COLUMBUS, Ohio –
Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime hosted 21 logistics officers from the Logistics Officer Association’s Wright Patterson Air Force Base Chapter April 20 fostering inter-agency support between the two Central Ohio organizations.
The visit to Defense Supply Center Columbus began with a presentation by DLA Land and Maritime Deputy Commander Kenneth Watson and DLA Land and Maritime Business Process Support Deputy Director Theresa Harris.
Attendees gained knowledge on DLA operations enterprise-wide to include its business models, industrial base, whole-of-government partners, and end-to-end global supply chain management – displaying how DLA is an integral element of the military logistics system.
“Whether we work for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, or the Defense Logistics Agency – we are all logisticians at our core,” he said. “We speak with a common language and mission to support our warfighters, to provide them with an unfair advantage on the battlefield. That unfair advantage is weapon system availability that is unimpeded by lack of the materiel required to sustain it, throughout its life cycle.”
The presentation also provided a deeper look into DLA Land and Maritime operations, showcasing its vast reach as one of the largest suppliers of weapon systems spare parts supporting land-based and maritime weapon systems, with associates in 30 locations around the world.
Watson and DLA Land and Maritime Chief of Staff Air Force Col. Craig Lowery joined the visiting logisticians for lunch and a roundtable discussion about challenges faced and the future of military logistics support. The DLA Land and Maritime leaders were able to provide best practices and lessons learned through a global lens, something Stacey Moore, a country support manager with the Air Force Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate at WPAFB, said will help him be a better logistician.
“What I have learned from this visit is the value in joint experience,” he said. “Having experience working with partnering countries, services and agencies helps build well-rounded logisticians.”
Watson said the purpose of these visits is just that.
“We must leverage every opportunity we have to improve our craft and share information on what is working, and where we need to improve,” he said. “Venues such as these help us to remove communication barriers while expanding our understanding of how each of our actions impacts logistics outcomes. We are all inextricably linked, and the better understanding of where those process touchpoints are, the better we can improve our support.”
Lowery echoed this sentiment.
“As a logistics community, it’s imperative that we collaborate and network as much as possible,” Lowery said. “At the end of the day, we’re all on the same team and building strong, lasting networks is key to progressing future requirements. And you never know when you’re going to make a call or send an email to that person you met to get items or services for a mission.”
The visit concluded with tours of the Mechanical Product Test Center and the Electronic Product Test Center, both co-located with DLA Land and Maritime on DSCC to fulfill testing requirements at the Inventory Control Point.
“It was a great feeling to have the opportunity to provide a brief on what we do and showcase DLA Land and Maritime’s capabilities at the Mechanical and Electrical labs to one of DLA’s primary customers,” Lowery said.
He added that the test labs on site provide a unique advantage, ensuring DLA Land and Maritime provides quality products to its customers. The logisticians were able to see firsthand how this is done.
“I have been a supply guy doing a variety of jobs throughout my 42-year career and this visit was extremely helpful in laying out DLA and what each area is responsible for,” said Rodney Hromada, technical director for the Directorate of Logistics, Civil Engineering, Force Protection and Nuclear Integration, Headquarters Air Force Materiel Command at WPAFB.
Hromada said the PTC tour gave him a better appreciation of DLA’s processes for evaluating items and detecting nonconforming material.
“The time it takes to write the programs and make gizmos to attach wires tells me you have top notch people working in those areas,” Hromada said.
Before departing, Air Force Capt. Joshua Heffley, a logistics manager for Indo-Pacific Foreign Military Sales with the Air Force Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate at WPAFB, took a moment to thank DLA Land and Maritime on behalf of the entire LOA WPAFB Chapter.
“We all gained a tremendous amount of knowledge about DLA and loved hearing the [senior leadership] perspective on a number of logistics concerns. We hope to do this again in the future,” Heffley said.