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News | March 13, 2019

Troop Support leaders host Army Quartermaster General to discuss future battlefield requirements

By Alexandria Brimage-Gray Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support

Leaders from the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support hosted the Army Quartermaster General and employees from the Joint Culinary School of Excellence March 4 in Philadelphia to discuss future battlefield requirements.

Representatives from the Subsistence, Clothing and Textiles, Construction and Equipment, Medical and Industrial Hardware supply chains provided a brief overview of their business models and how they utilize their industry partners to meet the demands of their customers.

 “Our goal moving forward is to make sure that we understand our model, how we facilitate the requirements of the services and how to separate those requirements to ensure that we are able to facilitate our prime vendor lead times to ensure our service members are provided nutritious and quality food in a timely manner,” Army Col. Abel Young, Subsistence supply chain director said.

Army Brig. Gen. Douglas McBride, Jr., 55th Quartermaster General and commandant of the United States Army Quartermaster School asked the leaders around the table to discuss their performance metrics something he deemed critical to facilitate future battlefield requirements.

“I think operationally, everything that we are doing in the supply chains, if we can’t operationalize it, then we are high-fiving in the in zone,” Mc Bride said.  “Operationally, when you connect the tissue from tactical, operational, to strategic, there are different metrics at every echelon.

“On the battlefield, the next fight starts with the organic industry base, [and] ends in the deep area and all points in between,” McBride continued.

Army Brig. Gen. Mark Simerly, DLA Troop Support commander discussed the Campaign of Learning, a new initiative he started to engage the workforce in thinking clearly about future sustainment solutions by taking warfighter and industry best practices into consideration.  

“Through our Campaign of Learning we are trying to heighten awareness within our ranks of what we need to think, learn, analyze and communicate to modernize our supply chains in support of multi-domain operations and other service concepts,” Simerly said. “We plan to host members from the other services to spend most of the day with us, describing their concept of sustainment on the future battlefield so that we can generate [an] understanding on how to better posture our support to the battlefield of the future.”

McBride and his team’s visit ended with a guided tour of the Flag Room where presidential and vice-presidential flags are hand embroidered and the Product Test Center Analytical, where military clothing items are tested for color variations and fabric quality.