DLA is ‘Top Gun’ for Printing
Moviegoers may catch a glimpse of the Defense Logistics Agency’s print work when they see the sequel to the 1986 “Top Gun” film in theaters this summer.
Employees from DLA’s print facility at Naval Air Station North Island, California, produced posters for a squadron that offered its offices and hangar as a filming location for the movie.
Wanting to fill empty wall space and make the area look movie-ready, the squadron commander called on DLA for a quick-turnaround order before filming started. Within a few hours, DLA employees printed, mounted and laminated posters that display the squadron’s mission, vision, priorities and focus areas.
“They always come to us for their orders because they know we will get it right and right away,” said Vince Farina, supervisor of DLA’s NASNI print facility.
— Amber McSherry
DLA Information Operations
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Hurricane Recovery Continues at Tyndall AFB
In early January, Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services contractors removed an estimated 2 million pounds of scrap metal from hurricane-ravaged Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, with 13 million pounds to go.
“It was a bomb zone ... I’ve never seen such devastation in my life,” said Dave Morgan, area manager for DLA Disposition Services at Eglin Air Force Base. The installation lies about 90 miles northwest of Tyndall between Panama City and Mexico Beach, where Hurricane
Michael made landfall as a Category 3 storm Oct. 10.
Morgan had already seen plenty of storm damage as a native Floridian by the time he arrived with DLA’s Rapid Deployment Team four days after the storm, but the devastation at Tyndall was “much, much worse,” he said.
Work space at Tyndall is limited and military offices are constantly shifting location, adding an extra layer of difficulty to communication and coordination, said Mark Miskin, an Eglin-based disposal support representative.
Infrastructure damage is a lingering problem for Tyndall. The post office is gone. DLA Document Services … gone. Even the staging area that the installation had given the Eglin disposition crew for conducting on-site property inspections: gone.
Of the nearly 750 buildings or structures on site, installation officials estimate that more than 450 will eventually be demolished. To help facilitate and provide storage, DLA Distribution shipped six 40-foot containers, 21 20-foot containers, 85 ISU-90 containers and a mobile office.
DLA Disposition Services may also assist Eglin personnel in overseeing the demilitarization of two storm-damaged QF-16 drones and three F-15 and F-16 static displays. The planes are too wide and tall to simply be moved from one side of the base to the other, said Morgan, who expects slicing off wing tips and making other necessary accommodations while moving the planes to be “quite a process.”
— Jake Joy
DLA Disposition Services
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DLA Distribution San Diego Supports National Science Foundation Research
DLA Distribution San Diego’s satellite site at Port Hueneme, California, recently completed its annual packing, packaging, preservation and marking mission in support of the National Science Foundation’s “Operation Deep Freeze.”
Operation Deep Freeze is part of the Department of Defense’s commitment to deliver supplies to scientists conducting critical research on and around the continent of Antarctica, as well as other locations south of the equator, to include Antarctica’s McMurdo Station, Palmer Station and the South Pole, and Christchurch, New Zealand.
The site’s PPP&M Section, led by packing supervisor Michael Snead, supports the NSF’s mission throughout the year by preparing research materials and military equipment for shipment. It also builds customized pallets and crates and fabricates fiberboard boxes that must meet stringent guidelines for processing and shipment by vessel and military or commercial air to Antarctica and the South Pole.
The Port Hueneme team packaged more than 400 contain-ers in support of NSF in 2018, Snead said.
“These containers, along with wooden braces and footers, are manufactured to stabilize material to prevent damage during transport,” he added. “The containers consist mostly of building and packaging supplies, frozen and dry food, clothing and specialized material used by scientists to conduct their research while on assignment at various NSF locations.”
— William Kelker
DLA Distribution San Diego
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High School Students Learn Logistics at DLA Distribution Headquarters
As a retired Army Reserve lieutenant colonel, Karen Hudson is very familiar with Defense Logistics Agency Distribution’s mission. Near the end of her 30-year career, she was assigned to the organization’s Expeditionary Logistics Directorate and deployed for several months to Djibouti, Africa.
Hudson is now a teacher at Central York High School, where she teaches U.S. government and politics. As part of the curriculum, she took her students in December to DLA Distribution Headquarters in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, to give them a firsthand look at the concepts they’d learned in the classroom.
The students saw the integral role the organization plays in the military’s supply chain with help from DLA Distribution Chief of Staff Perry Knight. He also shared his own career background and emphasized the importance of future planning.
“You are the future of the nation,” he said. “You may not know where you’re going in the future, but now is the right time to start thinking about it.”
— DLA Distribution Public Affairs
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