Mr. Steve Kinskie is the Deputy Commander of DLA Aviation, a major subordinate command of the Defense Logistics Agency. Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, and operating at 22 other sites across the United States and one location outside the continental U.S., DLA Aviation is the aviation demand and supply chain manager for Defense Logistics Agency.
Positioned alongside its military customers, DLA Aviation manages industrial support activities at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia; Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma; Hill Air Force Base, Utah; Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina; Naval Air Station North Island, California; and Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida. DLA Aviation also manages depot-level reparable procurement operations at Robins, Tinker and Hill Air Force Bases; Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) Weapon Systems Support, Philadelphia; and at Redstone Army Arsenal, Alabama. DLA Aviation also operates an industrial plant equipment maintenance, repair and overhaul facility at Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
Prior to his current position, Mr. Kinskie served with distinction as the Executive Director of the DLA Strategic Programs and Integration Directorate. In this role, he provided strategic planning, programming, budgeting, and oversight to shape and align DLA’s capabilities to meet future warfighter requirements, leading efforts to ensure DLA’s capability sets remain responsive to evolving warfighter missions and environments. His leadership included oversight of the Mission Assurance Division, Decision Advantage, Joint Plans and Exercises Division, Strategic Business Planning Division, and Strategic Plans and Futures Division. Notably, he spearheaded the development and publication of DLA’s inaugural Global Posture Plan and directed a critical agency-wide strategic planning initiative that identified $8B in sustainment gaps across the Services and Combatant Commands.
Mr. Kinskie also served previously as the Strategic Advisor to the Director of Logistics Operations (J3). In this role, he was responsible for developing and executing strategies to create outcomes for DLA’s global customer base through the synchronization and end-to-end management of the agency supply chains. He provided oversight of the agency performance assessments priorities and goals focused on customer outcomes.
His civilian career began after retiring from active-duty military service as a U.S. Navy Captain in 2014, following three years as Operations Officer, DLA Aviation, directing the activities of personnel across the organization to support planning, engineering, procurement, storage and distribution, and order management functions supporting its worldwide customers. He was responsible for the synchronization and end-to-end management of Aviation Supply and Demand chain operations.
During his 26 years on active duty in the U.S. Navy Supply Corps, Mr. Kinskie served in a variety of Supply Corps assignments. During his active-duty tenure, he served on five ships: USS Coral Sea (CV-43); USS Forrestal (CV-59); USS Robert G. Bradley (FFG-49); USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) and USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70). While ashore, he served as the Director of Operations Research, Naval Inventory Control Point, Philadelphia; Director of Readiness on the Staff of the Chief of Naval Operations; and ultimately as the Deputy Director, Ordnance and Logistics, U.S. Fleet Forces Command.
Mr. Kinskie holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of Washington, a Master of Science degree in National Resource Strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Fort McNair, Washington, D.C., and a Master of Science Degree in Operations Research from the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California.