FORT BELVOIR, Va. –
The Defense Logistics Agency’s commander of regional combat support visited Army and Air Force leaders and DLA employees in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility during a tour of Jordan and Kuwait July 6-10.
During the trip, Navy Rear Adm. Doug Noble, who is also DLA’s director of logistics operations, toured operations at Joint Training Center-Jordan and Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, Jordan, and Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. As CENTCOM’s presence in the region evolves, Noble said it’s important to understand what support warfighters will require and where they will require it.
“Recent events in Europe have illustrated the criticality of DLA’s posture and presence in an AOR. We need to support the warfighter at the speed of relevance,” he said. “We have to ensure we’re postured to support the combatant commands’ operations and contingency plans.”
Noble was joined by Patrick Kelleher, DLA’s new executive director of operations; Army Col. Gerard Acosta, DLA CENTCOM & SOCOM commander; and Army Master Sgt. Felicia Hagler, DLA CENTCOM & SOCOM’s senior enlisted leader.
As the services continue to exercise their presence in Jordan, DLA will work with them to ensure they have what they need to operate effectively, Acosta said. That could mean revised operational constructs for DLA Support Team-Middle East, the hub of DLA operations in the region, headquartered at Camp Arifjan, with one liaison officer in Jordan.
“Last month, the DST sent an expert to Jordan to augment our LNO and expedite repair parts to warfighters at the Joint Training Center,” he said. “The response from the warfighter was clear: Having the LNO along with a technical expert was invaluable.”
In addition to meeting with leaders from Operation Inherent Resolve, Military Assistance Program-Jordan, the 35th Infantry Division, Area Support Group-Jordan, the 1st Theater Sustainment Command, the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, and the 135th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, the leaders made time to engage the DLA workforce in Kuwait. Noble recognized high-performing team members and shared his thoughts on DLA’s current operations and the way forward in the CENTCOM AOR.
“They’re doing great work over there,” he said. “The DST will continue to strategically align itself with CENTCOM’s warfighters to ensure there is no gap or degradation of support in theater. ‘Warfighter Always’ can’t just be words in our strategic plan; it has to be at the center of everything we do, and our team in the region truly embraces that.”