Army Sustainment Command’s top enlisted visits logistics provider

PHILADELPHIA –

As the senior enlisted leader of the Army’s primary logistics support provider to units in the field, Army Sustainment Command’s newly assigned Command Sgt. Maj. Marco Torres said he strives to serve the soldiers under his command and make sure they get what they need to get the mission done.

To further that goal, and see where many of the Army’s sustainment solutions come from, Torres visited the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support in Philadelphia Jan. 10 where he received an in-depth look at the services and partnership the agency provides.

“I think I learned more in one day than I’ve learned, probably, in the past couple of years,” Torres said.

Army Sgt. Majs. Marco Torres, left, and Fu Pi, center, listen as DLA Troop Support Industrial Hardware Director of Supplier Operations Gary Shifton explains IH’s role in tracking Army ground forces readiness drivers Jan. 10, 2020, in Philadelphia. Torres, newly assigned Command Sgt. Maj. of Army Sustainment Command, and Pi were educated on the logistics and sustainment support DLA Troop Support provides in partnership with its Army customers.

Torres, along with the 406th Army Field Sustainment Brigade Sgt. Maj. Fu Pi, were provided an overview of DLA and Troop Support operations to start their day. The meeting was peppered with questions from the sergeant majors and gave each a better idea of how the agency integrates its processes to provide materiel to soldiers.

“[The discussion provided] more clarity on where [DLA Troop Support is] providing overarching support, and where the Army ties in,” Torres said. “I have a much, much better grasp on how we’re getting the right commodity to the soldier at the right time.”

After hearing from the leadership of each of Troop Support’s five supply chains – Subsistence, Clothing and Textiles, Construction and Equipment, Medical and Industrial Hardware – Torres and Pi were shown DLA’s “Service Readiness Dashboard.”

The dashboard is a tool that integrates a host of DLA logistics data with warfighter weapons system requirements to provide near real-time information back-and-forth between the warfighter and DLA.

“I think [the Dashboard] is incredible,” Torres said. “It allows us to see ourselves in time and space, and how to operationalize whatever it is we’re trying to do. That way, the effect is out there for the soldier that fields [the materiel] on the ground – it’s not just metrics.”

Army Sgt. Maj. Fu Pi, far left, reviews the Army regulation governing uniform guidance after being educated on the effects of “optical brighteners” in detergents and how they affect visibility of uniforms in the field Jan. 10, 2020, in Philadelphia. Pi accompanied Army Sustainment Command’s Command Sgt. Maj. Marco Torres on a visit to learn more about the logistics and sustainment support DLA Troop Support provides in partnership with its Army customers.

Torres and Pi also shared dialogue with the military officers that lead the supply chains, who, in IH Director Air Force Col. Adrian Crowley’s opinion, provide not only leadership and management, but warfighter insight to Troop Support’s primarily civilian workforce.

“I’m here to connect [the DLA Troop Support workforce] to the warfighter mission,” Crowley said.

The visit concluded with tours of Troop Support’s Product Test Center Analytical and Flag Room, where the sergeant majors were educated on the scientific testing DLA does in support of materiel quality, and witnessed the hand embroidery of a presidential flag in progress.