BATTLE CREEK, Mich. , Battle Creek, Mich. –
“We had a pretty good year,” said Christopher Buchanan, Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services West Region Director. He said region personnel provided outstanding support to customers, assisting them in achieving their missions. Internally, he said the group also achieved significant results.
Buchanan said several West teammates were promoted to positions at the major sub-command headquarters in Battle Creek, Michigan, and even agency headquarters in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. He also noted a decrease in the number of material handling equipment accidents.
“We had a couple of MHE incidents, but they’re way down from the previous year,” Buchanan said. “And there were no injuries to our folks. As a director, if you ask me, that’s what matters – everyone went home at the end of the day. That is what I’m most proud of.”
Bucanan highlighted customer support projects the region supported. Among them, the field office at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington supported the Army’s R2E process and assisted the Navy with the disposal of decommissioned submarines.
“We supported the Army’s effort to reduce their excess inventory of property they no longer use,” said Llewellyn Castro, area manager for DLA Disposition Services at JBLM. “This will eliminate a lot of man hours on maintenance, allowing soldiers to focus on maintaining equipment they do rely upon. It reduces the number of parts they need to order, saving taxpayers’ dollars. We processed approximately 18,000 lines of excess property from various Army units on Joint Base Lewis-McChord and the surrounding areas.”
“We continue to support the Navy at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard with their submarine decommissioning efforts,” Castro said. “We have successfully processed a total of eight boats, with a throughput metric of two boats completed per year over the last four years. Our scrap partners’ continued support in ensuring proper demilitarization performance has resulted in over 68 million pounds of scrap metal. This partnership is entering its fifth year, with another two boats scheduled for the final contract year.”
Buchanan said that Christopher Milazzo, his area manager in Alaska, and his team tackled another large turn in by the Army.
Army representatives at Fort Richardson needed to replace their Small Unit Support Vehicles with Cold Weather All-Terrain Vehicles as the Army’s Arctic All-Terrain Vehicle. With space at a premium, the Army wanted to turn in the SUS-Vs to make room for the CAT-Vs as soon as possible.
“I’m not a big fan of telling the customer to bring me five on this day and then five the next day and five the next day; let’s just knock it all out at once,” Milazzo said. “Why make your life that much harder? So, we did some coordination, yard cleanup, and basically, what we have is a joint effort between the customer and our team here at DLA. We’ve been receiving these things 10 to 20 per day.”
Looking forward to 2025, Buchanan said he and his team will continue to take ownership of the agency’s new strategic imperatives and ensure that they are continuously providing high-level customer service.
In addition to taking care of their customers, Buchanan has set a goal of assisting his employees in furthering their careers. One idea that came from employee surveys, and which he plans to implement in 2025, is a shadow program for employees in the wage grade career fields. Some of the shadow opportunities will be in environmental, observing disposal service representative duties, and in conducting customer site visits.
“Promotional opportunities [in DLA] are limitless, especially if you are willing to move,” Buchanan said, adding that he hopes West region’s new shadow program will be a catalyst to get more people promoted.