KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany –
The new commander of Defense Logistics Agency Europe & Africa will serve as the entry point for DLA’s warfighter support to U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command.
“You are it … the single commander and the single DLA face to those customers,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Allan Day, DLA Logistics Operations director, told Army Col. Krista Hoffman during a change of command ceremony June 26 in Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Hoffman took command from Army Col. Theodore Shinkle and will support customers with “the power of DLA’s nine supply chains,” Day said.
DLA Europe & Africa’s support covers 55.8 million square miles and 104 nations, and includes food, fuel, repair parts, construction materials and medical supplies, as well as distribution and disposition services.
The regional command’s more than 700 service members, civilian employees and local nationals have “earned not only a reputation for on-time delivery of goods and services, but also for being a ready and responsive mission enabler,” Day said.
Shinkle said DLA Europe & Africa works with combatant commands to “achieve readiness effects together.”
“It’s been an absolute privilege to share in that mission,” said Shinkle, who will go to Army Materiel Command in Huntsville, Alabama. “I take great pride by simply being associated with what this workforce has done.”
Hoffman previously served as deputy commander for the DLA regional command serving U.S. CENTCOM & SOCOM. She also commanded DLA Distribution Europe in Germesheim, Germany, from 2014-2016.
She noted how much DLA Europe & Africa has evolved since her last DLA assignment in Germany.
“It’s really something to see how far this organization has progressed,” she said, “not just in relevance but also in criticality in meeting current mission requirements and setting the EUCOM and AFRICOM theaters for future missions.”