LOGLINES

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY NOVEMBER – DECEMBER 2016
cover2www.dla.mil

Headquar ters, Defense Logistics Agency, Office of Public Affairs 

8725 John J. Kingman Road, Suite 2545, Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-6221

Phone: 703-767-6200 E-mail: loglines@dla.mil

Lt. Gen. Andy Busch, USAF

Director, Defense Logistics Agency

DLA Director

Air Force Lt. Gen. Andy Busch

DLA Vice Director

Ted Case 

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Renee L. Roman

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Joseph M. Yoswa

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Patrick H. Mackin

/RJOLQHV is the authorized publication for 

the Defense Logistics Agency’s workforce of 

federal civilians, active-duty military and Joint 

Reserve Force augmentees at agency activities 

worldwide and industry customers of DLA. 

Contents of this publication are not necessarily 

the ȯcial views of, or endorsed by, the 8.6. 

government, the Department of Defense or the 

Defense Logistics Agency. 

LOGLINES

Official Flagship Publication

of the Defense Logistics Agency

LOGLINES STAFF

Managing Editor: Phil Prater

Senior Editor: John R. Bell

:ULWHUV Beth Reece

 Dianne Ryder

/D\RXW'HVLJQ Paul Henry Crank

/RJOLQHV is prepared electronically, using desktop publishing applications; no commercial typesetting 

costs are involved. Photos not credited are courtesy of agency sources. 6ubmissions and correspondence 

may be sent to the address below:

When 8nder 6ecretary of Defense 

for Acquisition, Technology and 

Logistics Frank Kendall says 

controlling costs is fundamental to our 

business practices, we at the Defense 

Logistics Agency pay attention.

In an era of shrinking budgets amid 

growing operational commitments, 

innovation in every aspect of logistics 

support is critical in maintaining 

war¿ghter readiness. The under 

secretary recently outlined his priorities 

at the DLA Land and Maritime 6upplier 

Conference and Expo in Columbus, 

Ohio. You can read about his perspective 

and those of other senior leaders in this 

issue of Loglines.

6peaking of stretching scarce 

budget dollars, this issue also features 

a follow-up story about the challenges 

in maintaining aging aircraft, as DLA 

Aviation supports the extended lifespan 

of the B1-B and B-1 bombers, as well 

as the Navy’s MH- 6ea Dragon 

helicopter. 

And unless you’ve been out of 

touch for the last year or two, you’ve 

been exposed to the subject of defense 

equipment used by law enforcement 

in America’s cities and, by association, 

DLA’s Law Enforcement 6upport Ȯce. 

In this issue, a summary of LE6O ŏers 

facts about this program that DLA is 

required by law to facilitate. 

I was honored to host this year’s 

DLA Hall of Fame ceremony, where 

we inducted seven former employees, 

representing 184 years of service to 

our agency. This is the 17th ceremony 

since Army Lt. Gen. Henry Glisson 

established the Hall of Fame in 1998, 

bringing the number of inductees to 

101. I look forward to it each year as an 

opportunity to talk about our history, 

promote our values and celebrate 

excellence. Our newest inductees 

exemplify the best of DLA, and you can 

read about all of them in this issue.

Here at DLA, we like to say we 

bring support to the war¿ghter 3from 

the factory to the foxhole.” In these 

pages, we go closer to the foxhole, with 

a story on the challenges deployed DLA 

personnel encounter in direct support 

of Operation Inherent Resolve. Another 

story features the work of a DLA team 

to help a remote Afghan National Army 

unit demilitarize its inoperable vehicles 

2 a solution that’s more ėcient, 

conserves 8.6. tax dollars and avoids an 

increased risk to deployed 8.6. troops.

We hope these articles and others in 

this issue of Loglines will help you gain 

a better appreciation about all that DLA 

does to help our war¿ghters accomplish 

their mission, as we keep our promise 

to deliver the right support to the right 

place at the right time. 

DIRECTOR

FROM THE
Loglines O November - December 2016 

DLA ON www.dla.mil www.facebook.com/dla.mil www.twitter.com/dlamil www.youtube.com/dodlogisticsagency

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DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

DLA NewsWire 16

A Conversation with ... 29 

Don Bruce

DLA Strategic Plan Poster Series 37

People and Culture

I am DLA Back Cover

Patricia Komondy

DEPARTMENTS

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

Magnificent Seven 

In September, the DLA Hall of Fame inducted seven new 

members based on their achievements on behalf of the agency. 

Afghan Disposition Mission 

DLA personnel braved brutal heat, wild dogs and other 

dangers to help the Afghan National Army dispose of military 

vehicles in-country.

A Lofty Vintage 1

The B-52, the B-1B and the MH-53 are decades old and kept 

aloft by DLA personnel.

Ready for the Next Fight 1

DLA, DoD and industry leaders explored ways to maximize 

readiness in the DLA Land and Maritime Supplier Conference 

and Expo in Columbus, Ohio.

Inherent Resourcefulness 2

To meet unique support requirements in a war unlike any 

other, DLA personnel use creativity and hard work to support 

the ¿ght to rid Iraq and Syria of terrorists. 

Mission: Possible 2

To make sure critical parts are authentic and meet speci¿cations, 

a team at DLA Logistics Operations does detailed testing.

Shedding Light 3

As required by law, DLA makes certain excess equipment 

available to law enforcement on request.

CONTENTS
2 www.dla.mil

The Defense Logistics Agency inducted seven honorees into its Hall of Fame in a Sept. 20, 2016, ceremony at the McNamara Headquarters Complex, 

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KRISSIE DAVIS

Krissie Davis volunteered 

for duty in Afghanistan with 

no worry of the dangers there. 

Family and friends — especially 

her daughter, Angela — begged 

and pleaded for her not to deploy. 

But Davis dwelled on the positive 

and bragged about the important 

job she had preparing excess 

military equipment for disposal 

for Defense Logistics Agency 

Disposition Services. And besides, she believed God could come 

for her whether she was tucked in bed in her Talladega, Alabama, 

home or in a warzone.

Loved ones’ fears met reality June 8, 2015. She and Rob DeLong, 

her 3battle buddy” and fellow DLA Disposition Services employee, 

were heading to the dining facility on Bagram Air¿eld around 

5:30 a.m. when a 105-mm rocket slammed into their Ford pickup. 

DeLong recovered within seconds but struggled to see Davis through 

the billowing smoke. 

3I asked her if she was okay and she said, μNo.’ I really couldn’t 

see much, but I knew whatever happened was bad,” he said. 

Airmen who saw the blast dashed toward the Àames to assist, 

but Davis’ lower-extremity injuries were too severe for basic ¿rst 

aid. When the ambulance arrived, DeLong crawled in behind Davis. 

He held her hand on the bumpy ride to the hospital, listening as she 

talked about her husband, daughter and grandbabies. 

Davis died as surgeons fought to save her. At 54, she became 

the ¿rst DLA Disposition Services civilian lost to combat-related 

injuries. Those who worked with Davis at DLA Disposition Services 

in Anniston, Alabama, remember her Southern drawl and infectious 

laughter. Dale Bennett, former director of DLA Disposition Services 

Mid-America, said she could always depend on Davis’ dedication 

and sense of humor.

3I could always depend on her to give me the straight truth. She 

would sometimes use that humor to help me understand operational issues or challenges that her site was experiencing,” she said

Davis’ three-decade federal career included service with 

the Bureau of Prisons and Department of the Army. She joined 

DLA in 1993 and volunteered in 2010 for her ¿rst deployment 

in support of disposal operations at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, and 

Manas Air Base, Kyrgyzstan. 

DeLong met Davis during pre-deployment training at Fort 

Bliss, Texas.

3She kind of took me under her wing because it was my ¿rst 

deployment,” he said. 3She knew her job like the back of her hand 

and knew exactly what she was doing the minute we hit the ground

They soon discovered each other’s passion for books and cŏee 

and shared stories about their spouses and children back in Americ

A week after their arrival, Coachella Purter from DLA Disposition 

Services at Fort Lewis, Washington, joined their small team. 

3Deployment is a time when people tend to come together and 

bond. When I arrived, Krissie and I hit it ŏ right away like I’d 

known her all my life,” she said. 3It was clear she was there to get th

work done, but she was going to have fun doing it. You couldn’t hav

a bad day around Krissie.” 

Purter would have been in the truck with Davis and DeLong 

the morning of the attack if she hadn’t chosen that day to start 

a new workout program. Davis and Purter both wanted to lose 

20 pounds during their deployment, but Davis was saving her 

workouts for the evening. 

In a blog post to employees, DLA Director Air Force Lt. Gen. 

Andy Busch said Davis’ death was a terrible reminder of the danger

that still existed, although combat operations were ȯcially over. 

3Even as we draw down from the conÀicts we’ve faced overseas

there are still DLA military personnel and civilians in harm’s way 

facing hardships every day,” he wrote.

— Beth Reece

2 www.dla.mil
Loglines O November - December 2016 

CELIA ADOLPHI

Before Celia Adolphi served as 

the ¿rst civilian deputy director of 

the Defense Logistics Agency’s Joint 

Reserve Force, she was in the Army 

Reserve herself. How she became the 

¿rst woman in the Army Reserve to 

attain the rank of major general is just 

one of the surprising turns her career 

has taken. 

Adolphi served more than 26 years 

in the Army Reserve, in progressively 

demanding logistical assignments 

that culminated in her selection as 

the ¿rst female brigadier general — 

active or reserve — in the 8.S. Army 

Quartermaster Corps.

When she moved on to a job at the 

Pentagon, she was central to changing 

nutrition of troop recipes and menus to support changing physical 

¿tness policies and then, some years later in the procurement of 

military food service, from warehouse storage to acquisition of a 

prime vendor. 

3These were big changes for many people, both in the mindsets 

of leaders as well as the cooks on the ground. Skepticism about 

whether it would work or not abounded,” she said. 3But sometimes 

you just have to say, μWell, we’re going to try it.’ We did, and both 

initiatives have been successful for many years.”

In late 2002, Adolphi was hired into the deputy position in 

DLA’s Joint Reserve Force. 

3I was the ¿rst deputy, but it really got started when >Army@

Lt. Gen. Tom Glisson was the director. He and Army reservist Maj. 

Gen. Joe Thompson came up with this idea that it would be better 

to have all of the reservists in DLA under central management,” 

Adolphi said. 

Adolphi explained that reservists, who make up the 

majority of DLA’s military forces, were scattered geographically 

and their assignments were not always strategically in the 

agency’s best interest. 

3As DLA’s mission to support the military services ramped up 

after 9/11 and an ensuing need to position DLA personnel in theater, 

reservists became a vital part of the deployment equation,” she said.

In Adolphi’s nomination, current JRF Deputy Director Robert 

McCullough echoed Adolphi’s signi¿cant accomplishments in 

building up the Reserve forces.

3During the 2003 to 2005 timeframe, Ms. Adolphi worked 

vigorously with the Army Reserve to gain approval to convert Army 

Individual Mobilization Augmentee reservists to a troop program 

unit,” McCullough wrote. 3This single action enabled DLA to 

establish the Army Reserve Element command to lead the 196 Arm

reservists assigned to DLA.”

As deputy director, Adolphi implemented DLA instructions 

that established policies for managing the Joint Reserve Force 

Directorate and procedures on recalling reservists assigned to DLA 

to active duty for deployment. Due to her understanding of nationa

policies regarding management of reservists, these instructions are 

still enforced and continue to govern the directorate’s activities.

3Ms. Adolphi’s caring leadership, attention to detail, unwaverin

commitment and contributions to the Defense Logistics Agency 

and the JRF has been signi¿cant,” McCullough wrote. 3Her 

unparalleled leadership, vision and continuous customer service 

focus throughout a long and commendable career identify her as 

most deserving of the DLA Hall of Fame.”

— Dianne Ryder

Loglines O November - December 2016 

Celia Adolphi and Ronald Adolphi
4 www.dla.mil

David and Rosalie Ennis, with daughter Andrea Ennis

DAVID ENNIS

David Ennis’s career has been marked by notable success — 

as a leader, mentor, friend, outstanding citizen and mayor of his 

hometown, Escalon, California. Now he can add to his honors 

membership in the Defense Logistics Agency Hall of Fame.

Ennis reÀected on his most memorable accomplishment 

as the former deputy commander of DLA’s second largest 

distribution center, DLA Distribution San Joaquin.

3We were able to bring the consolidation of the distribution depots into DLA — all the dĭerent services and dĭerent 

systems together and save approximately 25,000 positions,” 

he said. 3It was something that I was able to bene¿t from — >as 

well as@ the agency and the taxpayer, mostly from the improvements that we brought throughout the system.”

From 2004 to 2006, Ennis provided distribution services to 

over 44,000 customer organizations worldwide and sustained 

military readiness during a time of tremendous organizational 

change. But Ennis insists on sharing the credit for his many 

achievements and recognitions.

3I worked with a lot of people from the East Coast, and it was 

tremendous,” he said. 3They helped; they weren’t sel¿sh at all.” 

In 1984, Ennis was voted one of 10 Outstanding DLA Personne

an honor he counted as the highest in his career.

In his nomination package for induction to the DLA Hall of 

Fame, DLA Distribution Deputy Commander Twila Gonzales 

referred to Ennis as a 3world-class leader.”

3As the deputy commander, Mr. Ennis brought the highest leve

of personal integrity, honesty and dedication to an organization 

challenged by continual change and uncertainty,” Gonzales wrote. 

3Mr. Ennis exempli¿es all the best quality of our senior logisticians 

and is truly deserving of this recognition.”

As deputy commander, Ennis was responsible for the receipt, 

storage, issue, shipment, surveillance, care and preservation of 

over 752,000 line items of materiel valued at $5.1 billion, execution 

of a $179 million annual operating budget and administration of 

1,600 personnel. If those were the only elements of Ennis’s success

they would be stellar enough. But his leadership positions in city 

government have also been noteworthy.

3When we ¿rst met, he was introduced to me as 

the μMayor of Escalon’ — an honorary title, I thought,” 

said retired Army Col. John Marx, who served as DDJ

commander from 1998 to 2001. 3As time passed, I 

found out that he really was the mayor and that he 

played a signi¿cant role in providing leadership to the 

people of Escalon.”

In fact, Ennis served three terms as mayor of 

Escalon. He also served on the Escalon City Council 

and the San Joaquin County Council of Governors. 

In 1989, Ennis was named Outstanding Citizen in the 

Community, and he and his wife Rose still serve on the 

South San Joaquin County Library Task Force.

Retired Army Col. Edward Visker, DDJC 

commander from 2001 to 2004, also extolled Ennis’s 

leadership outside of his federal position.

3As a soldier who uprooted his family every two or 

three years, I had never planted roots. I often envied 

the bonds that Dave had made with his community 

and his friends and neighbors,” Visker said. 3Outside 

the ȯce, Dave was completely immersed in service 

his community as a civic leader at the town, county an

state levels. He was always volunteering to lead, suppo

or help a cause that would improve someone else’s life

— Dianne Ryder

4 www.dla.mil
Loglines O November - December 2016 

KENT ‘ROCKY’ GALBRAITH

One of the 2016 inductees into the DLA 

Hall of Fame, Kent 3Rocky” Galbraith, spent 

38 years with DLA, beginning as a warehouse 

worker at Defense Depot Ogden 8tah in 1966.

Three years later, he became a GS-5 

computer programmer in DDO8 Data 

Systems, the same year the Department 

of Defense sent its ¿rst message using the 

precursor to the internet. 

3When I ¿rst started, we would do our 

programming on the IBM punch cards. I don’t 

remember what year we got desktops, but that 

technology allowed much more productivity.”

Galbraith steadily moved up through the 

ranks of what became DLA’s Information 

Operations, working on a wide variety of 

DLA systems involving everything from 

¿nance to human resources to acquisition and 

distribution, before retiring in 2004 as a GS-15.

The Hall of Fame nomination heralds Galbraith’s service as 

director of the DLA Systems Design Center, during which he led the 

agency’s design, development and deployment of the Distribution 

Standard System the warehousing and distribution system now 

used throughout DLA and the military services. Its creation was 

mandated by the Defense Management Review Decision 902, which 

recommended a standard system to replace the dĭerent ones at the 

DLA depots and the military services.

Galbraith named the billion-dollar DSS project as one of the 

greatest challenges in his career — yet also the achievement he’s 

proudest of. 

3The requirement was to build a standard computer system 

that would run at 26 worldwide supply depots, for all the military 

services and DLA,” he said. 3Our goal was a DoD standard 

distribution system that would accommodate their individual 

requirements.” 

His team took each service one at a time, making sure all its 

requirements were part of the new standard system.

They began the project in 1992 and in 1995 deployed DSS to 

the ¿ve original DLA-operated depots. The following year saw the 

Army’s systems retro¿tted, followed by those of the Air Force in 

1997 and the Navy’s systems a year later. 

Along the way, both Galbraith and his team received numerous 

awards from DoD as well as the Hammer Award from the vice 

president of the 8nited States. 8ltimately, the DSS system saved 

hundreds of millions of dollars and is still one of the most critical 

DLA/DoD systems.

Jĕrey Charlesworth, the current DSS portfolio manager, 

reÀected on what made Galbraith such an ĕective leader of such a 

vast and complex undertaking. 

3He cared deeply about the mission, and he had great attention 

to detail,” Charlesworth said. The creation and deployment of 

DSS 3was one of the biggest tasks we’ll ever undertake, because it 

involved taking over the workload and systems of all four military 

services to replace them with ours,” he explained.

The necessity of that task was not always universally recognized

Charlesworth noted. 

3It took a lot of negotiation and give-and-take with customers 

who were not always the most willing.” Fortunately, he said, 3Rock

was good at working with people. He was able to relate to people 

and work things through.”

— John R. Be

Loglines O November - December 2016 

Kent and Nancy Galbraith
6 www.dla.mil

PAULA KLUCZYNSKI

A program that helps 

transform Defense Logistics 

Agency employees into leaders 

is a legacy that earned Paula 

Kluczynski a posthumous place 

in the DLA Hall of Fame.

Kluczynski in 2004 was an 

essential partner in creating 

the New Supervisor Certi¿cate 

Program Level 3, which at 

the time was the only certi¿cate program available in the 

Department of Defense to ŏer a two-year systematic program 

to enhance leadership skills.

3As developer and manager of this groundbreaking program, 

Ms. Kluczynski oversaw the successful transition of newly 

appointed DLA supervisors into leadership positions within the 

agency. Through Ms. Kluczynski’s leadership and management, 

this program became and is still recognized as an industry best 

practice across both public and private sectors,” said Angela 

Scott-Tucker, chief of the Supply Chain Logistics Training 

Division. 

April 2016 marks 12-year anniversary of the program. 

During her tenure, Kluczynski handled more than 1,700 

program graduates and managed more than 700 participants 

in the program while maintaining outstanding customer 

service, Scott-Tucker said.

After managing the program for more than eight years until 

her retirement in June 2012, Kluczynski continued to provide 

insight and advice to her former coworkers until her death in 

February 2015. Her 35-year career included other leadership 

roles from the Ȯce of Comptroller and Human Resources to 

the Equal Employment Opportunity Ȯce before she joined 

DLA Human Resources Services in the 1990s.

In addition to her program accomplishments, how she 

approached her work is also part of her lasting impact.

3Through my history of working with Paula, ¿rst as a DLA 

supervisor with assignment to the Level 3 program, then as a 

DLA Training forward presence and co-worker, I personally 

witnessed Paula’s approach to daily work duties in a ¿erce, 

determined manner,” said Jacqueline Nelson, program 

manager for DLA Training. 3But Paula also found the time to 

work with others ... in a patient and kind manner.

3Her approach ensured others, including myself, learned 

properly to provide quality service to the DLA workforce,” 

Nelson said.

Before undertaking a new challenge, Kluczynski would also 

put in a good deal of time and ĕort to research and manage a 

large number of details, aiming to 3begin with the end in mind,

according to Bill Velbeck, program analyst with DLA Training.

She would display great authenticity in her leadership and 

teaching as well, Velbeck said.

3I had the privilege to co-teach a number of leadership 

classes with her over the years. The course we taught together 

included a discussion of ethics. Paula always opened that 

discussion by reciting the oath of ȯce that we all took, then 

asking the new supervisors what that oath meant to them,” 

Velbeck said. 

3When it was her turn to say what it meant to her, she told 

a story of a visit she made to the Marine Corps Boot Camp at 

Parris Island. She invariably became tearful as she described 

watching the young men and women training to put themselves 

in harm’s way in order to protect our country. I know that 

everyone in the room was moved by Paula’s sincere emotional 

reaction to that experience.”

Whether it’s her passion or her actions, Kluczynski’s 

impression is still felt in DLA and applied to its training. 

Committed and determined, yet humble, Kluczynski 

approach served as a role model for how to look at training, 

Nelson said. Her work will live forever within DLA Training 

because she walked the talk of true and great leadership.

3Paula left a legacy of dedication and a stubborn insistence 

on quality that we still talk about today,” Velbeck added.

3Paula relished and took great pride in being recognized as 

the subject matter expert within DoD and the private sector,” 

said her husband, Al Kluczynski. 3She was asked to brief her 

program at many high-level meetings, to include >with the 

Department of@ Homeland Security when it was ¿rst created.”

3From Paula’s perspective, I believe she would express her 

tremendous appreciation for management putting their trust 

in her and providing her with the tools she needed to develop 

this program,” he said. 3DLA’s investment in her will have 

tremendous bene¿ts for decades to come.”

— Christopher Goulait

6 www.dla.mil
Loglines O November - December 2016 

Vice Adm. Al Thompson (USN Retired)

AL THOMPSON

Retired Navy Vice Adm. Al Thompson had been commander 

of then-Defense Supply Center Columbus for only ¿ve days on the 

morning of 9/11. He was in the middle of 3welcome” orientations 

with key stă when a messenger slipped into the room and 

whispered in his ear, 3Sir, you’re needed in the command center.” 

The mission he was responsible for was about to expand. 

3It became clear shortly afterward that there would be 

signi¿cant combat operations in the Middle East, so we became 

completely focused on gearing up to support those operations and 

anticipating what the material requirements would be,” he said. 

Seven years later, as director of the Defense Logistics Agency, 

Thompson oversaw the return or disposal of that same equipment 

while simultaneously leading the surge of equipment for an 

additional 30,000 troops deploying to Afghanistan. 

Thompson was inducted into the DLA Hall of Fame for being 

3truly the right DLA leader at the right time,” said DLA Vice 

Director Ted Case.

War¿ghter support was a focal point of Thompson’s tenure 

as DLA director. Spare parts for the all-terrain version of the 

mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle, known as the M-ATV, 

were so critical that Thompson led a group of DLA ȯcials to the 

manufacturing site to create a sustainment plan.

3We met with the president of Oshkosh and went through our 

contracts to make sure that when M-ATVs began deploying to 

Afghanistan, we had parts support already synchronized,” he said. 

Thompson also oversaw the massive shift of cargo from 

DLA’s commercial supply line to the Northern Distribution 

Network, a series of rail, water and road links enabling 

the transport of goods to 8.S. and NATO troops serving in 

Afghanistan. Nearly 80 percent of the cargo that passed 

through the NDN was DLA material, and Thompson built 

strong partnerships with military and 8.S. Transportation 

Command ȯcials to reduce the time and cost of supplying 

troops via the NDN. 

Many of the results of Base Realignment and Closure 2005 

decisions also occurred during Thompson’s three years as 

director. He ensured ĕective integration of procurement and 

industrial support activities previously handled by the services as 

DLA took on 50 new operating sites and nearly 6,000 employees 

from the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. DLA sales 

grew by $10 billion over three years and were accompanied by 

consistently improving annual customer satisfaction surveys, 

according to his nomination packet. 

As Thompson visited installations during the BRAC 

implementation, he recognized that service members were 

often confused about who did what at DLA, or if DLA was even 

involved. The need for a new naming convention struck him at 

a DLA Distribution facility in Puget Sound, Washington, where 

he saw a sign that read 3Defense Supply Center Columbus Puget 

Sound Detachment.” 

3First of all, if I was a DLA team member who worked there, 

what does that name say about what I do" Second, people don’t 

like names of an organization they work for >whose@ geographic 

location is 2,000 miles away,” he said. 3And frankly, it was way 

too many words.”

He called together a team of senior leaders from throughout th

agency and gave them this mission: clean up and clarify the titles o

DLA’s ¿eld activities. The initiative was named 3We Are DLA,” and 

it united the agency’s 27,000 employees.

The movement was more powerful than Thompson envisioned

3As I visited various ¿eld activities, working-level 

employees would come up to me and say they thought it was 

fantastic, because it made their mission clearer when they were 

communicating with customers,” he said.

— Beth Reece

Loglines O November - December 2016 
8 www.dla.mil

 Paul and Clare Zebrowski, with son William Zebrowski

PAUL ZEBROWSKI

Who could the Defense Logistics Agency turn to help 

stand up a new ȯce, modernize the way it does business 

or stabilize support for an entire supply chain after a 

scandal? In each case, Paul Zebrowski answered the call.

3I have always enjoyed solving problems: the 

thornier, the better,” Zebrowski said, summarizing 

much of the work he did for DLA.

Zebrowski cited rebuilding the DLA Troop Support 

Clothing and Textiles industrial base as the most di̇cult 

challenge he faced in his 34 years with the agency. 

3Several key members of C	T management were 

removed due to alleged illegal activities involving 

government contractors,” Army Brig. Gen. Charles 

Hamilton, commander of DLA Troop Support, explained 

in his nomination justi¿cation. 3The events during this 

time left the workforce extremely vulnerable. Paul’s 

con¿dent, methodical approach to returning normalcy to 

the workplace allowed employees to recover and return 

to the world-class support they were known for.”

Both employees and vendors needed support in 

the aftermath of these events, aided by Zebrowski 

as the Clothing and Textiles deputy director. Town 

hall meetings, an expanded Employee Assistance Program 

and supervisor counseling helped steady the workforce, while 

enhanced relations with vendors and trade organizations 

reinforced the supply chain.

3He led C	T out of a very dark time, healing a shattered 

industrial base and strengthening a workforce,” said Keith Ford, 

current deputy director of Clothing and Textiles. 

Steadying Clothing and Textiles is often the ¿rst thing 

mentioned about Zebrowski, but it’s not what he considers his 

most enduring mark on DLA.

3While rebuilding the Clothing and Textiles industrial 

base was the most di̇cult challenge that I faced, I think that 

helping that organization modernize its business practices and 

management structure was my lasting contribution,” he said.

In 1987, Clothing and Textiles only had ¿ve computers for 

500 people, kept excess obsolete items in inventory and had 

shortages of required items. In 1989 there were no shortages, 

and excess items were reduced, thanks to improved acquisition 

strategies and a vibrant new supplier base. Employees became 

linked by an internal network in 1990. Then in 1995, Clothing 

and Textiles deployed the Department of Defense’s ¿rst internetbased catalog and ordering system, which eventually became part 

of the DoD Electronic Mall.

3His unique in-house, on-the-job training sessions, C	T 

8niversity, are still a practice today. His business acumen led 

C	T to change into μtip of the spear’ support to many customers,” 

Ford said.

Zebrowski also changed the way contracting was handled in the 

organization.

3Historically at DLA, contracts were awarded using sealed bids 

for periods of time ranging from three months to a year,” Ford 

explained. 38nder his leadership, C	T stă executed some the 

¿rst best-value acquisitions in DLA and implemented the use of 

multi-sourcing and long-term contracts. These techniques are now 

considered the standard for DLA contracting.”

Acquisition expertise led to Zebrowski moving from the ¿eld at 

DLA Troop Support to the headquarters with DLA Acquisition, wher

he ¿nished his career. Assisting with the creation of DLA Acquisition 

was one of his other top accomplishments, and he noted it reÀected 

the recognition of acquisition as a pillar of the agency’s mission.

3He was a pioneering leader whose guidance and expertise 

inÀuenced many policies and daily practices that are still 

implemented throughout DLA,” said William Kenny, executive 

director of Contracting and Acquisition Management for DLA 

Troop Support. 3From his understanding on mandatory sources 

to ensuring contracts were compliant with Federal Acquisition 

Regulations and garnered the right completion, Paul’s knowledge 

on procurement and acquisition matters was beyond impressive.”

— Christopher Goulait

8 www.dla.mil
Loglines O November - December 2016 November- December 2016 

obile teams taking Defense 

Logistics Agency support 

to the war¿ghter are not 

new, but DLA Disposition 

Services-Afghanistan had an 

idea to improve support to Afghan forces 

returning items to the 8.S. military.

The Combined Security Transition 

Command-Afghanistan asked Navy 

Cmdr. Orlando Lorié, the DLA 

Disposition Services-Afghanistan 

commander, to help the 215th Afghan 

National Army Corps increase its combat 

power by removing more than 500 

irreparable vehicles from its inventory 

to free up slots for replacement vehicles. 

Lorié explained the 8.S.-issued vehicles 

were controlled items that had to be 

demilitarized before they could be 

returned to the 8.S. government. 

3Once μdemilitarized,’ the 215th 

Corps could then receive replacement 

combat vehicles from CSTC-A,” Lorié 

said. 3That’s when CSTC-A challenged us 

to complete the mission of demilitarizing 

and disposing of the large number of 

vehicles located in a remote area of 

Afghanistan.” 

Lorié said the vehicles were in 

various yards throughout the 215th 

Corps’ facilities, which are scattered 

among former 8.S. and coalition bases 

in Helmand province. With its abundant 

poppy ¿elds, the heavily contested 

M

Story by DLA Disposition Services–Afghanistan

Photos by Navy Cmdr. Orlando Lorié 

province has seen some of the heaviest 

¿ghting in Afghanistan, Lorié said. In 

addition, the only 8.S. presence in the 

area was a small combat outpost that 

could not host the mission because of its 

limited size; this meant the mission had 

to be executed 3outside the wire” on the 

Afghan facility. 

The location presented a security challenge, Lorié said. The team for conducting 

DEMIL operations is a mix of military 

personnel, Department of Defense civilian 

workers and foreign contractors. Only military personnel are armed, so mobile team

typically operate in a 8.S. or NATO base t

have a secure environment. But that woul

have meant taking the damaged vehicles 

to one of four DLA Disposition ServicesAfghanistan sites — the closest being over 

100 miles away at Kandahar Air¿eld. The 

journey would have taken 12-14 months 

and cost more than $1 million.

3More importantly, it would also 

expose thousands of coalition troops to 

signi¿cant risk,” Lorié said.

Recon yards at an Afghan National Army cam

where vehicles would be collected to start t

DEMIL process.

AFGHAN

DISPOSITION

MISSION

Loglines O November - December 2016 
10 www.dla.mil

Lorié said he explored the feasibility 

of a doctrinal change to create and deploy 

a mobile DEMIL team. Although DLA 

Disposition Services had completed 

a handful of small DEMIL operations 

on-site, Lorié said it had never conducted 

such a large mobile operation. 

To help with this new task, three 

expeditionary disposition experts 

visiting from DLA Disposition Services’ 

headquarters helped the local leadership 

team identify the equipment and develop 

the procedures to deploy such a unit. 

Their ĕorts were rewarded as senior 

leaders from 8nited States Forces±

Afghanistan and NATO’s Resolute 

Support Mission quickly embraced the 

mobile team’s course of action because it 

could get the job done with the greatest 

ėciency and least danger. 

With a start date of July 1, DLA 

had less than two months to coordinate 

logistics, maintenance support and 

security for what would become the 

main line of ĕort to increase the Afghan 

National Army’s combat power in 

southern Afghanistan. The key to success, 

Lorié said, was close coordination among 

¿ve commands: the 518th Resolute 

Support Sustainment Battalion, the 

2/87th Infantry Battalion, the 215th ANA 

Corps, CSTC-A and DLA Disposition 

Services-Afghanistan. With an operations 

order from 8SFOR-A in hand, Lorié’s 

stă created a mission-critical milestone 

timeline with decision points that 

triggered alternate and contingency plans. 

They then convened planning 

sessions with all stakeholders, 

who developed a comprehensive 

transportation plan identifying what 

would be Àown and what would travel v

ground transportation, Lorié said. 

3From early on it was clear 

the mission would require special 

considerations in the areas of life suppo

and force protection, climate and cultur

awareness,” he said. 

Lorié said requirements for personn

support further taxed the Afghan camp, 

already over capacity. Additionally, 

because every person on the roster 

increased the number of force protection 

personnel required, the crew roster was 

reduced from 22 to 16. 

The extreme heat in southern 

Afghanistan also made changes 

necessary. Because portable armorcutting systems (similar to an industrial 

cutting torch) produce heat, the unit 

instead chose to rely primarily on 

specialized material handling equipmen

despite the cost and risk of transporting 

it. To reduce that risk, most of this 

specialized material handling equipmen

was transported by air via three C-17 

sorties, although a six-truck convoy was 

also used. The ĕects of the heat were 

Navy Cmdr. Orlando Lorié (center) presents a 

commander’s coin to a Delta Nine employee as 

Courtney Aubrey (far right), a DLA Disposition 

Services employee, observes along with two 

members of the force protection detail. 

Two days’ worth of munitions removed duri

“ammo abatement” process to ensure vehicl

are free from dangerous items before DEM

work begins. Items shown include smo

grenades and .50 caliber rounds.
Loglines O November - December 2016 

worsened by the disposition cutters’ 

full kit, which includes a Kevlar helmet 

and vest, respirators and heavy leather 

personal protection equipment.

Temperatures also forced DLA 

to reconsider the operational tempo. 

Lorié said the typical work schedule for 

personnel in Afghanistan is 70 hours 

per week with no days ŏ, with the day 

starting a 7:30 a.m.

3However, because of the high 

temperatures, the work hours were 

adjusted to start the day at 5 a.m.,” Lorié 

said. 3The total hours worked each week 

were also reduced to lower the risk of 

heat fatigue.”

The heat was also a factor for the 

force protection personnel, who had to 

wear combat protective equipment. To 

acclimate to the heat, they arrived at the 

Afghan camp seven days before the start 

of the mission. 

Lorié credits the DLA team on 

the ground with getting all gear and 

cutting bays staged and completing an 

Operational Risk Management assessment 

three days ahead of schedule. 

3Among the unexpected tasks was to 

evict a pack of eight wild dogs and then 

plugging numerous holes in a long fence to 

keep animals out,” Lorié said.

The next day, the team validated its 

operations by demilitarizing two Humvees. 

It also implemented all risk-reduction 

precautions listed in the risk-management 

assessment, allowing the mission to begin 

two days ahead of schedule.

8ltimately, the group completed 

the mission three weeks ahead of 

schedule, demilitarizing 619 vehicles in 

only 10 weeks.

3It was a great experience to see 

personnel from dĭerent organization 

within DLA come together and work as a 

team,” said Ruben Ortiz Jr., a DLA safety 

specialist. 3The way the DLA leadership, 

personnel, contractors and supporting 

units came together and worked as one 

made it possible for us to accomplish 

such a daunting task.” 

For one of the team members, it was 

a major milestone for his career. 

3This is the most impressive mission 

I have seen in my four tours with DLA,” 

said Michael Kelly, team member and DLA 

Disposition Services’ site chief at Kandaha

Lorié attributes success to the 

constant and open communication with 

all the stakeholders. For DLA Dispositio

Services-Afghanistan, Lorié said the 

mission provided a new proven tool that 

rede¿nes how DLA Disposition Services 

can reduce its Afghanistan footprint 

while fully supporting the war¿ghter. 

Disposition cutters use armor-cutting too

to dismantle a U.S.-provided mine resistan

ambush protected vehicle.

“Among the unexpected tasks was to evict a pack of 

eight wild dogs and then plugging numerous holes in 

a long fence to keep animals out.”

— Navy Cmdr. Orlando Lorié
12 www.dla.mil

Story by Leon Moore

DLA Aviation Public Affairs

uckle up. You’re about to take 

a journey into the Defense 

Logistics Agency Aviation’s quest 

to ensure the Air Force meets its 

goal of Àying the B-1B and the 

B-52 bombers until at least 2040 and 

sustaining the Navy’s MH-53 helicopter 

through ¿scal 2030. 

The quest falls in line with DLA 

Director Air Force Lt. Gen. Andy Busch’s 

strategic plan and the vision of 3delivering 

the right solution on time, every time.” 

The B-52 Stratofortress is the elder 

statesman, a few years into its sixth 

decade of operational service, and almost 

as old as the Air Force itself. It’s seen 

action in the Korean War, the Vietnam 

War, the Gulf War, the Afghanistan War, 

the Iraq War and in Syria. 

Fast forward roughly 30 years. The 

B-1B joined the Air Force’s arsenal in 1985, 

the same year Ronald Reagan was sworn 

in for a second term, Windows 1.0 was 

released and the likes of Tears for Fears 

and Chaka Khan blared over the airwaves. 

3Back to the Future,” 3The Color Purple” 

and 3St. Elmo’s Fire” ruled the big screen.

A year later, on the big screen 

Maverick and Goose were battling Iceman 

and Slider for the coveted Top Gun trophy. 

While the movie made being a ¿ghter 

jockey seem like the ultimate in coolness, 

many Navy aviators signed up to Ày the 

MH-53, the Navy’s newest minesweeper. 

Although these weapons systems 

aren’t as romanticized as their supersonic 

counterparts, they are just as vital to the 

nation’s war¿ghters. 

IMMEDIATE NUCLEAR AND CONVENTIONAL GLOBAL STRIKE CAPABILITY

The sheer magnitude of an Air 

Force B-52 bomber is breathtaking. The 

Stratofortress is more than 40 feet high, 

A LOFTY VINTAGE

has a wingspan of 185 feet 

and is 160 feet long. That’s 

25 feet wider and a little less 

than half the length of a 

regulation football ¿eld. 

From 1952 to 1962, 

Boeing built 744 B-52s in 

eight dĭerent models. 

Seventy-six B-52H 

models remain in the Air 

Force arsenal. They’re 

assigned to the Air Force 

Global Strike Command. 

DLA Aviation manages 

60,439 national stock numbers 

in the B-52 supply chain, of which 

15,807 are unique to the weapon 

system. An example of a unique NSN is 

trunnion mounts, a major structural par

of the B-52 landing gear.

Alonzo Miller is the B-52 weapon 

system program manager for DLA 

Aviation’s Customer Operations 

Directorate. 

3The B-52 presents constant 

challenges for parts and material 

availability because it is an older weapon 

system facing signi¿cant challenges 

driven by diminishing manufacturing 

sources,” Miller said.

He said DLA Aviation collaborates 

with the B-52 System Program Ȯce and 

engineering activities at Tinker Air Force Nicknamed the Bone, the B-1B Lancer is a U. S. Air Force long-range, multi-mission conventional 

bomber. DLA Aviation manages roughly 64,000 national stock numbers for the bomber.

KEEPING CRITICAL VINTAGE AIRFRAMES FLYING

u

a

L

t

g B

B 2 b

Air Force Senior Airman Michael B. Keller
Loglines O November - December 2016 

Base in Oklahoma City, 

Air Force Global Strike 

Command at Barksdale 

Air Force Base, Louisiana, 

as well as industrial 

partners to mitigate 

sustainment challenges. 

Boeing, the bomber’s original equipment manufacturer, 

still has much of the 

data rights and original 

drawings. But because 

there is less demand for 

B-52-unique NSNs, it’s a 

challenge to ¿nd vendors or 

sub-vendors willing to make so 

few of a speci¿c part, given that the 

cost of producing a low-volume part is 

signi¿cantly higher. This is known as 

diminishing manufacturer support.

Miller said in the face of DMS, 

needed parts can sometimes be 

acquired from decommissioned B-52s 

sitting outdoors at the Aerospace 

Maintenance and Regeneration Group 

at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in 

Tucson, Arizona. Hundreds of surplus 

B-52s were dismantled at the facility 

in the 1990s. If needed parts are 

unavailable via DLA sourcing, DLA 

will try to source them from AMARG, 

Miller said. 

Additive manufacturing, more commonly known as industrial three-dimensional printing, is also being explored 

as an additional solution to DMS issues. 

When Busch established the DLA Nuclear 

Enterprise Support Ȯce under DLA 

Logistics Operations, he positioned the 

agency to be fully responsive to the needs 

of the Air Force and Navy nuclear communities. Miller said the general’s actions also 

placed the B-52 on the high priority list.

3He reinvigorated a sense of urgency 

across the DLA enterprise in trying to signi¿cantly improve the B-52 supply chain, 

to help ensure the B-52’s support of the 

8.S. nuclear triad,” Miller said, referring 

to nuclear missiles based on submarines, 

ground bases and heavy bombers.

Miller said Busch also put a 

moratorium in place that NSNs coded to 

nuclear-capable weapons systems will not 

be disposed of.

DLA Aviation is using all available 

resources and options to ensure its leg of 

the B-52 supply chain keeps her Àying, 

and the B-52 remains a bedrock for the 

8.S. nuclear triad.

Air Force engineering studies suggest 

that extensive system and structural 

upgrades already done and planned for the 

B-52 will extend its lifespan beyond 2040.

GOLDEN OLDIE 

The B-1B, nicknamed the Bone, 

is the Air Force’s long-range, multirole, heavy bomber. It was originally 

designed and built by now-defunct 

Rockwell International in the mid1970s as a replacement for the B-52. 

Four prototypes were developed 

before the program was canceled but 

later brought back to life in the early 

’80s. Boeing now owns the rights to 

the bomber. 

According to the Air Force, there 

are 62 B-1Bs in its arsenal, assigned to 

the 7th Operation Group at Dyess Air 

Force Base, Texas, and the 28th Bomb 

Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base, 

South Dakota. The B1-B has been used 

as a conventional and nuclear strike 

option, Àying more than 12,000 sorties 

since 2001 in Syria, Libya, Afghanistan 

and Iraq.

Tim Condon is the B-1 weapon system 

program manager for the Air Force 

Customer Facing Division in DLA Aviation

Customer Operations Directorate. 

3I’ve learned a lot about our custome

base and how they want to be supported

and building partnerships with not only 

our customers, but internal to DLA. It’s 

been very rewarding,” he said.

Condon said DLA Aviation manages 

roughly 64,000 NSNs for the B-1B airfram

He said not all of them are active. At 

any given time, there are active and inac

tive groupings, depending on what’s going on with the aircraft, and then there’s 

a group that probably haven’t been activ

A B-52 Stratofortress is refueled in flight ov

the Pacific Ocean near Joint Base Pearl Harbo

Hickam, Hawaii. 

— Air Force Staff Sgt. Nathan A
14 www.dla.mil

in some time and may not be replaced 

throughout the aircraft’s lifecycle. 

3Then there’s a group that we haven’t 

replaced, but when we see modi¿cations 

or maintenance projects where we 

haven’t touched that part of the aircraft 

and we’re going to do a replacement, 

then we start planning for that and they 

become active items again,” Condon said.

He said roughly 12 B-1Bs go through 

planned depot maintenance at Tinker Air 

Force Base each year, with four-to-six 

being out of service at any given time. 

The bomber is concurrently going 

through a major modi¿cation called 

Integrated Battle Station, which essentially 

turns the B-1B into a new aircraft, adding 

full-color displays, moving maps and 

a new diagnostics system. Air Force 

personnel are making the upgrades at a 

Boeing facility near Tinker. 

DLA Aviation planned and procured 44 airframe parts to support IBS. 

They range from cannon plugs to 

clamps and backshells. 

Condon said 11 B-1Bs are scheduled 

for IBS modi¿cation this year with seven 

currently in depot maintenance. IBS 

modi¿cation for all of the bombers will be 

completed by May 2018. 

DLA Aviation is also in the planning 

and procuring phase for more than 

500 parts to be used for a wing sweep 

modi¿cation beginning in October 2018. 

3We’ve done something unique with 

this one. We split the items in terms of 

the way we are going to support them. 

We have a traditional grouping that 

we are supporting through our normal 

processes and then we have a group of 

more complex parts that have tooling, 

material and engineering issues and we 

have decided to use Captains of Industry 

long-term contracts to support them,” 

Condon said.

ONE TEAM, ONE FIGHT, 

DIFFERENT MISSION

While the B-52 and B-1B bombers 

soar high above, in military jargon, 

3dropping warheads on foreheads,” the 

Navy’s MH-53E Sea Dragon is tasked 

with keeping the world’s sea lanes free of 

dangers from below.

3The mission of the aircraft is to 

protect our national security and, 

foremost, to keep the seas safe for our 

war¿ghters,” said Eric Monroe, weapons 

systems program manager for the H-53 

type/model/series. 

Monroe said DLA Aviation’s Navy 

Customer Facing Division in the 

Customer Operations Directorate in 

Richmond, Virginia, is part of the team 

helping keep the MH-53 helicopter 

mission-ready. 

The MH-53 team also includes Marin

Capt. Sean Crilley, deputy weapons system 

program manager, and Linda Morgan, 

a logistics analyst. They manage the 

consumable items for 30 MH-53E and 147 

CH-53E aircraft in support of the Naval 

aviation enterprise. 

The Navy’s MH-53E model is similar 

to the Marine’s CH-53E helicopter but 

comes with additional capabilities for 

airborne mine countermeasures, tow sled

minesweeping, vertical on-board delivery 

and special missions that require a longer 

range and more precise navigation. 

At any given time, a number of these 

aircraft may be in need of repair or 

replacement, because of the number of 

Àight hours, recall, excess wear or broke

parts, Monroe said. 

However, 3the overall goal is to get 

the Àeet up to 100 percent missionready,” Monroe said.

He said the top three sustainment 

issues the team is working on for the MH53 are the main gearbox, main rotor head 

and the rotary blades’ sleeves and spindles

3We have sustained this aircraft’s ma

rotor head longer than its scheduled life 

of approximately 1,400 Àight hours. Som

have been given up to four Àight extensions, and some of the parts have never 

been replaced until now,” Crilley said.

A B-52G bomber takes off as two others wait 

on the runway. DLA Aviation is tasked with 

helping sustain the Air Force’s long-range 

bomber for another 30-plus years.

— Photo by Air Force Senior Airman Chris Putman

The B1-B has been used 

as a conventional and 

nuclear strike option, flying 

more than 12,000 sorties 

since 2001 in Syria, Libya, 

Afghanistan and Iraq.
Loglines O November - December 2016 

The WSPM team is staying ahead 

of procurement of consumable items 

by identifying inhibitors. The team 

participates in weekly bill of materials 

reviews and team brie¿ngs. They also 

participate in the triannual critical parts 

review with their military partners and in 

the biannual Integrated Logistics Support 

Management Team reviews, which includes 

Naval Supply Systems Command; Naval 

Station Norfolk; Fleet Readiness Center 

East, Cherry Point, North Carolina; Marine 

Aviation Logistics Squadrons 16, 24, 29, 36; 

engineers; and industry partners. 

At Norfolk Fleet Type Command, each 

commander of the type/model/series 

regulates which aircraft have priority 

for repairs, based on deployment status. 

TYCOM Norfolk also regulates Àight 

hours and uses that data, along with the 

overall aircraft condition, to determine the 

maintenance schedule for each aircraft. 

TYCOM also determines which parts 

warrant extension. Monroe said that 

Àight time may indicate the part is up 

for maintenance, but depending on the 

condition and number of Àight hours, the 

use of the part can be extended. 

Monroe said the team is working with 

FRC East on organically manufacturing 

the MH-53E sleeve nut, a part on the main 

rotor head and on the sleeves and spindles 

mechanism. There are eight sleeve nuts 

on an aircraft: one on each of the seven 

sleeves and spindles and one for the main 

rotor head. It’s about the size of a steering 

wheel, about 3 inches thick and made of a 

combination of metals.

3The plating process is the challenge,” 

Monroe said. 3The sleeve nut is made 

up of three dĭerent types of metals, 

and it requires speci¿c metal-plating 

techniques. After the nut is made, it is 

sent to another manufacturer to get one 

side of the nut plated with a dĭerent 

metal. This situation causes backorders 

and is one of the areas we are working,” 

Monroe said.

Crilley said the MH-53 community 

is taking a hard look at the Marine 

Corps Reset strategy, which applies 

an integrated maintenance process to 

groom, sustain and reconstitute Marine 

aircraft involved in overseas contingenc

operations, while increasing cooperation 

among type/model/series program 

managers, team leads and team membe

in support of the MH-53’s future Naval 

operational commitments. 

This strategy focuses on maximizing Àight line availability and reliability 

of aircraft, reducing depot backlog and 

out-of-reporting status time, enhancing 

the visibility of aircraft material 

condition, and reducing the burden on 

organization-level Marines, he added.

3Our goal for the H-53E is to provide 

support and operational commitments t

the war¿ghters and to provide logistical 

sustainment of the platform through 

¿scal 2030.”

3We are working for our war¿ghters 

and knocking down barriers daily to leav

no stone unturned to get them what they 

need,” Monroe said. 

For the last few years, a major focus 

of the Department of Defense has been 

to do more with less, in order to save 

taxpayer dollars.

No one is putting this into practice 

more than the pilots and crews of the Ai

Force’s B-52 and B-1B bombers and the 

Navy’s MH-53 Sea Dragon helicopter — 

along with the people at DLA Aviation 

who support them. 

Bonnie Koenig contributed to this story.

(GLWRU¶VQRWH6HHWKH¿UVW

installment of this series from DLA 

Aviation in the July-August 2016 

issue of Loglines.

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Travis M. Burns

DLA Aviation Customer Operations Directorate’s weapon systems program manager team 

manages the consumable items for 30 MH-53E and 147 CH-53E aircraft, as well as for the T-64 

engines on those models. This Navy photo, taken in the Persian Gulf, shows an MH-53E Sea 

Dragon, assigned to the “Blackhawks” of Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 15. 
16 www.dla.mil

DLA NEWSWIRE

DLA ENERGY AEROSPACE ENERGY SUPPORTS NASA ROCKET LAUNCH

Defense Logistics Agency Energy Aerospace 

(QHUJ\UHFHQWO\VXSSRUWHG1$6$·VÀUVW86

mission to sample an asteroid with a launch from 

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The activity provided fuel and hydrazine 

required to launch the Atlas 5 rocket’s orbit of 

asteroid Bennu, where it retrieved 2 ounces of 

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“It gives me a sense of pride knowing that 

the hard work of the men and women of DLA 

Energy Aerospace Energy supports a multiyear 

space mission to asteroid Bennu,” said Damon 

Moore, DLA Energy Aerospace Energy chief 

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Bennu is as tall as the Empire State 

Building, weighs 60 million tons and is about 

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material from the asteroid will give them 

an inventory of the materials present at the 

beginning of the solar system that may have 

had a role in the origin of life on Earth and 

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DLA Energy Aerospace Energy partnered 

with NASA, Lockheed Martin, NASA’s 

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RI$UL]RQDWKH86$LU)RUFHDQG1$6$·V

Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, 

a tracking station in Australia, for the project

– Elizabeth Stoeckmann, 

DLA Energy Public Affairs

More online: go.usa.gov/xkmSt

DLA LOOKS TO COMMERICAL 

INDUSTRY FOR INNOVATION

Counterfeit parts prevention and 

additive manufacturing are among numerous 

areas that need innovative solutions from 

commercial industry, Defense Logistics 

Agency’s research and development chief 

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Development Industry Day at the McNamara 

Headquarters Complex at Fort Belvoir, 

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“There are innovations out there that 

you have that we may not even be aware 

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be your innovation or new product that’s a 

logistics solution for DLA,” Kelly Morris told 

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Research and development efforts stretch 

across DLA’s nine supply chains and involve 

distribution modernization, strategic materials, 

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Casting and forging programs are in dire nee

of innovation, Morris said, because many of 

the parts on aging weapons systems are no 

longer available and businesses no longer 

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“Our casting and forging program is 

critically important because we’ve got to hav

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The agency is also seeking advances in bat

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include extending battery lifespans, as well as 

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teries instead of nickel-cadmium cells may also 

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DLA is already working with the Navy 

and the Air Force to accelerate additive 

manufacturing for parts that are hard to 

source or backordered, but wants to “move 

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 “We’re now looking for ways to procur

parts via 3D models using our existing DLA 

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to move DLA from a PDF tech data package 

to a ‘smart’ data and engineering models,” 

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include the modernization of warehouses wi

robotics and automated ground vehicles, as 

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Loglines O November - December 2016 

Compiled by Beth Ree

Don’t miss the opportunity to be part of the premier 

military and commercial maintenance event of thF year!

sae.org/dod

Administrative support provided by SAE International 

under contract with the U.S. Department of Defense

2016 Department of Defense 

Maintenance Symposium

December 5-8, 2016

Albuquerque Convention Center

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

P165654

Engaging Tomorrow’s Maintenance Enterprise Challenges, Today! 

NOVEMBER IS 

NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

Performers from the Comanche tribe put on a 

show at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, in honor 

of Native American Heritage Month. In 1990 

President George H. W. Bush approved a joint 

resolution designating November as “National 

American Indian Heritage Month”.

“We want parts that are trusted and true 

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not like walking around with a knock-off 

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WKDWDUHJRLQJWRODVWμ

DLA is also looking for domestic sources 

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DLUIUDPHVDQGWKHDHURVSDFHLQGXVWU\

– Beth Reece 

More online: go.usa.gov/xkmSu

LOUISIANA FLOOD VICTIMS GET 

LIFESAVING SUPPLIES FROM DLA

To support humanitarian efforts in the 

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in August, an expeditionary team from 

Defense Logistics Agency Distribution 

deployed to support the Federal Emergency 

Management Agency’s Incident Support Base 

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The expeditionary team, led by 

John Heikkinen from DLA Distribution 

Headquarters and Jason Middleton from DLA 

Distribution San Joaquin, California, sent 16 

members from DLA Distribution Red River, 

Texas, and two Information Operations employees from DLA Distribution Warner 

Robins, Georgia, to manage the dispatch of 

supplies to residents of 20 Louisiana parishes 

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“This is how we show our commitment 

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right away, ready to support,” said DLA 

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-RKQ6/DVNRGL

Louisiana’s governor, John Bel Edwards, 

called the disaster, caused by prolonged 

rainfall in the southern parts of the state, a 

 ́KLVWRULFXQSUHFHGHQWHGÁRRGLQJHYHQWμ

– Brianne M. Bender, 

DLA Distribution Public Affairs 

More online: go.usa.gov/xkmSS

— Photo by Air Force Airman 1st Class Jelani Gibso
18 www.dla.mil

Story by Beth Reece

here’s a way to do it better ± ¿nd 

it. Those words by American 

inventor Thomas Edison could be 

a mantra for Defense Department 

acquisition professionals and logisticians as they seek ways to preserve the 

nation’s advantage in military technology. 

Defense Logistics Agency and DoD 

leaders explored innovative ways to maximize war¿ghter readiness and equipment 

with more than 90 small and large business owners at the three-day DLA Land 

and Maritime Supplier Conference and 

Expo in Columbus, Ohio, Aug. 29 - Sept. 1.

“Our adversaries and potential 

adversaries have had a very long time 

to study how the 8nited States ¿ghts 

and what we use, what we rely upon for 

critical assets and then how to attack 

those assets,” said Frank Kendall, under 

secretary of defense for acquisition, 

technology and logistics. 

Innovation is a key tenet of Better 

Buying Power 3.0, DoD’s acquisition 

ėciency initiative. The problem isn’t a lack 

of innovative ideas within the department, 

but the lack of resources to implement them 

and make them a standard practice. 

“Controlling costs is basically job 

No. 1 because that allows us to put more 

resources into the things we need. The 

point of all this is to get more for the 

war¿ghter and more for the taxpayer 

with the money they entrust us with,” 

Kendall said, adding that the department 

is prepared to incentivize industry partner

for their role in cutting costs and increasin

the military’s technological edge.

Army, Navy and Marine Corps ȯcial

described the size and structure of the 

future force, as well as the need for indust

to rapidly ¿eld new, emerging technologie

T

READY FOR THE 
Loglines O November - December 2016 

 NEXT FIGHT

“It comes down to increasing the 

competency of the individual Marine. 

More and more, we’re seeing smaller units 

as our primary ¿ghting force, so a lot of 

the innovation we’re trying to import 

is focused at that level,” said Marine 

Corps Maj. Gen. John Broadmeadow, the 

service’s vice director for logistics. 

He highlighted DoD’s work to 

integrate industry partners with 

war¿ghters on the ground via the newly 

created Operational Contracting Support 

Integration Cell, which supports U.S. 

Central Command. 

“We’re taking commanders’ 

requirements and translating them into 

ways that we can bring industry onto the 

ground, both in terms of making sure the 

requirements are met and writing the 

right contract while making sure we’re 

managing those contracts in the right 

way,” he said.

The future force will also have to 

resource itself as far forward as possible, 

he continued.

“That puts us in a data business with 

many of you as we talk about how we are 

going to approach 3D printing or additive 

manufacturing. Rather than buying a 

thing, it’s how do we buy the data to bui

that thing closer to the point of need?”

The Army’s program executive 

ȯcer for Ground Combat Systems 

advised fellow logisticians and industria

representatives to not become victims o

the acquisition process. 

“Everybody wants to hear that the 

acquisition system is so corrupt that it 

must be reformed. What I’ve told my 

team, what I’m going to tell you, is we w

not be victims of the acquisition process

said Army Brig. Gen. David Bassett. 
20 www.dla.mil

Bassett oversees the Army’s $80 

billion combat vehicle Àeet, which 

includes Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting 

Vehicles and Strykers. Despite leaner 

budgets, those vehicles continue to 

be modernized with the use of tenets 

outlined in Better Buying Power 3.0, such 

as incentivizing productivity.

The key, he said, is setting 

priorities on what’s important and then 

incentivizing those areas.

“If you’ve only incentivized schedule 

or cost, you might get a system that 

doesn’t perform as you expected. If you 

incentivize reliability, you might get a 

more reliable system, but it might cost 

more,” he continued. “Smart acquisition 

is about ¿guring out what’s important to 

you and prioritizing.”

Bassett gave examples of how 

the Army’s ground combat systems 

continue to improve. A new version of 

the Abrams tank and Bradley Fighting 

Vehicle are in testing. The ¿rst Stryker 

vehicle in support of the 2nd Cavalry 

Regiment is on schedule for delivery by 

late December, and the ¿rst prototype 

of the armored multipurpose vehicle is 

scheduled to be released just 18 months 

after the program started.

Shorter production times for critical 

repair parts are a must in sustaining new 

and legacy equipment, he added.

“What keeps me up at night is the idea 

that, because we haven’t had demands 

for a particular part in a while, I’m going 

to ¿nd something in the Army’s combat 

vehicle Àeet that’s failing, but that part is 

not in the supply system,” Bassett said. 

Navy Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden, 

commander of Naval Surface Forces, 

U.S. Paci¿c Fleet, said he spends about 

80 percent of his time on sustainment 

issues and agreed that the department 

and industry must work together to plan 

sustainment strategies.

“The parts have to be there >and@ the 

fuel has to be there, in order for us to get 

after this piece of providing ready forces 

forward,” he said.

Kendall highlighted several BBP 3.0 

principles that could help acquisition 

professionals and industry improve 

lifecycle sustainment. While controlling 

costs is the fundamental responsibility 

of everyone in the government, focus 

should also be on using the most ĕectiv

contracting vehicle available. 

“This is an area where we can be 

more innovative and creative so that 

our business deals are a win-win. The 

best business deals in my perspective 

are those where industry gives us more 

of what we want for less money, and 

industry makes more money in the 

process,” he said.

DoD is pulling through some of the 

toughest budget constraints in history, 

due to the hard work and dedication of 

acquisition professionals, such as those 

at DLA and its partners in industry, 

Kendall added.

“The lives you save and the success 

you give the United States of providing 

peacekeeping around the world is really 

critical,” he said. “It’s an accomplishmen

you can all be very proud of.” 

Bob Willis, national government sales manag

for Trelleborg, describes the company

engineered polymer solutions that seal an

protect critical applications in demandin

environments during the DLA Land and Maritim

Supplier Conference and Expo in Columbu

Ohio. More than 90 small and large business

attended the event, the first since 2012. 
Loglines oglines O November - December 2016 November - December 2016 

 INHERENT

RESOURCEFULNESS

SUPPORTING THE FIGHT IN IRAQ AND SYRIA

ike other defense agencies, the Defense 

Logistics Agency is supporting the ¿ght 

against the terrorist group that calls itself 

the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

DLA personnel are deployed to several 

nations to support U.S. military forces as they 

supply and train forces ranging from the Iraqi Army 

to the Kurdish peshmerga to local forces in Syria.

Ryan is a civilian DLA liaison ȯcer to 

Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent 

Resolve, embedded with a sustainment element 

at a base in a country near Iraq. His unit provides 

materiel from all classes of supply, coordinates 

movements, contracts for services and performs 

other sustainment tasks.

That can mean supplying unusual items on 

short notice, Ryan noted. He recalled earlier 

this year, when CJTF-OIR war¿ghters needed 

inÀatable boats to cross a particular river. 

This type of boat “isn’t a stock item for U.S. 

military,” Ryan said. “It certainly wasn’t one for 

the Iraqi military either.”

Making the task even harder, Ryan had a twoweek lead time to make this purchase. 

“The military turned to DLA as a sourcing 

solution, because we’ve got an outstanding 

reputation for Àexibility, resourcefulness and 

speed,” he said.

“In 48 hours, DLA had accepted the 

requirement, coordinated with prime-vendor 

partners who had found a new manufacturer 

>1RWH)RUVHFXULW\VRXUFHVDUHLGHQWL¿HGRQO\E\¿UVWQDPHV@

Story by John R. Bell

L

Loglines O November - December 2016 

An Iraqi army soldier exits an Infantry Fighting Vehicle 

during a training scenario at the Taji Military Complex, Iraq. 

— Photo by Australian Military Cpl. Jake Sims
22 www.dla.mil

Ryan said. Again, it took personnel 

working together from around the world. 

“I was coordinating with DLA points 

of contact on four dĭerent continents 

to make this happen,” he said. “We had 

supplied it in Korea. We had the vendor in 

the United States. We were coordinating 

with transportation folks in Europe and 

we were receiving it here in the Middle 

East. It was literally an around-the-world 

ĕort to ful¿ll this requirement.”

Ryan’s unit leveraged its relationship 

with the vendor to get an expedited 

shipment of the fog oil, and worked with 

partners with U.S. Central Command to 

transport the materiel in the region.

In addition to the Iraqi army, the U.S. 

military also relies on DLA for supplies 

it provides to the Kurdish peshmerga 

forces. And this comes with its own set of 

challenges, said Bill, another DLA liaison 

ȯcer in the region.

This was particularly true during 

Ramadan this year, because it came in 

the summer. 

“>Muslims@ don’t eat or drink from 

sunup to sundown during Ramadan,” 

Bill explained. “So when you have 14 or 

16 hours of daylight, and it’s 120-130 

degrees out, you won’t have nearly the 

productivity that you would in the middle 

of winter, when daylight is shorter and 

it’s 20-30 degrees, >and people aren’t 

going as long without food@.”

The long days without eating mean 

people in the region have less energy 

after the noon hour, he said. 

“So you have to do things a lot earlie

in the morning due to the afternoon 

heat,” Bill noted. “Most of the tasks are 

done in the early morning hours.”

Although many aspects of OIR in Syri

are similar to operations in Iraq, they differ, said Adam, an ȯcer in the U.S. Navy 

Reserve working for DLA Distribution. 

As DLA’s liaison ȯcer at a training 

base in the region, his job is to make sur

the special operations forces have what 

they need so they can continue training, 

securing and supplying the local forces 

¿ghting ISIL.

Unlike Iraq, however, the local 

forces in Syria are not a single, organize

national army. Instead, multiple, Àuid, 

unȯcial militias — not unlike the men 

who ¿rst joined Gen. George Washingto

in the American Revolution — ¿ght ISIL 

terrorists with whatever they can get 

their hands on.

And thanks to DLA, through its 

support to deployed U.S. military forces

they get their hands on nearly everythin

they need.

for this materiel,” he said. Within the 

two weeks, “we were able to get the 

manufacturer engaged and up and 

running, manufacturing brand-new boats 

and delivering them into the theater.”

The customer considered this 

achievement “miraculous,” Ryan said.

 “At one point, I was in Kuwait on a 

cellphone with the contracting ȯcer in 

Philadelphia, who was on his desk phone 

with the manufacturers in California. 

Meanwhile, I was having a face-to-face 

conversation with my colonel, who was on 

his own cell phone, talking to a colonel with 

the sustainment elements, who was on his 

desktop with the customer. And this was all 

happening at 10 p.m. local time.” 

It was a coordination feat that 

included many late nights.

Another short order requirement for 

Ryan and his team was for a large shipment 

of fog oil, also known as “battle¿eld 

obscurant,” used in every major U.S.-

involved conÀict since World War I. 

Like the requirement for the 

inÀatable boats, this was another demand 

with a short lead time of only two weeks, 

An Army and an Air Force engineer review 

pallet of containers of DLA-provided groun

hardening paste, commonly called “rhino sno

which is used to reduce dust. This shipme

was used to coat a makeshift runway for 

unmanned aerial system.

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Chenyu Tsui tends 

to a cauldron of chicken stir-fry in the galley of the 

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower deployed in support 

of Operation Inherent Resolve maritime security 

operations and theater security cooperation 

efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations.

Navy Seaman Christopher A. Michaels Courtesy Pho
Loglines O November - December 2016 

my job is to get these operators or the few 

logistical support personnel to move.”

Adam’s unit, given its mission and 

location, continually supplies items to 

the CJTF-OIR conventional and special 

operations forces who work with local 

militias ¿ghting ISIL.

“There have been certain locations in 

need of critical materiel or supplies, and 

DLA has been able to provide it to our special operations forces, which has furthered 

the objectives of OIR,” Adam said.

One example was an item needed for a 

major repair project. Getting the item required coordination with Army Central, Air 

Force Central and multinational personnel. 

“DLA shipped the item quickly from 

Europe ... and it was very important to 

continue the SOF unit’s operations,” he 

noted. “And the least of our worries was the 

product coming from Europe, from DLA.”

The supply of food and fuels to the 

front lines generally “runs like clockwork,” 

Adam said. But a supply class requiring 

more coordination is class IV. Construction 

material “has been huge lately,” he said. 

“DLA Troop Support provides 

outstanding assistance and, more 

importantly, makes the process easy for 

the engineers. The >Maintenance, Repair 

and Operations@ program is very well 

received,” Adam said of his site.

Some might ¿nd it surprising that 

concrete and steel would make up so 

much of DLA’s supply to OIR, but in Syri

they’re crucial to protecting camps used b

Syrian forces ¿ghting ISIL, Adam said. 

“We need to make sure that camp is 

defensible — which takes a lot of class 

IV,” he said. “The SOF guys are the ones 

out there training them how to defend. 

But then if something happens — say 

a vehicle-borne improvised explosive 

device damages their base — they have t

repair it.” 

That means material, equipment and 

manpower, Adam noted. 

Additionally, DLA provides aviation 

fuel for unmanned aerial vehicles. Gettin

the fuel to them has been challenging, 

requiring short notices and in austere 

locations. Because of the road condition

and extreme heat, tires have been torn u

some tires getting out there to the units, 

Adam said. 

Supporting the ¿ght in Syria, like the 

¿ght in Iraq, comes with its own set of 

bureaucratic challenges, Adam said. For 

one, the site where he works is not a U.S.

owned facility, in contrast to most of the 

bases the coalition forces operated from i

earlier Middle East operations. And even 

close U.S. allies have their own systems o

regulations, much like the United States.

“When you’re in a forward-deployed 

environment, you have more operators 

than you do logistical support stă,” 

Adam explained. 

In addition, the logistical specialists 

on site often have other duties that 

compete for their time. Adam explained 

his job at DLA is a lot more involved than 

it would usually be.

He said he routinely tells customers 

what they need to order, provides the 

national stock number and almost places 

the order for them. But there’s only so 

much he can do on their behalf.

“A lot of times, I’ll hear μShow me the 

requisition’ from DLA, and that’s right, 

because DLA can’t do anything without it. 

But as a forward-deployed liaison ȯcer, 

U.S. Army soldiers fire an M109A6 Palad

howitzer during a fire mission at Al-Taqaddu

Air Base, Iraq, to support Operation Inhere

Resolve. 

Marine Sgt. Donald Holbert
24 www.dla.mil

This means tasks can take 

longer than they did during the 

recent U.S. operations in Iraq, 

he said.

“If you give a project 

10 days, and the ¿rst three 

of those are waiting for 

permission from the host 

nation, then obviously you 

have only seven days to follow 

through. The acquisition and 

transportation time did not get 

adjusted for those three days.”

An example is minor 

electrical repairs. 

“It’s not like we can just 

go out and ¿x >the quarters@

ourselves really quickly. The μlandlord’ 

is supposed to ¿x that. And if they’re 

dragging, we don’t have too much leverage. 

There have been numerous times when the 

landlord has not gotten around to it, says 

he can’t do it, or we don’t like the way he’s 

going to do it,” Adam said. 

However, he said, his team is 

fortunate in that some of the Reservists 

stationed there work as licensed 

tradesmen, such as electricians, in their 

civilian lives. 

“With that skillset, they’ve been able 

to take care of some of these repairs.”

Another example of how OIR is 

dĭerent from prior engagements is the 

process for scheduling vehicles, Adam 

said. The base where he works has no 

U.S. military sustainment brigades using 

Àatbed trucks to transport cargo. 

“So we have to schedule them 

in advance, because there are no 

warehouses where we are. It’s a big, open 

¿eld — a container yard.” 

This means the facility must use a contractor, via a line-haul contract, to transport the materiel. For Syria in particular, 

this is a tough challenge, he noted. 

“To get one truck out there, the driver 

has to be vetted to get past the >Syrian@

border guards,” Adam explained. “If the 

contractor is held up at the border, we 

have to jump in and help expedite this, 

to get them whatever information the 

border guards need to allow the delivery 

to the forward-deployed soldiers.”

Several times, food trucks have been 

held up for two to three days, he said. 

That’s where the management comes 

into play, in keeping a large enough food 

reserve on hand.

Adam said that providing the 

outstanding support is a DLA-wide ĕort. 

“I’m able to work with many great 

people in each of the primary-level ¿eld 

activities that answer all of the customers’ 

questions. Many I visit with are the face 

of their respective PLFA,” he said. 

“But what enables the soldiers to 

receive the products in a timely manner 

is the success of the back-ȯce personnel 

— those who make the agreements with 

the vendors and write contracts for who 

knows what.”

War¿ghter feedback on DLA’s support 

has been largely positive, he noted. But 

often, their focus on the daily ¿ght means 

sometimes no news is good news. 

On food and fuel, “I don’t hear much 

feedback at all,” Adam said. “The only 

time I hear anything is when a truck is 

delayed. Ninety-nine percent of the time, 

I hear nothing, which is great!”

Ryan acknowledged it’s hard to 

predict how such a complex, yet crucial, 

operation will evolve.

When OIR began, “the sustainment 

element didn’t think of DLA ¿rst when 

it came to sourcing. But 

we’ve had the opportunity 

to be successful and prove 

ourselves,” he said, and 

CJTF “is becoming more 

and more aware” of what 

DLA can accomplish.

“Even if the campaign 

stays in a relative 

steady state, I see DLA’s 

involvement only growing, 

because we’re really provin

ourselves in our capabilitie

our responsiveness and ou

Àexibility,” Ryan said.

He explained that the 

general logistics expertise 

of DLA personnel can be useful to 

customers even when not expected. 

“One of the unwritten ways we add 

value is that DLA being a strictly logistic

entity, we have subject matter expertise

So even if conversation is about a part 

that DLA didn’t supply or is about 

the customer’s internal storage and 

distribution systems, we bring expertise 

to the conversation.”

For example, he said, DLA puts a 

radio frequency identi¿cation tag on 

everything it ships. 

“It gives us in-transit visibility from 

factory to foxhole,” Ryan said. “We 

were successfully getting material into 

theater. We could see the part moving 

from continent to continent and into 

the country.”

μWe’re in talks with our customers 

about improving their own in-transit 

visibility by using similar technology,” 

Ryan explained. “Being able to see 

exactly where your materiel is as it trave

... It’s all the more valuable that they be 

able to have that same visibility.”

“And the feedback from the custome

has been really positive,” he added.

DLA’s support to OIR is as diverse as 

the ¿ght itself, uniting civilians and milita

service members in support of DoD’s 

mission as DLA personnel ensure that the 

right supplies and materiel are delivered t

its customers on time, every time. 

An Army flight medic crew assigned to Company C, 1st General Support 

Aviation Battalion, 111th Aviation Regiment, Task Force Dragon, instruct 

coalition soldiers exiting procedures during a hot-load litter carry out of 

an HH-60M Black Hawk helicopter during a coalition medevac and hoist 

training exercise at Erbil, Iraq. 

Army Sgt. Kalie Jones
Loglines O November - December 2016 

Story by Dianne Ryder

Photos Courtesy Jeff Grady

and Steve Van Sickler

MITIGATING MISFIT MATERIALS

n its pursuit to eradicate nonconforming spare parts and 

materials — including suspected 

counterfeits — from the defense 

supply chain, the Defense Logistics 

Agency has some powerful assets. 

Doug Fosnaught, technical quality 

analyst in DLA’s Logistics Operations 

directorate, heads up a team of four 

test coordinators at various DLA 

distribution centers: Jĕrey Grady, in 

DLA Distribution Center San Joaquin, 

California; Reuben Martinez in DLA 

Test coordinator Jeff Grady demonstrates 

the dimensional test capability of an 

optical comparator. 

n

c

m

c

s

A

I

Distribution Center Red River, Texas; 

and Steve Van Sickler and Joe Manta, 

who both work in DLA Distribution 

Center Susquehanna, Pennsylvania.

Grady has a degree in mechanical 

engineering, worked for the Navy and ha

11 years of experience in DLA laboratory 

testing. Martinez retired from the Army 

as a maintenance supervisor where 

he gained knowledge in inspections, 
26 www.dla.mil

installation and testing of individual 

parts and components on various types of 

ground vehicles and equipment systems. 

Van Sickler retired from the Navy, 

where he gained extensive knowledge 

in ship maintenance/repair and failure 

reporting. He’s also knowledgeable in 

weapon system assembly operations, 

detailed technical data analysis and 

product testing. Manta has 14 years of 

experience in DLA laboratory testing 

and six years as a DLA headquarters 

distribution policy representative. 

“We looked at the stock positioning; 

we looked at items and material stored at 

dĭerent places, determined the risk — and 

the three locations we got were the most 

important to work on,” Fosnaught said. 

Susquehanna warranted two test 

coordinators since it is the largest 

distribution center.

The four test coordinators, though 

assigned to DLA headquarters, are 

located at the distribution centers to 

assist the supply chains and the depots, 

since their on-site quality and technical 

resources are limited. 

“Currently, depot personnel only 

determine kind, count and condition,” 

Fosnaught said. “Sometimes an item 

needs more inspection and testing 

or a de¿ned review of the technical 

requirements.”

That’s where the test coordinators 

come in. They ¿ll the gap between the 

depot personnel, who perform cursory 

visual inspections, and other on-site 

quality and technical experts, who have 

access to complete laboratory inspection 

and testing, Fosnaught said.

“The coordinators also have direct 

access to the technical data >and@ are 

trained to interpret the drawings and 

speci¿cations” he said. “They are able to 

research suspect items and determine 

quality de¿ciencies from the available 

technical data.”

Using high-risk procurement and 

analytical data from external sources, 

the test coordinators identify items as 

high-risk candidates in the federal supply 

class, Fosnaught said. 

“They’re reviewing quality discrepancies and also counterfeit mitigation,” 

Fosnaught said. “Everything counterfeit 

starts out as a quality discrepancy.”

Andrew Meighan, branch chief for 

product assurance for technical quality, 

attested to the test coordinators’ value. 

“These guys are a phenomenal asset 

for us out there,” he said. “Counterfeit 

has gotten complex in what it entails an

these guys ŏer up an opportunity for u

to go beyond the visual inspections.”

 “My input for looking at items come

from many sources,” Grady said. “The 

depot personnel come to me with two 

items — one is round, one is square — 

they don’t have any technical informatio

on them, they just look at me and say, 

μWhich one is it?’” 

Grady said if he has access to the 

technical data on the item, he can ¿nd o

how it should be identi¿ed, or if notify 

product specialists if he has suspicions 

about the item.

Meighan said the test coordinators pe

form inspections with no preconceived no

tions of manufacturers’ guilt or innocence

“It’s important to mention that, 

because when other people come to them 

and ask them to do things, if they’re not 

objective, then it leaves >the inspection@

open to being skewed,” he said. “We kee

our guys completely away from that.”

Meighan said items are tested 

according to the manufacturer’s or 

user’s requirements.

Sometimes an item may have come 

from a contractor that depot personnel 

had problems with in the past, or an 

item that doesn’t ¿t where it’s supposed 

to. Then it’s up to the test coordinators 

to examine the item and reference any 

available drawings, commercial or 

military standards. The coordinators rel

on both commercial and government 

database systems that can provide 

technical data. 

“Sometimes it’s just a good oldfashioned phone call the coordinators 

make back to the users to ask them if we 

don’t have the technical data,” Meighan 

said. “They’ll make ĕorts to ¿nd out 

what the item is, what it looks like and if 

pictures can be obtained.”

“We’ve had depot stock get frozen 

This fuel tank appears to conform to standards. 

The inset image shows how incorrect packaging 

can damage the tank. This particular damage 

revealed a commercial item painted to appear 

to be a military-grade item. 
Loglines O November - December 2016 

— even had backorders,” Grady said. 

“Sometimes, we really need this item 

and the delay started because we had a 

problem with the contract in the past.” 

Van Sickler expounded on Grady’s 

explanation, referring to the items as 

“litigated material.”

“We’ve gone out to look at an item and 

discovered the problems that happened 

in the past are no longer happening,” Van 

Sickler said. “That frees up that material 

into our value stream and improves our 

war¿ghters’ readiness, because it gets 

them that material they need.”

Fosnaught said another program to 

assist when technical data is not available 

is Operation Chain Reaction, used by the 

Department of Defense and other government agencies to target counterfeit items.

“The Defense Criminal Investigative 

Service has come to us and said, μHey, 

we know there’s something up with this, 

and you guys have got to ¿gure this out,’” 

Meighan said. “On a few occasions, we’ve 

gone through the full blown inspection 

only to ¿nd out there’s nothing wrong.” 

If an item is still suspect, further 

investigation may be necessary to determine if the item could be from a bad batch 

that’s been in depot stock for a while. 

If an item is tested and is determined 

to be ¿ne, the problem resolves itself. 

But the test coordinators also rely on 

each other’s expertise if they know 

there’s a problem but can’t determine the 

nonconformity issue. 

“Steven, Joe and I reach out to each 

other when we’re stumped,” Grady said. 

“And Reuben has a direct pipeline to the 

U.S. Army Tank Automotive Command 

people. So when I’ve got some bizarre 

thing here and I can’t ¿nd any technical 

data on it, I’ll often reach out to Reuben 

and say, μHey, Reuben, can you ¿nd me 

some tech data on this Army part?’ And 

he’ll get some information for me so I can 

move forward.” 

“We certainly are diverse in our backgrounds,” Manta said. “Jĕ and I came 

from test labs — one that was out in Trac

and one that was out in New Cumberland 

and of course, Reuben and Steve were 

both forward product specialists prior to 

becoming forward test coordinators.”

Manta said the breadth of their overa

knowledge and capabilities is extensive.

“We can handle a lot of dĭerent 

situations, and as Jĕ said, we feed ŏ

each other and help each other to come 

up with tech data solutions,” he said. 

Martinez said another challenge is 

that technical drawings for materials 

often change and the test coordinators 

are not aware of the alterations. 

Grady said he learned that lesson ear

on, but it still happens to him occasionall

“I’m looking at an item, and it’s not 

just ŏ by a few fractions of an inch — it

way ŏ. And you wonder, μIs this thing 

suspect?’” he said. “You start digging 

through all the drawings and ¿nd out th

is an older item, and what you’ve got is a 

newer drawing.” 

Sometimes a part is the right one, bu

there’s been a marking error, Grady said

“There are a lot false positives that 

you have to weed out before you say, 

μAha, I’ve got one!’ ... You have to be 

very careful with what you say and do on 

some of these inspections before you run 

around like Chicken Little.” 

Grady said the DLA Distribution 

Center San Joaquin allows him the luxu

of comparing suspect items with items i

prime condition. Although some items 

are prepackaged with technical data 

included, most are not. 

“You can’t blame the depot people 

if there’s something that we ¿nd that 

they don’t, because it’s the nature of the 

beast,” Grady said. “They would never 

know that something was up unless they 

had that holistic look at all the stock. Bu

I take it upon myself sometimes to look 

all the material I possibly can.” 

This “U” joint kit depicts the various featur

and complexity of items that test coordinato

are required to inspect and test. 
28 www.dla.mil

Grady provided the example of inspecting an item called a train warning bell. 

“At ¿rst I wondered what we were 

doing with government trains,” he said. 

“I really dug into the drawings and tech 

data and found out that it’s a warning bell 

for a ship-mounted gun that rings when 

the gun is training left or right.” 

Another challenge is items that 

are built incorrectly and have a lot of 

dĭerent parts. Test coordinators have to 

make the determination: Is it a suspect 

item or just poorly manufactured?

“There are times we can pick out 

items that are made poorly. You can see 

poor workmanship, you can see worn out 

tools, messed up threads and you can 

see square holes,” Grady said. “There’s 

no malicious intent; they just did a just a 

sloppy job of making the item.”

Grady said a product specialist once 

asked him about a particular supplier of 

sextants, a Navy tool used for navigation 

still used for training purposes.

“The ones that were correct were 

beautiful; they were in a beautiful case, 

had all the goodies that came with them, 

the instruction manuals — everything,” 

he said. “Then there was the stŭ they 

were concerned about that was a really 

bad knock-ŏ — a blatant substitute.” 

The test coordinators often don’t 

know what the discrepancy is unless they 

compare the technical speci¿cations with 

the correct product.

“Those are the easy ones,” Grady said. 

“It’s the ones where you’ve got a dĭerent 

paint color, a dĭerent location where 

something is marked — or something that 

just doesn’t look right.” 

Grady cited his experience with 

another part, a crank arm that ¿ts onto 

an aircraft. 

“A bell crank is what it’s called. And 

I’ve got the real deal from Boeing that’s 

hermetically sealed, super well-made and 

painted red,” Grady said. “I’ve got these 

items that are from another supplier 

where the packaging is ok, but they’re 

painted green.”

Grady said he went through all the 

speci¿cations to discover what color 

should the bell cranks should actually be.

“They were supposed to be red back 

when McDonnell Douglas made them 

before Boeing took them over in 1984. 

But now, Boeing changed all the specs, 

and I can’t ¿nd the paint color,” he said. 

“I’ve told the product specialists I’ve gone 

as far as I can, and I can’t ¿nd out why 

the paint is green.”

The inspections the test coordinators 

perform are of a preventive nature and 

resolved in dĭerent ways, Fosnaught 

said. Regardless, the results are put into a 

test report and submitted to supply chain 

managers, who may have to perform 

further investigations.

“The supply chain managers interpret 

the usability of the item, and they may 

even reach out to the engineering activities 

if they’re unaware,” Fosnaught said. “We 

try to get some relief and assurance using 

Operation Chain Reaction to help us 

contact manufacturers.”

Operation Chain Reaction is an 

initiative that targets counterfeit items 

entering the supply chains of the DoD 

and other government agencies. But 

sometimes even the current manufacture

is unaware of the original speci¿cations f

an item, Fosnaught said. 

“Even when we go to Chain 

Reaction about items and they go to 

the manufacturer, the manufacturer 

may say, μI bought this company 10 

years ago, and it’s been a business for 

150 years; I can’t tell you if it’s the right 

item,’” Fosnaught said.

Grady’s ¿nal example concerned 

a Japanese-manufactured gas 

tank that’s made to go on a water 

puri¿cation system.

“It ¿ts the fuel tank for a diesel 

engine,” Grady said. “We got complaints 

from the customer, saying it doesn’t 

have the right fuel gauge; in fact, it failed 

tests at the Columbus test lab.”

Grady said when he did a physical 

inspection, he discovered the problem.

“The customer is looking for an 

external fuel tank gauge and all of my fu

tanks were internal.”

The Army tech manual sketches 

showed both internal and external 

con¿gurations while the manufacturer’s 

drawings showed only internal gauges, 

just like the one Grady was inspecting. 

“So it was more that I had a conÀict 

with my tech data that I could not 

resolve,” he said. “I also highlighted 

where the tech data was, in my opinion, 

in error.”

Van Sickler said the product 

specialists will usually coordinate with 

the engineering support activity and hav

the publications updated and corrected. 

“This also happens with drawings, 

when we see inconsistencies,” he said. 

Manta said much of the assistance 

the coordinators provide is based on the

speci¿c areas of expertise. 

“I came from DLA Distribution 

headquarters as the receiving >subject 

matter expert@, so I help the receiving 

people,” he said. “And Steve is probably 

the biggest advocate of bare item 

markings; material gets litigated because 

there are no bare item markings. So we’r

also educators in speci¿c areas as well.” 

Conforming bolt and nonconforming bolt; the 

conforming one contains the yellow self-locking 

pellet. The nonconforming one has a yellow 

spray mark. 
Loglines LoglinesOONovember - December 2016 November - December 2016 2

A Conversation with . . . DLA Public Affai

Some readers may know the JLOC 

coordinates Defense Logistics 

Agency’s activities in supporting 

the war¿ghter providing humanitarian assistance and helping with 

disaster relief. What activities does 

the JLOC not manage? 

I think it’s important that people 

know we don’t manage the day-to-day 

interaction between the primary-level 

¿eld activities, regional commands and 

the military services as far as routine 

supply support and logistics services. 

The organizations in garrison or 

deployed are being supported by DLA 

and stă every day without needing 

our help.

We’re really involved in their work by 

exception. When there’s a problem we 

make sure the people who need to know 

about it have the information necessary 

to make decisions. Or if new requirements emerge that are signi¿cant, we 

make sure that information is in the 

hands of the organization in DLA that 

needs to react to it. But as to the daily 

activities of our ¿eld activities — they do 

what they do very well, and they don’t 

need our oversight for that.

But does the JLOC have visibility 

over all those daily activities going 

on out in the ¿eld?

It can, but only to the level necessary 

based on the situation. As an example, 

there are times when ¿nancial issues 

become important — for example, when 

DLA recently provided humanitarian 

assistance involving a certain type of 

fund. Tracking whether we received 

those funds from the combatant command is a big issue; it allows us to start 

providing the support. So we oversee by 

exception. We may need to get involved 

in details to the point where the 

problem is resolved and the PLFA or the 

combatant command is able to resume 

its usual operations.

The JLOC tracks business metrics. 

DON BRUCE

The deputy chief of the Joint Logistics Operations Center 

discusses its role in planning and coordinating contingency 

operations and other activities for the agency. 

Those metrics are shared in a daily 

executive summary that goes out to the 

senior leadership and provides a good 

measure of the agency’s overall performance. In addition to business metrics, 

the summary also provides updates 

on key operational highlights that are 

received from across the enterprise.

So on one hand the JLOC is like 

a team of ¿re¿ghters but on the 

other hand it’s like a dashboard for 

the senior leaders?

Yes, in a sense. Not everything the 

agency does requires the detailed 

oversight of the JLOC. We get involved 

where we’re needed, to make sure the 

agency’s ĕort is synchronized across the 

various organizations. So where there 

needs to be information sharing or decisions that ăect more than one PLFA or 

the services or the combatant command

— then we’ll be involved up to the point 

the decisions are made and everyone 

knows the way forward. And then we let 

them do what they need to do.

What determines when DLA is goin

to assist another agency such as 

the U.S. Agency for International 

Development the )ederal 

Emergency Management Agency o

the U.S. )orest Service? And what’s 

the JLOC’s role when that happens?

DLA routinely ¿lls requisitions 

for the Forest Service without JLOC 

Don Bruce, deputy chief of the Joint Logistics Operations Center.
30 www.dla.mil

A Conversation with . . .

involvement. However, there’s a 

separate division of Logistics Operations 

— the Whole of Government Division 

— that has liaison ȯcers with USAID, 

with the Army Corps of Engineers, 

FEMA and the Forest Service. New 

requirements that occur outside the 

normal ordering process usually Àow 

through our Whole of Government 

liaison ȯcers and are coordinated with 

the appropriate supply chain managers. 

Now if there’s a natural disaster or 

some other emergency in the United 

States or its territories, and FEMA 

is providing support, we are often 

called on to support FEMA. Within 

the continental United States, U.S. 

Northern Command would be providing Department of Defense support, 

and DLA would be supporting FEMA 

through them. In those situations, we 

start treating it like a unique operation 

and we may deploy a DLA Support 

Team while responding to emergency 

requests for supplies or services. 

For example, for the recent 

Àooding in Louisiana, we deployed 

an element of the DLA Distribution 

Depot Expeditionary >force@ down to 

Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. 

For that, we published an execute order 

that provided guidance and direction 

to the stă, and in that case to DLA 

Distribution as well. It told them what 

we’re going to do, how we’re going to do 

it and who’s responsible for what. 

So the nature of the request dictates 

how we assist other agencies.

Is the process dĭerent when it’s 

humanitarian assistance outside 

the United States?

It is, in that the JLOC assists the 

liaison ȯcers by serving as the 

switchboard that connects the customer 

to the PLFAs. Ultimately, the JLOC will 

collect information from the customer, 

LNOs, regional commands and the 

PLFAs in order to present it to senior 

leaders so they can provide guidance as 

the situation develops. 

Just this spring DLA provided 

humanitarian assistance to refugees 

in Iraq, Syria and Jordan. DLA was 

working with the State Department, 

USAID and other interagency partners 

to determine what the refugees needed, 

buying that material, sourcing it and 

delivering it to the region and turning 

it over to the nongovernmental 

organizations, who actually provided it 

to the refugees. 

It was an operation that took 

cooperation between various elements 

of DLA — the Whole of Government 

Division, Finance, Troop Support and 

other supply centers who were sourcing 

the material, and DLA Distribution, 

which was helping deliver it. The JLOC 

was involved in orchestrating that 

whole ĕort.

We have a formal agreement with 

)EMA don’t we?

We do. We have an interagency 

agreement with FEMA that spells out 

roles and relationships. And we have 

pre-scripted mission assignments so 

that FEMA has a menu of things we 

can do for them. It helps expedite our 

support in an emergency situation.

Of all the activities and operations

the JLOC has a hand in what 

would you say is the one that’s least 

recognized by the DLA workforce? 

I think a lot of people, when they think 

of JLOC, think of that room with the big 

screens on the wall, the battle caption 

and the 24/7 operations tracking what’s 

going on. But it’s more than that. There 

are actually three branches. 

The Plans, Exercises and 

Readiness Branch handles a long 

list of functions and activities from 

the agency’s mission-essential task 

list. It orchestrates mission analysis 

and concept development in crisis 

situations. It plans and coordinates 

DLA participation in joint exercises 

like Ardent Sentry and Turbo 

Distribution, and produces the 

director’s annual operational training 

and exercise guidance and schedule. 

And then there’s the group’s oversight 

over the Defense Readiness Reporting 

System, the joint operational planning 

process, orders development and 

publication, doctrine review, and the 

joint stă action process.

In addition, our Mission Support 

Branch handles the policy, process 

and oversight for sourcing, training, 

equipping and deploying individuals 

and teams supporting contingency and 

humanitarian assistance/ disaster relief 

operations. That includes managing the 

Global Response Force DST program.

And ¿nally, the Current Operations 

Branch coordinates involvement, when 

it’s needed, in those contingencies we 

just talked about, whether in the United 

States or overseas. They also process 

Critical Information Requirements from 

The Joint Logistics Operations Center. 
Loglines Loglines O November - December 2016 November - December 2016 

DLA Public Affai

major issues impacting the DLA mission, 

and even things like when an employee 

is injured while on deployment.

Speaking of those big screens 

on the wall: What kinds of 

information are those showing? 

They show multiple data streams 

that include the health of the overall 

information technology infrastructure; 

current global weather and weather 

modeling; news, especially on disaster 

events; items related to the movement 

of materials; secret and unclassi¿ed 

video teleconferencing; Defense 

Collaboration Service conferencing; 

and standard and short-fused brie¿ngs.

How did DLA manage its nonstandard operations before the 

JLOC was established? 

The JLOC in some form has 

been around since the agency 

began in 1961, though it was 

much smaller. The mission and 

structure have grown signi¿cantly 

as the mission has matured. 

When I was here on active 

duty from 1998 to 2001, we 

didn’t even have a Current 

Operations Branch. JLOC 

was organized by combatant 

commands, with each team 

doing everything on its own — 

very stovepiped. We realized you 

can’t suddenly, in the middle 

of a crisis, reorganize to focus 

on current operations and the 

division was reorganized. 

Then just a few years ago, 

the director realized we needed 

to be able to do this 24 hours a 

day, seven days a week. Before 

Operation Enduring Freedom, it 

was just a normal work day. Once 

OEF began, it became an extended 

work day, from about 5 a.m. to 

about 8 p.m., along with about six 

hours on the weekend and a stă

person on call during the ŏ hours. 

But now it’s 24 hours, and I don’t 

see it ever going back. 

What’s the makeup of the JLOC 

stă?

Current Operations has 17 active 

duty military, about 12 Reservists, 

three civilians in the JLOC and four 

civilian LNOs in other locations. The 

military members rotate into and out 

of the JLOC. All the active duty folks 

are in logistics ratings; the Reservists’ 

backgrounds vary.

Then there’s the battle captain, a 

seasoned ȯcer who manages and 

analyzes current operations information 

as it comes in and takes action on it. 

The actions vary from determining who 

needs to know information and passing 

it on, to bringing stakeholders into the 

conversation when something comes up

The battle captain also plays a key role 

in ¿elding, analyzing and disseminating 

the commander’s critical information 

requirements and recurring products li

the daily Global Update, daily Executive 

Summary and Common Operational 

Picture - War¿ghter. The Mission 

Support Team comprises another three 

active duty personnel and four civilians

ensuring deploying personnel are taken 

care of. Plans, Exercises and Readiness 

rounds us out with two more active dut

members and 21 civilians, addressing o

support to combatant command plans, 

exercises, and readiness reporting. 

What JLOC capabilities are 

available to the war¿ghter or 3L)

that they may not be aware of?

If the PLFA or war¿ghter needs to ge

hold of a key senior leader quickly the 

JLOC can connect them to that person.

What practices can the rest of DLA 

adopt that would help you and yo

stă e[ecute your mission?

What makes sense to you may not mak

perfect sense to the parties you are trying 

to inform. Explain yourself in a manner 

that any person could understand. 

Dianne Ryder
32 www.dla.mil

Story by Ken MacNevin, 

DLA Disposition Services Public Affairs

A mine resistant, ambush protected vehicle was used 

to extract people day and night from flooded areas 

in Florence County, North Carolina.

— Photo Courtesy Florence County North Carolina Sheriff’s Department

o program in the Defense 

Logistics Agency touches 

as many people as the 

congressionally established law 

enforcement support program, 

and none has gotten more media and 

public attention. 

Natural disasters, lives saved 

and people rescued — along with the 

infrequent and tragic loss of life — have 

all played a role in shaping the program 

and how it is viewed by the public. 

So too has the coverage by the news 

media — coverage that has sometimes 

contained inaccuracies about the origins of 

the program and the equipment it includes. 

A LITTLE HISTORY

DLA did not invent the program.

The program is based on Section 

1033 of the 1997 National Defense 

Authorization Act, with 8,000 law 

enforcement agencies active in the 

program today.

The ¿rst decade of the modern “1033 

program” was fairly quiet. Initially, it was 

operated by the Ȯce of the Secretary of 

Defense before being handed ŏ to DLA 

headquarters and ¿nally coming to Batt

Creek, Michigan, where what was then 

the Defense Reutilization and Marketing 

Service — now DLA Disposition Services 

— was already managing reuse of excess 

military property. The program is now 

implemented by the Law Enforcement 

Support Ȯce.

For several years the LESO team 

and its implementation of Congress’s 

1033 program received little notice in 

the media. As word spread about the 

program, law enforcement agencies 

began to use to the program more often 

— especially after the recession started t

reduce their limited budgets. 

SHEDDING LIGHT

A FOCUSED LOOK AT LAW ENFORCEMENT SUPPORT

o

L

a

c

e N

d

32 www.dla.mil
Loglines O November - December 2016 

Rescues during floods in Tennessee were ma

using a Zodiac boat.

— Photo Courtesy Nashville, Tennessee, Metro Police Departm

There was a scattering of stories and 

inquiries about agencies acquiring what 

critics felt were unusual items or excessive 

amounts of property. Some raised 

questions about how it was being used.

But public interest ran in the 

background, and almost all news about 

the program was neutral and remained 

local until May 2009. 

INCREASED MEDIA INTEREST

Then the Boston Globe reported 

that its hometown had acquired 200 

M-16 riÀes. Follow-up Globe stories 

cited objections to arming large 

numbers of police ȯcers with military 

¿rearms. Then the Globe published 

a statewide town-by-town listing of 

¿rearms allocated by the 1033 program 

across Massachusetts.

Other New England media outlets 

soon reported the Boston story. 

More and more media asked DLA for 

information on what had been allocated 

in their region or community.

Statewide media in California and 

Texas followed suit, and soon the phrase 

“police militarization” became common in 

the news.

Public interest grew along with 

program participation. 

Then the Associated Press undertook a 

nationwide review, in which a team of AP 

writers made multiple requests for records 

of what the program had allocated. They 

interviewed sources in multiple states. 

“Little restraint in military giveaways to 

program” was the headline for one AP 

story at the end of July 2013.

Over 1,400 daily U.S. newspapers are 

AP members, along with thousands of 

radio and TV stations. So that AP story le

to newspapers and broadcasters across th

country wanting details on what LESO ha

provided law enforcement in their region 

or circulation areas. 

The AP story came right on the heels 

of a book by journalist Radley Balko 

called “Rise of the Warrior Cop: The 

Militarization of America’s Police Forces

It covered the law enforcement support 

Loglines O November - December 2016 
34 www.dla.mil

program, and the “1033 program” was 

mentioned speci¿cally six times in the 

249 pages.

In June 2014 The American Civil 

Liberties Union published a study titled 

“War Comes Home: The Excessive 

Militarization of American Policing.” 

It too made multiple references to the 

1033 program.

In the summer of 2014, a record 

number of law enforcement agencies 

were active customers of the program, 

and media interest continued to grow. 

Commentaries and national and 

international news coverage and blogs 

were part of the daily reading matter at 

DLA Headquarters and for the LESO sta

at DLA Disposition Services.

FERGUSON

August 2014 saw a major turning poi

in coverage of the program, as the media 

focused on unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. 

Live coverage showed police ȯcers 

in military-style uniforms. They wore 

military-style gear over their uniforms. 

They carried riÀes that looked like curren

military carbines. One police ȯcer sat o

a military style armored truck watching a 

crowd through a riÀe sight.

Ferguson quieted eventually, but 

scrutiny of the law enforcement support 

program was just beginning. 

Around 300 news media queries 

about the law enforcement support 

program came to DLA in the month 

following the shooting in Ferguson. 

A public ăairs ȯcial at DLA Headquarters said the volume of queries on 

a single subject had exceeded the total 

number of media queries on all subjects 

the agency had handled in the entire 

year before.

The questions were not about the 

circumstances of the death that sparked 

the protests. No military-style equipmen

had been involved in that shooting.

This mine resistant, ambush protecte

vehicle allocated to the Mission, Texas, poli

department took 27 rounds of AK-47 fire duri

a standoff outside a home.

Photo Courtesy Mission, Texas, Police Department

34 www.dla.mil
Loglines O November - December 2016 

It did not matter that the small 

Ferguson Police Department itself had 

received only two Humvees, a generator 

and a Àatbed trailer from LESO. It did not 

matter that the armored truck prominent 

in images of the unrest was a commercial 

armored truck not issued by LESO. 

Based on thousands of news queries 

and subsequent news stories, what ended 

up mattering were the concerns about 

how civilian law enforcement ȯcers 

were responding to all kinds of situations 

around the country. Military-style gear, 

sometimes actual gear obtained through 

the 1033 program, became a common 

element of images and videos of police 

activities. In some cases, the concerns 

were for safety for both the public and law 

enforcement ȯcers. In many the concern 

boiled down to “police militarization.”

CONGRESS RECONSIDERS 

ITS PROGRAM

Between the AP story, the Balko book 

and the ACLU report, the stă of the 

LESO had already been responding to 

numerous requests for information about 

their program and its system of controls for 

months before the events of August 2014. 

After Ferguson, that demand intensi¿ed 

and soon included requests from both 

committees and individual members of the 

U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

Similar were the requests for 

information from the most senior levels of 

the military and civilian chain of command. 

Congress held two hearings to take 

another look at the very program it had 

created and required Department of 

Defense to implement.

On Sept. 9, 2014, the U.S. Senate 

Committee on Homeland Security and 

Governmental Ăairs held a hearing 

on “Oversight of Federal Programs 

for Equipping State and Local Law 

Enforcement.”

Then on Nov. 13, 2014, the House 

Armed Services Committee held a 

hearing on “The Department of Defense 

Excess Property Program in Support 

of U.S. Law Enforcement Agencies: An 

Overview of DoD Authorities, Roles, 

Responsibilities, and Implementation 

of Section 1033 of the 1997 National 

Defense Authorization Act.”

Although both hearings included a 

robust discussion of the program from 

all perspectives, neither led to legislation that required or permitted changes 

to the program.

WORKING GROUP REFORMS

However, the LESO stă was providing 

information and statistics that would 

become part of a report issued in December 

2014 by the White House, called Federal 

Support for Local Law Enforcement 

Equipment Acquisition. 

One of its recommendations was a 

presidential executive order to move ahead 

on increased coordination between all par

of the federal governmental dealing with 

state and local law enforcement agencies. 

Executive Order 13688 was the result, 

issued in January 2015. It created the Law 

Enforcement Working Group, of which 

DoD was a member, with the involvement 

of DLA LESO. 

In May 2015, the working group 

issued 24 pages of recommendations in 

its 50-page report. 

The recommendations covered four 

broad areas: the de¿nitions of prohibite

or controlled equipment; policies, 

training and protocols for controlled 

equipment; the acquisition process for 

controlled equipment; and oversight, 

compliance and implementation.

The prohibited equipment list 

identi¿ed categories of equipment that 

should not be authorized for LEAs to 

acquire with federal funds or through 

the 1033 program. 

Of seven items on that list, only 

three had been allocated to law 

enforcement agencies under the 1033 

program. Those were armored vehicles 

that use tracks instead of wheels, 

LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION

Federal Support for Local Law 

Enforcement Equipment Acquisition

http://go.usa.gov/xKtQm

Law Enforcement Working Group 

Recommendations Report:

http://go.usa.gov/xKtQy

Executive Order 13688:

http://go.usa.gov/xKtQ9

DLA LESO:

http://go.usa.gov/xKtQp

Law enforcement agencies can also acqu

some property from DLA through norm

channels for property donation. That’s ho

Tommy the Horse went to Yuma, Arizona, aft

he retired from helping pull caissons at a S

Antonio, Texas, military cemetery.

Jeff Landenberger
36 www.dla.mil

grenade launchers and bayonets. After 

the working group recommendations 

were accepted, the 1033 program 

undertook a recall of those items. 

The tracked vehicles were all variants 

of the Cold War-era M-133 armored 

personnel carriers, and 126 were 

returned. The grenade launchers were all 

Vietnam-era M-79 single shot ¿rearms, 

and 138 were returned. The bayonets 

were ĕectively heavy-duty knives with 

a single blade several inches long, that 

could be carried in a sheath or attached to 

the ends of some riÀes. Law enforcement 

agencies returned 1,623 bayonets.

The recommended controlled 

equipment list included several kinds of 

equipment the program had allocated 

to law enforcement, including ¿xedwing aircraft, helicopters, Humvees 

and mine-resistant, ambush-protected 

vehicles known as MRAPs. Law enforcement agencies can retain those they have 

and other controlled items by meeting 

justi¿cation and approval criteria.

The Policies, Training, and Protocols 

for Controlled Equipment section of the 

recommendations contained serval areas 

relating to recordkeeping, training and 

after-action reviews program participants 

will have to follow.

The Acquisition Process for Controlled 

Equipment section also included areas affecting the 1033 program. One requires law 

enforcement agencies to include evidence 

that the agency’s civilian governing body 

reviewed and approved or concurred in the 

acquisition of controlled items.

A section on transfer, sale, return 

and disposal of controlled equipment 

included several areas that govern what 

law enforcement agencies can do with the 

equipment when they no long want or 

need it, and speci¿ed the situations that 

would require the agency to come to the 

LESO for guidance or approval.

The ¿nal major section of 

recommendations dealt with oversight, 

compliance and implementation, and 

also touched on 1033 program operations 

in several areas. It also put the word 

“Permanent” in front of the name of the 

Law Enforcement Working Group to 

continue coordinated federal review of 

management of controlled property.

THE PROGRAM TODAY

Carlos Torres has run LESO since 

November 2012. He spent several weeks 

at DLA headquarters during the time the 

working group wrote its recommendations, coordinating that activity with 

senior DLA and DoD ȯcials. 

“The program is better today as a result 

of the oversight measures, controls and 

transparency we have implemented in 

recent years,” Torres said. “Those improvements extend up and down, and with local 

civil authority approval now required ther

is local, state and federal oversight — so th

public can learn about what’s going on at a

levels of the program.” 

“We’re also working hard to educate 

participating law enforcement agencies 

through their state coordinators so 

they understand what they have to do 

meet the oversight and accountability 

requirements,” Torres said.

Information about items currently 

allocated to law enforcement down to the 

local level is available on the DLA website

“And to bolster transparency at the 

front end of the process, people can also 

access online lists of controlled items th

law enforcement agencies have requeste

on the same part of the DLA public 

webpage,” Torres said.

“There are people alive today who mig

have died if local law enforcement agencie

didn’t have equipment they got from the 

1033 program on hand the moment an 

emergency occurred,” said DLA Dispositio

Services Director Mike Cannon. “The 

recent changes to property controls and 

procedures are intended to help maintain 

that response capability while speaking t

the concerns of those who want to avoid 

militarization of civil society.” 

A Kalamazoo County, Michigan, Sheriff

Department diver goes over the side wh

getting familiar with a boat acquired throug

the Law Enforcement Support Office program
Loglines O November - December 2016 

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY STRATEGIC PLAN GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

HIRE, DEVELOP AND RETAIN A HIGH-PERFORMING, 

VALUED, RESILIENT AND ACCOUNTABLE WORKFORCE 

THAT DELIVERS SUSTAINED MISSION EXCELLENCE

PEOPLE AND 

CULTURE
38 www.dla.mil

I AM

My name is:

Patricia Komondy.

I am: 

The lead training coordinator at DLA Disposition Services at Battle Creek, Michigan, 

and cultural point of contact for Native American peoples.

Describe your job in a sentence: 

I lead a team providing training support for all of DLA Disposition Services.

How long have you worked at DLA?

 I’ve been a full time employee since 2004 but began working for DLA as a contractor 

two years earlier.

What is your favorite thing about working for DLA? 

I’ve had the opportunity to hold some very interesting positions, and I’ve been able to 

work with some amazing individuals all over the world, including senior leaders at DLA.

What are your best memories of working here?

My family’s heritage includes the Mohawk, Cherokee, Cree and Powhatan tribes, 

and I’ve been able to educate our workforce about the rich culture, history and 

accomplishments of Native American people.

I organized an event on the importance of protecting Michigan’s 

water, including lakes and rivers, from pipeline leaks and other 

pollution. I brought in two speakers from local Native American 

communities. One talked about his work in the political realm, 

including the governor of Michigan. The other talked about water 

protection from a traditional Native perspective. The event was 

packed. And when it ran long, the directors of Disposition Services 

and Logistics Information Services chose to delay an important 

meeting rather than leave early.

,ŽǁĚŽLJŽƵŵĂŬĞĂĚŝīĞƌĞŶĐĞ͍

I hope I make a difference by supporting employees and 

warfighters so they can accomplish their daily mission. I try to treat 

each employee with respect and professionalism, and to meet 

their needs in a timely fashion or direct them to someone who can. I also hope I’ve made 

difference in educating and enlightening workforce as to history and accomplishments of 

Native American people.

Patricia Komondy