RDTs mirror the DSTs in their 

makeup and can deploy anywhere in 

the world. They were created in 2015 

with volunteers from DLA Headquarters 

and MSCs to help the agency respond 

faster to national emergencies and global 

contingencies. Since then, the teams have 

become DLA’s go-to answer for support 

to overseas training exercises, said Jeff 

Crosson, RDT program manager. A third 

team was created in September. 

“As we develop more capability, 

leadership sees more ways to deploy 

these teams. Our original design was very 

structured: support a Joint Task Force Port 

Opening. That’s a pretty tailored mission, 

but now that the teams are doing 

contingency-type stuff, it really broadens 

the range of skill sets we need,” he said.

Unlike DSTs, RDTs are an annual 

commitment. Participants may be called 

to deploy anywhere in the world with 

little or no notice, but deployments 

typically last for only a few weeks. 

MSCs like DLA Distribution and DLA 

Disposition Services also have their own 

mobile teams of volunteers who fulfill 

duties such as supply movement and 

property disposal. Carl Houdeshell was 

part of the deployable depot at DLA 

Distribution Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, 

when it was created in 2008. 

His first deployment was to Okinawa, 

Japan, where he helped create a small 

distribution hub that reduced delivery 

time for customers who previously had 

to wait for items to arrive from elsewhere 

in Japan or the United States. That same 

year, the team deployed for the first time 

in support of the Federal Emergency 

Management Agency to assist in recovery 

following Hurricane Ike. 

After a short break from the deployable depot, Houdeshell rejoined in 2016 

as a supervisor. He was part of the team 

that rushed to San Antonio, Texas, to 

assist after hurricanes Harvey and Irma. 

He said he enjoys the work even though 

it often means 12-hour workdays.

“Every day is something new. It’s 

very helpful to have an understanding 

wife and family, but it does come with its 

difficulties with two little boys at home,” 

he said. “After 20 years in the U.S. Marine 

Mark Bossen, one of two information technology specialists 

on DLA’s rapid deployment Red Team, runs diagnostics 

on communications equipment during the early stages of 

humanitarian-relief efforts following Hurricane Maria in 

Puerto Rico. The team was deployed there for five weeks in 

October and November.

(Facing Page) Members of DLA’s rapid deployment Red 

Team go through team-building exercises to foster trust 

and communication skills on an obstacle course during 

mobilization training at Camp Atterbury, Indiana. 

Taylor Frazier
page 4 www.dla.mil

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

THE NATION’S COMBAT LOGISTICS SUPPORT AGENCY

Corps, I know what it’s like to be on the 

other end, waiting for the correct supplies 

to be delivered.” 

Dangerous Duty

DLA almost always has volunteers 

downrange since that’s where much of 

the agency’s warfighter support takes 

place. This puts the agency’s civilian vol-

unteers who deploy to war zones at great 

risk. Stephen Byus and Krissie Davis were 

both killed while serving in Afghanistan, 

supporting the agency’s mission.

Byus worked for DLA Land and 

Maritime in his regular job while serving 

as a Navy Reservist with DLA Disposition 

Services. By 2014 he’d already completed 

his required Reserve duty with two tours 

in Iraq, but he still volunteered for a 

deployment in Afghanistan. In September 

2014, he headed downtown in a twovehicle convoy to brief dignitaries at the 

Afghan Ministry of Defense when a red 

Toyota Corolla started following them. 

At a crowded intersection, the driver 

pulled between them and detonated 250 

pounds of explosives. He died instantly at 

age 39.

Davis died in June 2015. She and Rob 

DeLong, her “battle buddy” and fellow 

DLA Disposition Services employee, were 

driving to the dining facility on Bagram 

Airfield when a 105-mm rocket slammed 

into their Ford pickup. DeLong recovered 

within seconds, but Davis died as 

surgeons fought to save her. She was 54. 

Volunteers from all of the MSCs 

have willingly accepted the risks and 

dangers inherent to deployment. They 

also go on rotational assignments 

to places like Jordan, Romania and 

Djibouti. DLA Aviation’s Phil LaBranche 

was a 10-time deployer who’d been 

everywhere from the Middle East to 

Haiti when he did his final deployment 

at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, 

Romania, before retiring in January. 

Carl Houdeshell, a member of the deployable depot at DLA 

Distribution Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, draws a diagram 

in the sand depicting the layout of DLA Distribution’s site 

at Kandahar, Afghanistan, before its construction in 2010. 

Courtesy Photo
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March / April 2018 5

LOGLINES

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In addition to assisting a Marine Corps 

unit with spare-parts support, shipment 

tracking and training on DLA ordering 

systems like FedMall, he supported 

units at training areas throughout the 

country with hazardous-waste removal 

and subsistence planning. And he knew 

enough about DLA’s business that he 

was able to help customers with needs in 

other areas as well.

“This is job satisfaction at its best,” he 

said while deployed in August.

Whether employees deploy solo or 

as part of a team, their goal is usually to 

assist customers with the vast range 

of supplies and services DLA provides 

without passing them off to another 

person, Roshinko added. 

 “It’s never, ‘Well, that’s a Troop 

Support or Land and Maritime issue, 

let me give this request to somebody 

else.’ Honestly, I’ve never seen a team 

come together from different parts of an 

organization and country and work so 

well together. But in the group I deployed 

with, we asked each other questions and 

helped one another so we could meet 

customers’ needs regardless of what 

commodity it involved,” he said.

Before deploying, team commanders 

and deputy commanders like Messner 

get the chance to visit each MSC and 

learn about its operations. Leaders of 

teams heading to the U.S. Central Command area of operations are also briefed 

by DLA CENTCOM & SOCOM officials. 

“I had a pretty narrow view of what 

each part of the agency does having 

been in the Information Operations 

cataloging branch for so long,” Messner 

said. “But through the visits, I saw 

and learned so much about how DLA 

operates. It’s really hard for an employee 

to gain all that knowledge unless you 

experience what I did on that round 

robin. It was eye opening.”

Like many who deploy for DLA, 

Roshinko, Houdeshell and Messner 

have served in the military. Messner is a 

retired Coast Guard gunner’s mate who 

spent most of his career in operational 

environments. He volunteers for the 

adventure and challenge.

“You feel like you’re contributing, and 

when you come back to your old job 

you’re fresh. It’s a nice break,” he said, 

A container of supplies is lifted onto a local truck for delivery 

to customers in Kandahar, Afghanistan. DLA Distribution and 

DLA Disposition Services employees continue to volunteer 

for deployments to Afghanistan so they can have a direct 

and quick impact on military missions there.

Members of DLA’s rapid deployment Red Team brave the gas 

chamber to conduct a functions test on personal protective 

equipment during nuclear, biological and chemical training 

at Camp Atterbury, Indiana. 

Courtesy Photo Army 1st Lt. Caitie Sweet
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DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

THE NATION’S COMBAT LOGISTICS SUPPORT AGENCY

Force

Provider

Contact 

Information

Force providers at DLA 

Headquarters and the major 

subordinate commands 

oversee deployments

from local levels. 

To volunteer, contact a 

provider in your organization.

DLA Headquarters

Jeff Crosson..........571-767-2031

Karen Dean...........571-767-3097

DLA Distribution

Jennifer Cook........717-770-5817

Bradford Sims.....717-770-3154

DLA Disposition Services

Michelle Wooden269-961-5795

Christine Wagner269-961-5605

DLA Land and Maritime

Craig Linderman.614-692-1253

Kathy Rausch......614-692-4731

DLA Aviation

George Johnson.804-279-6774

Gerol Meadows..804-279-2473

DLA Troop Support

Michael White.....215-737-2131

Kurt Lawler...........215-737-7534

DLA Energy

Raymond Otto....571-767-0480

Keisha High...........571-767-6123

DLA Europe & Africa

James White........314-581-2112

DLA Pacific

Andrew Drake.....808-477-0638

DLA CENTCOM & SOCOM

Gary Handley.......813-529-3418

adding that being away from loved ones 

for six months is a sacrifice employees 

must consider before volunteering.

Civilian Expeditionary 

Workforce

Sandra and Darryl Cousin from 

DLA Aviation made deploying a family 

affair. The couple retired from the Army 

National Guard with 44 years of service 

combined, but neither of them had ever 

deployed. It was something Sandra 

always wanted to do.

That urge still tugged at her after she 

joined DLA Human Resources and Darryl 

became an inspector for the Mapping 

Division of Document Services. Two years 

ago, a co-worker told Sandra about her 

experience with the Civilian Expeditionary 

Workforce, a pool of Department of 

Defense civilians who volunteer to deploy 

anywhere in the world for six months. 

DLA Human Resources manages the 

agency’s contribution, which is about 40 

individuals annually.

When Sandra took the information 

home to Darryl, he was so supportive he 

offered to apply, too. 

“I know she’s close to the end of 

her career, so I said, ‘OK, let’s go for it,’” 

he said. 

Sandra applied and was selected in 

July 2016 for a one-year deployment to 

Afghanistan, a place Darryl jokingly said 

“wasn’t really on my radar.” She spent the 

next four months training and completing 

medical appointments to certify she 

was in good physical shape, while Darryl 

also applied and was selected. Their 

start dates were six months apart, but 

both husband and wife were assigned 

to Kabul. Sandra left in November, and 

Darryl followed in May 2017. 

Although they aren’t performing 

DLA’s mission during their deployment, 

the Cousins still feel like they’re 

representing the agency. Sandra took 

a short break from her job in- and outprocessing civilian employees from the 

area to train DLA employees assigned 

to the region on the Department of 

Defense Performance Management 

and Appraisal Program when the 

agency adopted it in early 2017. And 

since they wear uniforms with a “DLA 

civilian” name tag, they both find 

themselves sharing information about 

what DLA offers.

“People are always asking me what 

I do for DLA and what the hiring process 

is, so I still feel like I’m representing the 

agency,” Sandra said. “This opportunity 

has also given me the chance to work 

with people from some of our partner 

agencies, and that’s good experience to 

take back home with me.”

Deborah Zemolong, another human 

resources specialist, returned from a 

CEW deployment to Afghanistan in 

June. The face-to-face interaction she 

had with customers inspired her to find 

deployment opportunities within DLA, 

and in March she’ll return to Afghanistan 

as the DST administration officer.

Darryl and Sandra Cousin from DLA Aviation pose for a photo while deployed to Afghanistan as part of the Civilian Expeditionary 

Workforce, a pool of DoD civilians who volunteer to deploy anywhere in the world for six months.

Courtesy Photo
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March / April 2018 7

LOGLINES

DLA’S OFFICIAL FLAGSHIP PUBLICATION

DLA LAND AND MARITIME

Supplier Conference

June 19 - 20

Greater Columbus Convention Center

Columbus, Ohio

http://go.usa.gov/xRsTg

“When you’re there, you can see the 

living conditions and what our customers 

are going through on a daily basis. I’ve 

found that I really enjoy working with the 

military, and the firsthand experience I 

gain on the ground helps me do my job 

better,” she said. 

The eagerness to deploy is so great 

among DLA employees that over 130 

quickly volunteered when DLA Human 

Resources called for volunteers to 

support hurricane relief efforts with 

FEMA in September. Volunteers didn’t 

know where they would be assigned or 

what their duties would be. 

Margaret Beverly, a procurement 

analyst with DLA Acquisition, was among 

the first to raise her hand and became 

one of only 10 selected. She spent five 

weeks at a call center west of Fort Worth, 

Texas, recording details of damage and 

losses by survivors. 

“I enjoy helping people, so when they 

said there was a need, I knew I wanted 

to be part of the effort,” she said. “I would 

absolutely do it again if given the chance.”

Mission Trained

Beverly and the other volunteers 

were trained by FEMA at Anniston, 

Alabama. Those who volunteer for DSTs, 

RDTs and the CEW also receive formal 

training. DST members go through the 

Army’s continental U.S. Replacement 

Center at Fort Bliss, Texas, where they 

learn tasks such as basic lifesaving 

techniques. RDT and CEW members 

spend two weeks at Camp Atterbury, 

Indiana, receiving personal protective 

equipment, completing medicalreadiness screenings, and training in 

areas such as active-shooter response 

and vehicle rollovers.

“The training is set up to mirror 

the conditions you’ll be in on the 

deployment, so everyone has an idea 

of what to expect before you get where 

you’re going. Some of the training I 

received was actually given by a former 

Navy SEAL,” Zemolong said. 

While most deployers agree being 

on duty in a foreign place is a balance of 

personal sacrifices and perks such as 

recognition for going above and beyond 

their normal scope of work, Sandra 

said there is one reason no one should 

volunteer: money.

“People who do it just for the money 

are doing it for personal gain, and that’s 

the wrong reason. I’ve seen people come 

here for that reason alone only to realize 

soon after they get here that it was a 

mistake,” Sandra said two months before 

the end of her tour. “It’s so important for 

civilians to realize that when they come 

here, their sole purpose is to positively 

impact the mission, even when it means 

long days and no weekends off.”

Employees interested in volunteering can get details about current deployment opportunities from their local 

operations office. LL
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DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

THE NATION’S COMBAT LOGISTICS SUPPORT AGENCY

DLA Aviation

Airworthy 

Heritage

Story by Army Sgt. Saul Rosa, DLA Aviation Public Affairs

Although America’s military has 

used aircraft to win wars for much 

less time than ships or rifles, 

military aviation emerged roughly about 

the same time as the battle tank — 

making the history of military aviation 

more than a century old.

In the early decades of that history, 

there was no Defense Logistics Agency, 

and so there was no DLA Aviation to 

ensure military aviators had ready 

supplies of critical parts and systems 

they rely on.

But as military aviation grew and 

evolved, so too did its logistical support 

— including what ultimately became 

DLA Aviation.

World War I 

For most of the 20th century, until 

DLA was created in 1961 as the Defense 

Supply Agency, each military branch 

handled its own supply contracts and 

secured its own munitions. 

 When the U.S. entered World War I 

in 1917, three years after it began, U.S. 

military aviation consisted of 109 mostly 

obsolete aircraft scattered among the 

Aviation Section of the Army Signal 

Corps and the Navy. 

But U.S. aircraft and pilots still ended 

up making a crucial contribution to Allied 

victory, said Russell Lee, chair of the 

Aeronautics Department of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

“The first military role for airplanes 

was reconnaissance of troop movement 

and artillery spotting,” Lee said. “Fighters 

were needed to protect the recon 

planes. Soon they operated in force, and 

the idea quickly grew of control of the 

air over the front. British pilots flying 

single-engine airplanes dropped bombs 

on zeppelin bases in 1914. Fighters 

strafed trenches, road convoys and 

other targets. 

“But between 1917 and 1918, the 

Germans introduced ground-attack 

aircraft specially designed for this 

purpose,” Lee said — meaning that 

American pilots joined the war when the 

skies were at their most dangerous.

American planes were flown largely 

by volunteer pilots — among them, 

Quentin Roosevelt, son of President 

Theodore Roosevelt, who joined the 

Army Air Service and died after being 

shot down over France on Bastille Day 

in 1918.

Supplying and maintaining planes 

in the early days was also far different 

from today. Aircraft maintainers 

themselves were required to make 

many replacement parts.

Army Air Corps Brig. Gen. Frank Lahm, 

himself recognized by the Air Force as the 

nation’s first military aviator, described 

the Army Signal Corps Aviation School’s 

stringent testing of would-be maintainers 

in 1915, as war in Europe raged with 

American pilots volunteering to fly for the 

French and the British in his 1957 article 

“The Men and the Machines,” from the 

journal Air Power Historian:

“The first part of the examination 

required the student to make fittings, 

ribs, spars, struts, skids and wires; 

assemble, disassemble and align an 

airplane; prepare the plane for shipping; 

stretch cloth on the wing frames and 

dope it; remove, repair and replace tires. 

The second part required the candidate 

to clean the engine, grind the valves, 

adjust the clearances, time valves and 

spark; clean magnetos; locate and repair 

firing systems; adjust the carburetor 

and locate and adjust ordinary troubles. 

In addition, the student had to pass a 

physical examination.”
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Those who passed muster still 

had to undergo rigorous training, Air 

Force Capt. Barbara L. Harris noted in 

her 1991 thesis, “Challenges to the 

United States Tactical Air Force Aircraft 

Maintenance Personnel: Past, Present 

and Future.” As of August 1917, the 

maintainer course “involved ten weeks 

of instruction in such areas as electricity, 

airplanes, gasoline engines, magnetos, 

motorcycles, motor trucks, office work 

and telegraphy,” Harris wrote.

In addition, “the actual training 

turned out to be the least of the Air 

Service’s problems,” Harris noted. “The 

biggest problem by far was recruiting 

enough mechanic candidates from the 

civilian sector. The average American 

mechanic was unfamiliar with the 

detailed and delicate type of work 

demanded of aviation mechanics.” 

Compounding the problem, “Many 

of those civilians possessing the 

needed skills had been drained off 

by the draft, enlistments and war 

industries” Harris explained. 

“To counter this, the Air Service 

launched an aggressive two-week 

recruiting drive early in December 

1917,” she wrote. “Approximately 

50,000 recruits signed up, only one-half 

of the total that would be needed for 

the War. The United States had hoped 

to recruit these mechanics as relief 

forces for the Allies.”

World War II: 

Army Air Corps 

The Army fully integrated aviation 

units into the military with the creation 

of the Army Air Corps in 1926. The years 

leading up to World War II provided leaps 

in aviation technology and tactics. 

During the war, a new facility 

opened in Richmond, Virginia, to 

support warfighters: the Richmond 

General Depot, under the command of 

the Army Quartermaster Corps. The 

depot received, stored and supplied 

quartermaster, medical and engineering 

items with the support of more than 

8,400 employees, supplemented by 

1,200 German prisoners of war housed 

on a camp next to the depot. 

With the support of such depots, the 

U.S. entered the war with the best in 

propeller technology with the American 

P-51 Mustang, a single-engined fighterbomber aircraft that played a vital role in 

aerial combat throughout WWII. 

“[The P-51 Mustang] is pervasive 

in popular culture and aviation history,” 

Lee said. “It’s a really important plane 

because of its technology, history and 

the impact it had ... you could argue that 

the Mustang was the peak of propellerdriven aircrafts. It was the fastest and 

had the best performance.” 

The P-51 Mustang faced off 

against another vital aircraft in aviation 

history, the Messerschmitt Me 262 — 

the first operational fighter aircraft to 

use a jet engine, making it much faster 

than its adversaries.

“It led the way to further fighter 

aircraft development,” Lee explained — 

not only due to its jet engines but also its 

wing design. 

The P-51 lacked the swept-wing 

technology of the Me 262, in which the 

wing joins the fuselage at an acute angle, 

rather than in straight to the side. This 

delays the shock waves and accompanying rise in drag that occur near the speed 

of sound, to improve performance. 

Another iconic World War II aircraft, 

the Army Air Corps’ B-29 bomber, was 

used to drop the newly developed atomic 

bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 

Japan near the end of the war. 

“Perhaps the most famous B-29s 

were the 65 examples of the Silverplate 

AMERICAN PLANES WERE FLOWN LARGELY BY VOLUNTEER 

PILOTS — AMONG THEM, QUENTIN ROOSEVELT, SON OF 

PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

The B-29 Superfortress, B-17 Flying Fortress and B-52 

Stratofortress appear at the 2017 Barksdale Air Force 

Base Airshow, Bossier City, Louisiana. Held for the first 

time in 1933, the Barksdale Air Force Base Air Show is 

a full weekend event showcases displays of the latest as 

well as historical military and civilian aircraft. 

— Photo Illustration by Paul Crank

Original Photo by Air Force Senior Airman Curt Beach
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DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

THE NATION’S COMBAT LOGISTICS SUPPORT AGENCY

its combat debut in Korea ... When 

we got to the F-86, we had pretty 

much reached the ultimate in combat 

aircraft and high-performance aircraft 

design, from there on it’s pretty much 

incremental changes. The big revolution 

had happened: the swept wing, the 

turbojet engine.” 

In addition to the advancements in 

jet aircraft, helicopters began to make a 

presence on the battlefield. 

During these conflicts the concept 

of helicopter medical evacuations was 

solidified with the iconic imagery of Army 

helicopters landing under fire to rescue 

the injured and escape from danger. 

To meet the logistical demands of 

the ever-evolving forces, DSA expanded 

and acquired new technologies as well. 

The Richmond General Depot 

changed its name many times and again 

to Defense General Supply Center in 

1962 to represent its new role in the 

organization. During this time, it acquired 

four new computer systems that 

processed more than 4,500 requisitions 

a day. The center became home to one 

of the largest data processing facilities 

on the East Coast.

With the conflicts of Vietnam and 

Korea deescalating, the Cold War that 

was looming in the background came 

to the forefront as DSA supplied the 

warfighters that stood watch over the 

looming threat.

Expanding Air Support: 

The Defense Logistics Agency

In recognition of 16 years of growth 

and expanded responsibilities, Jan. 1, 

1977, officials changed the name of the 

Defense Supply Agency to the Defense 

Logistics Agency. The Goldwater-Nichols 

Act of 1986 identified DLA as a combat 

support agency. 

About the time the Cold War was 

coming to an end, the U.S. military faced 

series, which were modified to drop 

atomic bombs,” Lee said. 

To save weight, these planes were 

stripped of all guns, except those in the 

tail. The modified B-29, the Enola Gay, 

dropped the first bomb, called Little Boy, 

on Hiroshima Aug. 6, 1945. Another B-29, 

Bockscar, dropped the second bomb, 

called Fat Man, on Nagasaki three days 

later. The pilot of the Enola Gay, Army Lt. 

Col. Paul Tibbets, picked his Silverplate 

aircraft straight off the assembly line.

 Between 1944 and 1960, 3,970 

B-29s were built. And in 1947, the Army 

Air Corps was made into a separate branch 

of the military — the U.S. Air Force. 

The Defense Supply Agency: 

The Solution for Coordination 

In World War II, the military learned 

firsthand the difficulties of logistics in the 

modern age, when each service branch 

operated under its own procedures. 

According to the DLA Aviation Public 

Affairs archives, the second Commission 

on Organization of the executive branch 

of the government, headed by President 

Herbert Hoover, recommended centralizing management of military logistics 

support and introducing uniform financial 

management. Integrated management 

of supplies and services began in 1952 

with the establishment of a joint ArmyNavy-Air Force support center to control 

identification of supply items. 

The commodity manager agencies, 

called “single managers,” were 

established to buy, store and issue 

supplies, manage inventories and 

forecast requirements. The Army 

managed food and clothing; the Navy 

managed medical supplies, petroleum 

and industrial parts; and the Air Force 

managed electronic items. In each 

category, the single manager was able 

to reduce its investment by centralizing 

wholesale stocks. 

The problem with the singlemanager system was the each manager 

still operated under the procedures of 

its parent service, and customers had to 

use as many sets of procedures as there 

were managers. 

These single-manager agencies 

were consolidated into the Defense 

Supply Agency, which began operations 

Jan. 1, 1962. The eight single-manager 

agencies became DSA supply centers, 

some of which became what are now 

the DLA major subordinate commands.

One of those MSCs is DLA Aviation 

in Richmond.

Korea and Vietnam: 

War in the Air,

On the Ground

Aviation technology advanced 

quickly by the early 1960s — and it 

would be tested by the conflicts in Korea 

and Vietnam. 

“In Korea, we saw the ending of 

the supremacy of the propeller drivenaircraft and the dawn of the combat 

jet aircraft,” Lee said. “The F-86 saw 

Army Sgt. Saul Rosa

The modified B-29 Superfortress named the Enola Gay 

dropped the first bomb, called Little Boy, on Hiroshima August 

6, 1945. Another B-29, Bockscar, dropped the second bomb, 

called Fat Man, on Nagasaki three days later. Enola Gay 

can be viewed at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, 

Hampton, Virginia.
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its first conflict with the support of the 

expanded DLA - the Gulf War, in which 

the United States faced the world’s 

fourth-largest land army: that of Iraq. 

The Boeing F-16, used by the Air 

Force and Navy, prevailed during this 

conflict and proved to be effective and 

cost efficient with its single jet engine. 

Lee explained that today F-86’s 

predecessor, the F-16, is a brilliant 

aircraft for various reasons, including low 

production cost due to its use of a single 

turbojet engine. 

“In any hostile environments that we 

expect in future conflicts, losses could 

well be significant,” Lee said. “It may 

come down as it has in the machine 

age to a war of attrition. That’s how we 

won World War II. We had [vastly more] 

Sherman tanks. It wasn’t the best tank 

on the battlefield, but it was a tidal wave 

of steel against the less numbered but 

superior German tanks.”

In 1996, the Defense General Supply 

Center’s name changed to Defense 

Supply Center Richmond. Shortly 

thereafter, agency leaders started 

talking about supply chain management.

With the conclusion of the Gulf War, 

the military downsized until the attacks 

on the World Trade Center and the 

following operations in Afghanistan and 

the Middle East called the warfighters to 

arms once again. 

Iraq and Afghanistan: 

New Battlefields, New Aircraft, 

Battle-Tested Support 

Faced with new enemies and a 

new battlefield, the military revealed a 

technology in the works since World War 

I, unmanned aerial vehicles. Although 

the modern conception emerged in 70s 

as reconnaissance vehicles, the war on 

terror saw more and new uses of UAVs 

than any previous conflict. 

As the military still relies on 

modernized F-16, the advancement 

of technology leads to new aircraft 

designs and concepts.

“Moore’s law is the observation 

that the number of transistors in 

a dense integrated circuit doubles 

approximately every two years,” Lee 

said. “Essentially, technology will keep 

getting smaller, and when you have 

a set frame like the F-16, you can fit 

more technology into [it] and keep that 

plane viable.”

In 2006, the new aircraft that has 

emerged from Moore’s law is the F-35 

Lightning II, the U.S. military’s nextgeneration aircraft. 

 The DLA Aviation archives explain 

that DSCR’s mission expanded greatly 

between 2007 and 2009 with the 

implementation of Base Realignment 

and Closure 2005 legislation. The 

activity privatized its supply, storage 

and distribution management of 

tires; its packaged petroleum, oil 

and lubricant products; and its 

compressed and liquefied 

gases. It also broadened 

its mission as a supply 

chain provider beyond 

its traditional wholesale 

role when it moved into 

consumer-level retail 

supply logistics.

As part of an 

enterprisewide branding 

campaign, Defense Supply 

Center Richmond became 

known as Defense Logistics 

Agency Aviation in 2010. 

Defense Supply Center 

Richmond remained the 

name of the installation and 

the home of DLA Aviation’s 

headquarters.

Positioned alongside 

its military customers, DLA 

Aviation manages industrial 

support activities at Robins 

Air Force Base, Georgia; 

Tinker Air Force Base, 

Oklahoma; Hill Air Force 

Base, Utah; Marine Corps Air 

Station Cherry Point, North 

Carolina; Naval Air Station 

North Island, California; 

and Naval Air Station 

Jacksonville, Florida.

The activity’s business functionality 

consists of six basic core processes 

representing key functions in supply 

chain management that enables DLA 

Aviation to interact with, support and 

meet warfighter requirements. These 

processes are: planning, procurement, 

order fulfillment, financial 

management, technical and quality 

(ensuring parts meet specifications 

and are free of defects) and customer 

relationship management.

Although DLA Aviation was not 

always known as such, the activity and 

its dedicated workforce has a history 

of ensuring the U.S. military stays 

airborne by providing support and new 

technology to the warfighters. LL

Army Chief Warrant Officer John Dewar headed the Airborne Detachment at 

the Army Support Center, Richmond, Virginia, which packed and inspected 

parachutes for Army use, in 1962. The Richmond General Depot, now Defense 

Supply Center Richmond, has a strong history of supporting the warfighter 

with equipment, like the parachutes Dewar inspected, and has become the 

headquarters for DLA Aviation.

DLA Aviation Public Affairs
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THE NATION’S COMBAT LOGISTICS SUPPORT AGENCY

SafeLy in H

Story by Diana Dawa

DLA Distribution Public Affairs

When the Army ended its search 

for a new standard-issue pistol 

by choosing a variant of the Sig 

Sauer P320, the service relied on Defense 

Logistics Agency Distribution to safely 

transport the weapon to Army units.

The 9mm sidearm, whose military 

version is the M17 or M18, replaces the 

M9 Beretta, the Army’s pistol for more 

than 30 years. The contract for the new 

handgun was awarded early last year.

But before soldiers can use the pistol, 

it has to be transported. And as with any 

weapon, each shipment must be counted, 

verified and tracked carefully through 

every step of its journey. This falls to DLA 

Distribution Anniston, Alabama.

First the manufacturer ships the 

weapons from its New Hampshire factory 

to DDAA, said DDAA’s commander, Army 

Lt. Col. Michael Lindley.

“Shipments are sent via commercial 

carriers cleared by the U.S. Transportation 

Command to transport sensitive items,” 

Lindley said. “Freight carriers are required 

to have dual drivers and constant monitoring of their location.” 

In addition, shipping personnel apply 

a seal to the cargo door before the load 

departs and record this on the shipping 

documentation, he explained. 

At the same time, the DDAA 

team accounts for the weapons in the 

Logistic Support Activity’s Unique Item 

Tracking before shipping the pistol in 

accordance with the directions provided 

by the Army’s item manager. 

DDAA personnel process shipments 

of pistols through a five-step system:

Receive

When a truck arrives, the team 

verifies the seals are intact and clears 

the shipment for processing. Then the 

weapons team unloads the weapons 

into the receiving area and places them 

in backlog (based on number of pistols 

in the queue) or at a receiving line of five 

employees who verify the kind (brand, 

model, caliber and other specifications), 

condition and count of the weapons.

The receiving line next removes 

the outer packaging and places 

the weapons on a tray that moves 

along a conveyor belt. They tag each 

weapon with a serial-number barcode 

and register it with DLA’s Small 

DLA DISTRIBUTION HELPS ARMY DELIVER NEW PISTOL TO WARFIGHTERS
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and

Arms Serialization Program and the 

Distribution Standard System. DSS 

then sends the information to the 

Army’s Unique Item Tracking database. 

Army Sgt. Samantha Stoffregen, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Public Affairs

Courtesy Photo

A soldier with 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne 

Division (Air Assault), fires the new M17, or Modular Handgun 

System, at the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) indoor 

range. The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), the world’s 

only air assault division, is the first unit in the Army to field the 

service’s new handgun, (shown at right) which replaces the 

M9 pistol, the standard Army sidearm since 1986.
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DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

THE NATION’S COMBAT LOGISTICS SUPPORT AGENCY

said Col. Derek K. Thomson, 1st BCT 

commander, who observed the fielding. 

“Our soldiers have always been at the 

cutting edge of battle, so it’s fitting 

they’re the first to fire alongside these 

leaders today.”

Marsh echoed Thomson’s sentiment: 

“I never thought I would be one of 

the first ones to field a new piece of 

[Army] equipment,” Marsh said. “It’s a 

tremendous honor for my battalion and 

brigade, this division and me.”

The M18 is a compact version of 

the M17 and according to Lindley, is 

fully modular. It can be modified to be 

one of three sizes, and the caliber can 

be changed to suit different conditions 

and assignments. 

“The internal fire control assembly 

remains the same and can be combined 

with a different grip frame, barrel and 

slide. Other features include: consistent 

trigger pull sensation from first to last 

shot, polymer frame (less weight), and 

an ambidextrous slide release lever,” 

Lindley said.

DDAA also provides distribution 

services for the other military services, 

including combat weapons systems, 

missile systems and small arms. It 

maintains materiel to support weapons 

and combat systems, including radioactive, hazardous, consumables, major 

end items and secondary repair parts. 

According to Beavers, her team’s 

main focus at DDAA is and always will be 

Warfighter First. 

“Our whole team strives to do 

whatever is necessary to support to 

women and men potentially putting 

themselves in harm’s way,” Beavers 

said. “It’s an honor to be able to stand 

side by side with these folks ... No task 

is ever too small or too large for them,” 

she said. LL

Editor’s Note – Portions of this article previously 

appeared in an Army Times story on the 101st 

Airborne Division.

Then the team packs the weapons 

based on size. All packed material is 

dual verified. 

Stow

Personnel move the weapons for 

temporary storage. Then the weapons 

are segregated based on type, condition 

code and owner. 

Pick

Once the item manager for the 

weapon has transmitted a material 

release order, other DDAA personnel 

move the weapons to the shipping floor 

to be repacked, based on the quantity 

on the MRO. 

 Pack

The packer verifies the weapons 

picked match the MRO for kind, 

condition and count and then packs the 

weapons based on mode of shipment. 

Issue

Items packed are verified by the 

shipping supervisor before release to a 

commercial carrier for shipment to the 

requester.

“The shipping team determines 

the mode of shipment according to 

the Defense Transportation Regulation 

4500, ensuring that all security 

requirements are met in the movement 

of the material,” said Susan Beavers, 

chief of Warehousing and Transportation 

Operations at DDAA.

As the materiel leaves DDAA, 

the Transportation Team reports the 

pending delivery to the customer. For 

further security, each shipment is 

tracked either through the delivery 

truck’s internal tracking function or 

through the Defense Transportation 

Tracking System, Beavers added. 

According to Lindley, the 101st 

Airborne Division is the first unit to 

receive the new pistol, and the 1st 

Brigade Combat Team was the first unit 

to field the M17 last fall. In November, 

the 101st received more than 2,000 M17 

and M18 handguns. Personnel from 

each component of the 101st unpacked, 

inventoried, inspected and annotated 

receipt of the weapons through the small 

arms register. The 101st began fielding 

the new pistol Nov. 28.

The Sig Sauer is “easier to fire and 

simpler to operate” than its predecessor, 

said Sgt. Matthew J. Marsh, a 1st BCT 

soldier. “The pistol felt very natural 

in my hand. I’m excited to take my 

experience back to my unit and share it 

with my soldiers.”

The unit was “proud to be the first 

unit to be fielded this new handgun,” 

Douglas Wilson (left) and Jarred Slaton, DLA Distribution 

Anniston, Alabama, warehouse packers, verify the correct 

stock numbers with the weapons prior to packing. 

Photo Courtesy Sig Sauer
You’ve been with DLA Distribution about 18 months. 

Have you accomplished all you set out to since taking 

command in June 2016?

The short answer is no. I don’t think you can ever be 

done supporting the warfighter — especially with 

a mission as broad as we have at DLA Distribution. 

We’re a global organization, with more than 50 

locations across the world. To meet the needs of the 

warfighter, we have to be innovative and adaptive, 

and I don’t think that’s something you achieve as 

much as it’s a continual journey. 

That said, I’m extremely proud of what we’ve 

accomplished together over the course of my time 

here. Our performance metrics, which measure our 

commitment to deliver materiel to the warfighter, 

have improved tremendously over the last 18 

months, and I could not be more proud of what the 

entire team across the network has done — our 

A Conversation with ...

Army Brig. Gen.

John Laskodi

commanders and directors, the staff and our great 

workforce in the field. 

You’ve mentioned creating another DLA Distribution 

Expeditionary team. What’s the vision behind that idea?

I’d start first with the new DLA Strategic Plan. It 

outlines five lines of effort and, of course, “Warfighter 

First” will always be a primary focus for DLA. The 

agency’s leadership recognized the demand to move 

capabilities closer to the warfighter, so we included 

“Global Posture” as a new line of effort. 

So what does that mean? That we need to be 

prepared for immediate action globally. 

At DLA Distribution, we do that a number of ways. 

First, we have our distribution centers located 

throughout the continental United States. And of 

course, we’re overseas where we have U.S. military 

forces. So that strategic positioning — or where we 

are today — is very important.

Our DLA Distribution Expeditionary, or DDXX teams, 

provide us the capability to be where we are not today. 

We’re prepared to support the warfighter, whenever 

and wherever they require. 

There’s a number of ways we’re doing that. In addition 

to the DDXX teams, we have our Department of 

Defense civilian volunteers who deploy when needed. 

We also have robust contracting capabilities, in what 

DLA Distribution’s commander 

discusses the focus on modernization, 

metrics and deployable capability.

DLA Distribution Commander Army Brig. Gen. John S. Laskodi addresses the DDXX team at ISB Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas, after visiting DLA Distribution Corpus Christi, 

Texas, and other DLA personnel supporting relief after the catastrophic damage caused by Hurricane Harvey.

Army Capt. Brandon Thomas

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March / April 2018
we call the Global Distribution Expeditionary Contract. 

And this past year, we’ve worked hard to operationalize 

our reserve component into our new Expeditionary 

Distribution Support Battalions, which can mobilize and 

deploy into semi- or nonpermissive environments. 

We’ve seen the demand signal for the DDXX teams 

grow, particularly in response to last year’s hurricanes. 

Harvey, Irma and Maria were the first time we have 

had all three teams deployed simultaneously, and I 

don’t think when we established these teams anyone 

envisioned that. So the demand is there, and we’ll 

expand the capability to meet the requirement. 

Right now, we’re working through the processes 

to man and equip another team, and we’re working to see exactly where the team will be placed. It’s 

an expeditionary capability, so more than likely the 

team will be located in the United States at one of our 

larger sites. As we work through equipping solutions, 

we could envision even stationing the people here in 

CONUS and the equipment overseas.

In your opinion, could DLA Distribution ever be a purely 

expeditionary organization?

Absolutely not. I think the expeditionary capabilities 

we bring, as well as our current posture outside of 

the continental United States, are crucial to our ability 

to perform our mission. But the bottom line is that 

support starts here in the United States. 

At DLA Distribution, we do that through our two Strategic 

Distribution Centers: one at San Joaquin [California,] and 

the other at Susquehanna [Pennsylvania]. Additionally, we 

provide support the services require to generate readiness 

throughout the continental United States at the organic 

industrial bases. DLA provides the military services and the 

combatant commands the agility and flexibility of support 

across the spectrum of logistics requirements. 

Can you tell me a little about the focus of your 

forthcoming DLA Distribution Annual Operating Plan?

We’re excited to be getting the Distribution Operating 

Plan out in short order, because it really should have 

been issued in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2017 

so we could prepare for fiscal 2018. But we wanted 

to make sure we were well nested with the DLA 

Strategic Plan. 

I don’t think there will be any surprises in it for most 

folks. We’re going to focus on our core Distribution 

mission: Receive, Store, Issue and Distribute materiel 

for the Department of Defense. And we’re going to get 

after some ways that we can improve that over the 

course of the next year. 

We’re always looking at improving our metrics, 

looking through the lens of the warfighter to 

measure the way we perform. We’re going to look 

at things like reducing the time to hire and the 

onboarding process to make people more capable 

earlier as they join our team. 

We’re going to sustain our safety program. I’m 

very proud of the safety program we’ve got in 

DLA Distribution. 

We’re going to look at how we integrate DDXX into 

more joint exercises and into the operations plans for 

the combatant commands. 

We’re going to work with the other major 

subordinate commands at DLA to update our 

memorandums of agreement we have at the 

industrial sites. Many of our [MOUs] haven’t 

been updated, and we’d like to start looking at a 

standard suite of metrics so we can take better 

advantage of our standard processes. 

And I’ve already talked about operationalizing the 

reserve component into our new EDSBs. 

This year, we’re very excited to be implementing 

our new DLA Distribution Transportation Contract, 

which will support what’s called the Trans Arabian 

Network, in the U.S. Central Command area of 

responsibility. This will be a paradigm shift for DLA 

Distribution, because we’ve always focused on our 

core of “Receive, Store, Issue and Distribute,” and 

we’ve done that distribution by leveraging contract 

vehicles of either U.S. Transportation Command, 

the CCMDs or service components. Now, for the 

first time, the DDTC will provide DLA our own 

transportation contract, and we’re carefully thinking 

through exactly what that means for the command.

Lastly, we’re going to consolidate and sustain the 

gains we’ve made on our audit-readiness journey. 

This has forced us to take a hard look at ourselves and 

tighten up our processes. I couldn’t be more proud 

of the progress we’ve made, and we’ll continue to 

improve on that strong foundation. 

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You’ve spoken about the importance of modernizing DLA 

Distribution’s warehousing. You’ve also said it’s likely 

the network will geographically expand. Which do you 

see as more integral to future success?

Both are extremely important. As far as the 

expansion, our customers are the military services 

and CCMDs. Both are asking us to be closer to the 

warfighter in the way we support them. 

Over my tenure, I’ve been privileged to cut the 

ribbon on three new distribution capabilities: a 

new Materiel Processing Center in Oman, a DLA 

Distribution center we opened in Djibouti, as well as 

one in Iwakuni, Japan. 

So the CCMDs are asking us to be closer to the 

warfighter. At Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, we’re 

piloting putting DLA materiel into a Marine Corps 

Supply Management Unit. And at the Army’s Logistics 

Readiness Center supply support activities, we’re 

getting ready to execute a pilot at Fort Carson, 

Colorado, to place DLA materiel directly onto an Army 

installation, closer to the warfighter. So that’s the 

expansion piece. 

At the same time, we’re looking closely at all our 

modernization efforts and working with DLA 

Headquarters, as we have multiple initiatives we’re 

executing and piloting in fiscal 2018. One of the 

most exciting is a potential commercial off-the-shelf 

replacement for our Distribution Standard System. The 

team is working hard to pilot a new system at Corpus 

Christi, Texas, over the next several months. 

Implementing a new system will require us to think 

outside the box and change some processes we’re 

accustomed to. But we’ve fostered a culture of 

innovative leaders and a resourceful workforce who 

understands we must adapt to be successful. 

What is the most common request you get from DLA 

Distribution’s customers?

One of our mottos at DLA Distribution is that we 

deliver “the right things, at the right place...at the 

right time.” As I talk with customers, we see they 

also want things the way they want them. So it’s also 

the right way. One capability we provide to meet this 

need is our tailored kitting operations to configure 

the materiel for the customer. So instead of ordering 

each item in a first-aid kit, they can just order the kit 

and have exactly what they need. 

But they also want the best value. Today, 

as we look to the support we provide the 

military services and the CCMDs, it’s easy for 

us to point to our value proposition. With our 

metrics, which reflect how well we’re delivering 

capability, we can easily highlight how we 

support their readiness. 

However, we realize cost is a component of value, 

and we have several lines of effort to reduce 

our costs. The team is looking at our expenses 

hard — very hard, every day, to ensure we’re 

being as efficient with our dollars as possible. 

We are looking hard at our overhead. And we 

we’re looking at innovative ways to save our 

customers money, such as maximizing the use 

of our scheduled truck network, which saved the 

services over $26 million last year. 

However, I think an area where we could do 

better is the way we communicate our prices and 

avoid the perception that we’re too expensive. 

The way we advertise our pricing structure isn’t 

indicative of the value we believe we provide. 

That’s an area we’re looking to improve. 

Finally, what do you hope to leave as your legacy? 

There’s so much this team has achieved during 

my time that it’s hard to pin down a few things. 

Hopefully, in the end people would point to how 

we’ve improved the culture — the way we do 

the business we do. And that we’ve taken care of 

our people. 

I also hope we’ve changed the planning horizon 

that we look at — looking farther into the future 

so we can make real change. Using our new 

global DLA Distribution Headquarters building as 

an example: We cut the ribbon on it in 2016, but it 

took about 15 years from the concept to actually 

occupying the building that we’re in today. 

While we must be focused on delivering materiel 

to the warfighter every day, we must also think 

more broadly. We must think beyond today and 

tomorrow and think outside the box on how we’ll 

be delivering capability to the warfighter in the 

next decade and beyond. It’s our responsibility to 

ensure this Distribution capability is available for 

the Department of Defense whenever needed to 

support the warfighter well into the future. LL

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March / April 2018
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Boot Camp, Bots 

Story by Kitty Eisler, DLA Information Operations

Photos by Sara Moore

When most people think of boot 

camp, they think of military 

trainees going through grueling 

physical exercises while instructors 

bark at them. Defense Logistics Agency 

Information Operations recently put 

a new spin on boot camp; instead of 

physical exercise, senior leaders went 

through three days of mental exercises 

to stretch their minds and challenge the 

way they solve problems. 

The Senior Leader Innovation Boot 

Camp was the latest effort by DLA 

INNOVATION TAKES OFF IN DLA INFORMATION OPERATIONS

Information Operations to establish 

a culture of experimentation and 

innovation. The organization needs to 

stay ahead of emerging technologies 

and ensure the agency is ready to fulfill 

its mission of supporting warfighters, 

said Robert Foster, deputy chief 

information officer. 

“We are facing an innovation — 

almost a tsunami — it’s coming so fast,” 

Foster said. 

Although Information Operations 

deals with technological change every 

day, its customers don’t, he explained. 

“So how do we deal with leading 

them into the technology change as it 

comes down, helping them understand 

why it’s important and why change is 

needed, and making the right choices 

with technology?” Foster asked. 

DLA Information Operations held 

the event last fall in partnership 

with MD5, a Defense Department 

collaboration with research 

universities to promote innovation 

in the government. Experts from the 

University of California at Berkeley 

led the participants through sessions 

covering innovation psychology, 

technology literacy, iterative problem-
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 and Business

time and to address ideas in a creative, 

problem-solving manner.”

Charron challenged the leaders 

to think of “how might we” statements to think of solutions to 

problems DLA faces. He then guided 

them through an exercise to better 

understand customers’ needs by 

looking at the use, usability and 

meaning of potential solutions. 

This exercise forced participants 

to look beyond the usual solution set 

and think about multiple outcomes and 

potential impacts to customers, he said. 

Once ideas are proposed, “you turn 

around and say, ‘Well, we can’t take 

them all forward. How do we figure out 

which one we’re going to go forward 

with?’” Charron said.

The participants had to quickly write 

down ideas, develop them and share 

them with partners. By the end of the 

three days, they were even pitching 

ideas to the group using a technique 

they learned the day before. 

Taking these leaders out of their 

routines to look at problems a different 

way was a key aspect of the boot camp, 

Foster said. 

“Our distinguished lecturers have 

walked us through a process that ... 

drives us to look at more types of 

ideas, because we in [DLA Information 

Operations] are so focused on solving 

the problem and solving it quick,” he said. 

“But the quick solution isn’t always 

the best solution. So what we learn in 

here is, take the time you need to look 

at different types of solutions, and 

maybe that will allow us to come up 

with a better solution.”

These innovation events started 

in 2016 with the formation of a team 

that held an innovation idea contest 

last March. It yielded 91 ideas from the 

DLA workforce. 

Senior leaders chose to move 

forward with nine of those ideas; 

six ideas are still in development or 

implementation. DLA deployed one 

idea that modified the Enterprise 

Dashboard and lets DLA users easily 

see the availability of software 

programs they use.

In November, the team launched 

another contest soliciting ideas for 

intelligent automation. Employees 

submitted 44 ideas for how the 

organization could use automation 

software to increase efficiency and 

streamline processes. These include 

automating system administration 

tasks, creating a workflow process for 

requirements fulfillment, establishing 

an automated chatbot for employee 

access to current Information 

solving, lean methodology and 

prototyping, among other topics. 

It included lectures, discussions 

and group activities related to realworld problems and situations, with 

techniques that forced the group to 

think creatively about solutions. 

“What we’re doing is we’re taking 

the group through a series of innovation 

processes, so they get a better feel for 

what innovation is,” said David Charron, a 

lecturer from the University of California 

at Berkeley Haas School of Business, 

who led the second day of the boot 

camp. “Part of that is the ability to take Teresa Smith, DLA Information Operations chief data officer, 

writes down ideas for her group during the DLA Information 

Operations senior leader innovation boot camp. 

Craig Gravitz, left, of the DLA Information Operations 

innovation team, discusses a problem statement with Bob 

Dunlap, director of DLA Cybersecurity Operations, at the DLA 

Information Operations senior leader innovation boot camp 

in Springfield, Virginia.
page

20 www.dla.mil

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

THE NATION’S COMBAT LOGISTICS SUPPORT AGENCY

Operations processes and automating 

common Enterprise Helpdesk 

troubleshooting tasks. 

“So far, we’ve learned a lot from the 

contest,” said Adam Price, the innovation 

team member who designed the idea 

contests. “In some cases, ideas from the 

contest led to the discovery of ongoing 

efforts in [the Department of Defense] 

that we can leverage.

“In other cases, the progress made 

to implement an idea gave us a jumpstart on other emerging requirements, 

like a proposed guest wireless network 

that will vastly improve the agency’s 

mobile capabilities. 

“We’ve also learned that many 

of our internal processes, while 

sometimes necessary ... are not 

always conducive to rapid testing 

and evaluation of experimental pilot 

projects. We’re looking at streamlining 

some of these processes, which will 

improve ‘time to implement’ for new 

capabilities and technologies across the 

agency,” Price added.

DLA Information Operations plans to 

hold regular crowdsourcing challenges 

to encourage employees to think 

creatively and participate in innovation, 

Price said. The team established a 

virtual development lab that will allow 

employees to collaborate on projects 

in a test environment with the support 

of co-workers and technical experts. 

Foster said the innovation team 

is planning additional workshops and 

events this year, because establishing 

a culture of innovation means all 

employees need to be ready to adapt. 

“Certainly, the goal is to get 

this type of training to the entire 

workforce,” he said. “Those are the 

folks that actually work with our 

customers, and they make these 

solutions become reality. We would 

like to spread this training down to 

the lowest level throughout the [DLA 

Information Operations] workforce.”

The organization also plans 

to host “development sprints,” a 

technique used by companies in the 

private sector, said Craig Gravitz, who 

arranged the first boot camp. 

“The objective of the sprints is to 

flesh out some of the more complex 

ideas from the original boot camp 

and contests, and implement rapid 

solutions we can test and learn 

from,” Gravitz said. “Our aim is to 

continuously build on our progress.” 

The innovation team partners with 

many organizations from DoD and the 

private sector. 

“These partnerships are crucial 

because they allow us to keep pace 

with where the world of technology 

is going, and to keep it relevant to the 

warfighter mission,” Gravitz said. LL

March 13 – April 17

DLA Culture/Climate Survey

your voice

is our future

Gigi Wang, industry fellow and the Berkeley Method of 

Entrepreneurship Boot Camp chair at the University of 

California at Berkeley, presents a lesson to participants at 

the DLA Information Operations senior leader innovation boot 

camp in Springfield, Virginia. 
DLA NewsWire

RESERVISTS HELP 

DLA EXPAND 

EXERCISEPLANNING 

CAPABILITIES

Diana Dawa

Training exercises are vital for 

the Defense Logistics Agency to 

maintain readiness for supporting 

military operations, disaster relief 

and humanitarian assistance. The 

DLA Logistics Operations directorate 

and Joint Logistics Operations 

Center have planned the agency’s 

participation in joint and national 

level exercises for years.

But in 2015, as the operations 

team members compiled their 

multi-year exercise plan and 

drafted the annual training and 

exercise guidance, they realized 

they could use help, said Jay 

Schaeufele, exercise and readiness 

team chief.

“Our dilemma was that when 

we added in all the planning events 

that required DLA participation to 

successfully integrate with the 

combatant commands, we realized 

we didn’t have the manpower to 

prepare for and cover the events,” 

Schaeufele said. “Just covering the 

highest priority [combatant command] 

Tier 1 exercises was a challenge.”

Schaeufele built on his close 

relationship with DLA’s Joint 

Reserve Force office and together 

they agreed there was an 

opportunity for the JRF’s reservists 

to be integrated into exercise 

planning.

— Dianne Ryder, DLA Headquarters

More Online: go.usa.gov/xnGhd

DLA DISTRIBUTION SUSQUEHANNA 

PARACHUTE RIGGER TEAM CONDUCTS 

MILITARY FREEFALL 

On a cold and blustery late November day, Parachute Rigger team 

members from the DLA Distribution Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, gathered 

to prepare for a military freefall qualification jump over Paddy’s field in the 

township of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. 

The unit worked with a flight crew from the Rotary Wing Aviation 

from Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, to jump from the CH47 Chinook 

aircraft, where they are able to complete one freefall jump. In addition to 

performing the jump, the riggers also executed jumpmaster duties on the 

ground at the drop zone. 

While static line jumps are the common jump a parachutist would 

conduct in a combat situation, where large numbers of warfighters jump 

together from an aircraft, on this day, the riggers performed a freefall 

jump. Freefall jumps do not involve a static line – instead, warfighters 

would jump and deploy their own parachute. 

Sgt. 1st Class Terrence Harris is the Noncommissioned Officer in 

Charge of the Aerial Delivery Textile Support Active duty unit. He conducts 

the administrative duties of the section and assists in the distribution of 

aerial delivery items to the warfighter.

What Harris likes about working at DDSP is the opportunity working 

there provides.

— Diana Dawa, DLA Distribution 

More Online: go.usa.gov/xn7qq

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21

LOGLINES

DLA’S OFFICIAL FLAGSHIP PUBLICATION

March / April 2018
AVIATION EMPLOYEE, PUERTO RICO NATIVE 

VOLUNTEERS WITH FEMA FOR HURRICANE 

RELIEF SUPPORT

DLA EXPANDS

MIDDLE EAST 

VENDOR POOL WITH 

WORKSHOP FOR 

OMANI BUSINESSES

Buying goods and services close 

to customers’ locations allows the 

Defense Logistics Agency to respond 

faster to warfighter needs while 

saving money on transportation and 

storage. The agency already uses 

local procurement to provide items 

such as fresh fruits and vegetables 

to troops in regions like Europe 

and Africa, and it’s working now to 

expand local procurement in the 

Middle East by focusing on vendors 

in Oman.

To help potential vendors there 

learn how to do business with the 

U.S. government, DLA partnered with 

U.S. Central Command and U.S. State 

Department officials in December to 

host a workshop for about 50 vendors 

in the Oman port city of Salalah. Oman 

is on the southeastern coast of the 

Arabian Peninsula and shares borders 

with Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the 

United Arab Emirates. 

Although DLA already has 

contracts there for warehousing 

services, fuel and food mainly in 

support of Navy ships, the agency 

wants to expand its vendor pool so 

it can continue to support strategic 

goals of USCENTCOM, said Mike 

Heidbreder, DLA liaison officer with 

the U.S. Embassy in Muscat.

“U.S. defense contracting is 

relatively new in Oman, and the process 

for registering online and finding 

solicitations for new business deals 

can be a bit daunting to new vendors. 

The workshop provided Omani vendors 

with the knowledge they need to do 

business with us,” he added.

— Beth Reece, DLA Headquarters

More Online: go.usa.gov/xn73X

Courtesy Photo

Up until 1990 when he enlisted in 

the Army, Alberto Solano Rodriquez 

had lived his whole life in Puerto 

Rico and experienced firsthand 

the damage caused by hurricanes 

throughout the years.

When Defense Logistics 

Agency Aviation’s Deputy Chief 

of Staff Kathie Rowland put out 

a call that the Department of 

Homeland Security was seeking 

federal civilian employees to 

volunteer to support communities 

affected by Hurricanes Harvey 

and Irma this past fall, Solano 

Rodriquez, a material planner with 

DLA Aviation’s Planning Process 

Directorate, was one of the first to 

raise his hand. 

Though Solano Rodriquez had a 

combined 10 years Army active and 

reserve duty before joining the DLA 

civilian workforce nine years ago, this 

was his first deployment. 

“Helping people is my passion,” 

he said. “I still have family in Puerto 

Rico, some still to this day without 

electricity. When I heard there was a 

need for volunteers, I wanted to help.”

Solano Rodriquez said getting 

supervisory approval and filling out 

the application was only the first of 

several steps before he was placed 

in a position to help others.

His journey began Oct. 8, 2017, 

when he joined several hundred 

others from different government 

agencies, for a week-long training 

session at the Federal Emergency 

Management Agency’s training 

center in Anniston, Alabama.

“I’ve made friends with many 

people from all over the nation 

– it’s been quite eye opening,” he

said. “It’s amazing to see such an

awesome group of people come

together for a common cause to

assist FEMA in this unprecedented

series of disasters.”

When training was finished, 

Solano Rodriquez said the group 

fanned out to different locations 

based on need. Some were 

reassigned on the ground in either 

Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands.

Others, like himself, were assigned to 

FEMA call centers in Denton, Texas, or 

Carlson City, Nevada.

— Cathy Hopkins, DLA Aviation 

More Online: go.usa.gov/xn73D

page

22 www.dla.mil

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

THE NATION’S COMBAT LOGISTICS SUPPORT AGENCY
page

March / April 2018 23

LOGLINES

DLA’S OFFICIAL FLAGSHIP PUBLICATION

Power 

projection

Story by Jason Kaneshiro

DLA Troop Support

Hurricane Maria slammed into 

Puerto Rico Sept. 20, roaring 

ashore with maximum sustained 

winds of 155 miles per hour, toppling 

trees and utility poles and destroying the 

power grid.

Since then, members of the federal 

workforce have worked to help bring the 

island out of the dark.

Defense Logistics Agency Troop 

Support’s Lauren Colabelli has played a 

part in that effort since even before the 

storm made landfall.

Colabelli, a team chief with the 

Construction and Equipment supply 

chain, has worked to ensure generators 

are delivered to Puerto Rico and other 

affected islands to provide temporary 

power while the electric grid is rebuilt.

“I started out as just being the buyer 

on the contract, and then it developed 

into taking on the lead role and being the 

project manager because the mission 

they’re going to get there because, 

ultimately, the power restoration team 

that’s on the ground can’t do anything 

until they have the generators in hand.”

The requirement for daily and 

sometimes hourly updates on the 

movement and location of generators 

going to hurricane-affected areas 

triggered a decision by the U.S. Army 

Corps of Engineers to bring together key 

figures involved in the power restoration 

effort in Pittsburgh as part of Task Force 

Temporary Emergency Power.

FROM PITTSBURGH, A DLA EMPLOYEE HELPS 

MOVE GENERATORS TO PUERTO RICO

kept getting bigger and bigger,” Colabelli 

said. “We realized it wasn’t just one 

delivery order here, one delivery order 

there. It is a monster at this point.”

More than 950 generators of various 

voltage have been delivered to Texas, 

Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, 

through a lease contract through C&E’s 

Fire and Emergency Services team.

“These generators are coming from 

all over the country,” Colabelli said. “It 

was critical for us to track where they 

were at any given moment and when 

Generators provided by DLA Troop Support await airlift by helicopter from Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, to Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. The generators are part of the ongoing efforts to 

restore power to the islands devastated by Hurricane Maria.

Courtesy Photo
page

24 www.dla.mil

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

THE NATION’S COMBAT LOGISTICS SUPPORT AGENCY

USACE was in charge of the mission 

plan and invited representatives from 

the Federal Emergency Management 

Agency and DLA to Pittsburgh to take 

active roles in the task force. The USACE 

Pittsburgh district manages the national 

temporary power contract.

“When they did that, that’s where 

I came into play, and that’s how it 

developed into being this huge project,” 

Colabelli said.

Colabelli said that the heightened 

sense of urgency surrounding the task 

force’s operations increased even more 

right before Maria made landfall.

“I’ve never seen things move so fast 

and change so fast,” Colabelli said. “At 

any given moment, especially with a 

hurricane, if it sways a few miles one way, 

it could be either devastating or it could 

be nothing. And it changes so drastically. 

You’re trying to plan and prepare before 

it even hits and before you even know 

what you’re dealing with.”

USACE has subject matter experts 

who gauge what the power needs are 

in storm-affected areas based on the 

assessments that come in from the field.

Requirements are not limited to the 

generators themselves, but also include 

the personnel and additional equipment 

and supplies to move, install, operate 

and maintain them. Soldiers from the 

249th Engineer Battalion made the 

assessments on the ground in Puerto 

Rico and relayed the information to the 

task force in Pittsburgh.

Working alongside USACE and FEMA 

allowed information to flow quickly 

between agencies, Colabelli said.

“Things happened a lot quicker just 

because you had that instant access 

to each other,” Colabelli said. “It was 

a great dynamic. You definitely felt a 

camaraderie with everybody and you’re 

all focused on the mission, but you all 

come from different backgrounds too.”

The team leveraged the specialized 

competencies each agency brought to the 

combined relief effort, said Rich Ott, action 

officer for USACE Temporary Power.

“The magnitude of the event has 

created some challenges, but the agencies 

are working though it and really helping 

out the people of Puerto Rico,” Ott said.

The multiagency team also fostered 

an environment where institutional 

lessons could be gleaned, Colabelli said.

“You learn a lot from each other,” 

Colabelli said. “I felt like as much as I 

learned from them about generators 

and different types of assessments, I 

think they learned a lot from us too.”

One lesson was that there are 

limitations to the number of generators 

vendors can provide because of the finite 

number of generators available for lease 

throughout the industry.

“Finding that out was a learning 

experience for them because now you 

William Kenny, DLA Troop Support executive director of 

contracting and acquisition management, stands with 

Lauren Colabelli, a team chief with the Construction and 

Equipment supply chain. Colabelli was a member of a 

task force to bring generators to provide temporary electric 

power to Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin 

Islands in the wake of the string of devastating hurricanes 

that swept through earlier in 2017. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers uses Pier 14, San Juan, 

Puerto Rico, to stage and repair generators that are part of the 

ongoing Temporary Power mission in response to Hurricane 

Maria. USACE continues to ensure Puerto Rican’s have an 

adequate quality of life and essential services to take care of 

their families and businesses during the recovery process.

Jason Kaneshiro
page

March / April 2018 25

LOGLINES

DLA’S OFFICIAL FLAGSHIP PUBLICATION

nothing but work. I knew that if I stayed 

a little longer and did a little more, I 

could get those generators on the next 

ship and it would save a couple of days 

of time and get them there faster.”

One of the task force members 

from FEMA who worked with Colabelli 

went to the U.S. Virgin Islands and 

Puerto Rico. He saw the devastation 

there. But he also saw the progress of 

the temporary power mission.

“We’re sending these generators, 

but the conditions are so bad, the 

roads are so bad ... he sent videos 

and it just breaks your heart,” Colabelli 

said. “When I can zoom in on a picture 

and see one of our generators there, 

it touches you. It really makes a huge 

impact knowing that you’ve been able 

to get something down there and 

affect people’s lives.” LL

have to prioritize what actually is going to 

get a generator and what is not,” Colabelli 

said. “At first you get all the assessments 

and you intend on fulfilling them all. Now 

they’re going to have to prioritize what 

gets a generator and what may not 

because there’s a possibility they may not 

have enough generators for everything.”

FEMA and the government of Puerto 

Rico determine the priorities for where 

the power generators go, according to 

USACE. High-priority locations include 

hospitals and water facilities. 

Another challenge since the start of 

the emergency has been transporting the 

generators to the islands and distributing 

them from the port because of a lack of 

readily available local workers.

The generators have now been 

running for weeks and have to be 

maintained. 

“The generators have been operating 

for a long time, and they’re not really 

meant to be running long-term,” Colabelli 

said. “And they’re running in some 

austere conditions, some of which they’re 

not very used to. We’re taking generators, 

from, say, Alaska, and they’re used to 

running in these cold, subzero conditions. 

And you’re driving them from Alaska all 

the way down to Florida, and then putting 

them on a boat in rough seas and then 

putting them in tropical weather.”

A disaster of this magnitude 

occurring at a location difficult to access 

has presented layers of logistical 

problems for USACE, FEMA and DLA, 

Colabelli said.

“I don’t think anybody ever thought it 

was going to be this bad,” Colabelli said.

William Kenny, DLA Troop 

Support contracting and acquisition 

management executive director, 

praised the work Colabelli did in support 

of the generator mission.

“Ms. Colabelli demonstrated the 

highest level of professionalism, and 

her contributions were herculean,” 

Kenny said.

The storms’ effects have reached 

Colabelli’s co-workers at DLA Troop 

Support who have family in Puerto 

Rico and remind her of the importance 

of the mission.

“I have two employees who have 

family down there and they give me 

updates all the time,” Colabelli said. 

“When I was in Pittsburgh, I was really 

able to shut everything off and just do 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers logistics specialist Linda Chancey inventories generators during the Temporary Power mission 

in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Nutan Chada Nutan Chada
page

cover4 WWW.DLA.MIL

LOGLINES

THE RIGHT SOLUTIONS — ON TIME, EVERY TIME

My Name Is:

Terry Russell

I am:

A quality assurance representative for DLA Energy Americas at Houston working out 

of Dayton, Ohio.

Describe your job in a sentence:

I perform quality oversight on product supply, storage and service contracts, pipeline 

operating agreements, and other commodity contracts awarded by DLA Energy. 

How long have you worked at DLA?

My first stint was as a military QAR in Houston, starting in 1991. After my military career, 

I was hired by what is now DLA Energy in 2000, as a QAR in the Middle East Office.

What is your favorite thing about working for DLA?

I love that DLA lets me work with so many subject matter experts who overcome 

a multitude of challenges while supporting military and 

humanitarian missions around the world. 

What are your best memories of working here? 

Working in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Bahrain, 

Operation Unified Response for the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and 

Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief for 

Hurricanes Sandy and Maria. 

How do you make a difference?

I relied on my Air Force training to inspect, fill and test five R-9 

Refuelers to ensure they were capable of issuing on-specification 

fuel. I then led the charge to issue fuel to the first four C-5 aircraft 

to arrive in Bahrain in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. 

This was no easy task and is not in the QAR Handbook.

Terry Russell

I AM DLA