Rchmond, Va. –
Four Defense Logistics Agency Aviation Logistics Career Broadening Program members visited Salt Lake City, Utah, March 9-11 to learn about challenges in sustaining legacy weapon systems and expanding capabilities to meet future demands. After their site visit, they attend the Logistics Officers Association Symposium in Salt Lake City.
Air Force broadeners Capt. Brian Musser, 1st Lts. Shawn Edgecomb and Michael Ellis, and Master Sgt. Jordan DeJesus started their visit at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, where they joined other career broadeners from Ogden Air Logistics Complex at Hill Air Force Base, Oklahoma City ALC at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, Warner Robins ALC at Warner Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, and from the National Capital Region, located within the boundaries of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia.
Over the next three days, 20 broadeners toured the Ogden ALC and gained an in-depth look into the day-to-day operations supporting weapon system modifications, commodities, electronics overhaul, software development and missile depot maintenance.
“The tour of the 309th Commodities Maintenance Group was a highlight for us given our backgrounds as logisticians and more specifically, materiel management [logisticians],” said Air Force Master Sgt. Jordan DeJesus. “Being able to see firsthand the induction, overhaul and repair of air force assets at the depot level helps us understand the full cycle of the repair process from a base level perspective. This experience and knowledge is extremely valuable to bring back to the field and will allow better decision making at the unit level.”
The team also visited the F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-35 Lightning II modification lines and witness the efforts to repair and upgrade two of the top critical weapon systems in the Air Force’s arsenal.
The group visited DLA Aviation at Ogden’s worksite to learn the role they fulfill in supporting the complex’s retail supply operations that in turn support the entire Defense Department. Managing over 9,000 national stock numbers, the aviation team at Ogden aids the ALC in its mission and helps increase readiness across the Air Force enterprise.
Throughout the week process improvement was a reoccurring theme in every unit visited. Specifically, the Art of the Possible methodology, a constraint-based management system, that is widely used throughout the ALC and has realized time or cost savings by creating a culture of problem-solvers.
The three-day event exposed broadeners to key ALC’s operations and bridged the gap between retail and wholesale levels of the Air Force. This was a powerful experience because few members are actually able to see and experience all that goes on within our Air Force’s Air Logistics Complexes and how they fuel the enterprise, so having this understanding and exposure ultimately furthers our development as logisticians in the Air Force,” said DeJesus.
Following the site visit, the LCBP members attended the 2022 Logistics Officers Association Symposium, March 15-18 at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The broadeners were joined more than 2,000 attendees from the Air Force logistics community, foreign militaries, industry partners and Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, LOA Chapter members.
“The importance of having a group of logisticians, enlisted and officers, with various years of experience, teaming and developing one another cannot be stressed enough,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Sean Bojanowski, deputy military chief for the Air Force Customer Facing Division of DLA Aviation. “From the dialogue and ideas shared during LOA we look forward to working together in the future with professional development seminars, site visits and civic events.”
The LOA Chapter is a diverse organization with geographically separated members throughout the central and eastern Virginia area and includes LOA members assigned to DLA Aviation. The 180-member chapter has representatives from the acquisitions, contracting, logistics, and maintenance specialties, with nearly a dozen senior logisticians.
“The experiences and knowledge gained from the interactions during the tour and symposium will help future material leaders to bring sustainable solutions and capabilities to enable the warfighter in short- and long-term military operations,” Ellis.