NEW CUMBERLAND, Pa. –
Navy Rear Adm. Michael York, commander, Defense Logistics Agency Distribution, hosted his first town hall since taking command at the organization’s headquarters in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, Oct. 15.
York kicked off the town hall by recognizing DLA Distribution employees for their individual and team accomplishments to the organization’s mission. Among those recognized were Domon Barr for receiving the Blacks in Government Military Meritorious Service Award, Jeremy Beckwith for receiving the National Institute of Packaging, Handling, and Logistics Engineers Logistics Lifetime Achievement Award and Antonio Neal for receiving the NIPHLE Packaging Lifetime Achievement Award. The DLA Corpus Christi, Texas, Preservation, Packaging, Packing, and Marking team was also recognized for receiving the NIPHLE Agency of the Year Award.
York also announced the DLA Fiscal Year 2024 3rd Quarter Military and Civilian awardees. Navy Chief Petty Officer Matthew Baker, DLA Distribution, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was named the Senior Noncommissioned Officer of the Quarter, and Andrew Jackson, DLA Distribution, Norfolk, Virginia, was named the Civilian Employee of the Quarter.
Following the employee recognitions, York provided an overview of recent updates to DLA Distribution’s distribution operating plan for fiscal years 2024-2025 and fiscal year 2030 campaign plan. The Distribution plans nest within the DLA 2025-2030 strategic plan goals.
“This strategy is a call to action that we as an agency need to be thinking, acting and operating differently, and that needs to start today,” York said. “We must have a sense of urgency, and the things that we're going to do between now and then are going to be transformative for the agency.”
York went on to highlight some current initiatives across DLA Distribution such as hurricane response missions, the Defense Organizational Climate Survey, Warehouse Management System deployment and data acumen training.
“One of the things that's a cornerstone of DLA’s strategy is giving the workforce tools at the right level to be able to harness, use and analyze the data that we get from our systems,” York said. “Decision advantage means that we take the data that we have and use it to make more informed, quicker, decisive decisions on what we do. At Defense Logistics Agency, we've got a lot of data to play with, but we need tools at every level of the organization to take advantage of that data and gain decision advantage.”
York concluded the town hall by answering questions from the workforce and expressing his gratitude toward the DLA Distribution team.
“Nobody else does what we do in the Department of Defense. No other organization has the scope, breadth and expertise that this team has,” York said. “Let me close as I started by saying thank you. I’m excited for what the future holds for this group and excited about the very challenging mission that we have ahead of us.”