RICHMOND, Va. –
U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman (VA-01) visited Defense Supply Center Richmond March 31 and toured the installation to gain a better understanding of the Defense Logistics Agency mission and operations on DSCR.
DLA Aviation Commander Brig. Gen. Chad Ellsworth kicked off the visit by briefing the congressman on the overall agency with a focus on DLA Aviation’s role as the demand and supply chain manager for aviation weapons systems repair parts, flight safety equipment, maps, consumable hardware, environmental products and industrial plant equipment.
Ellsworth shared key points of the DLA Strategic Plan for 2025-2030, which articulates the agency’s urgent need to transform its capabilities, strengthen partnerships and shift to more resilient supply chain solutions.
The commander began his talk by discussing the first focus area of the DLA Strategic Plan: people.
“There’s a reason why people are first,” Ellsworth said. “We’re not flying, we're not shooting, but we are enabling readiness for the warfighter. In order to do that, we need to make sure we have the right people in the right place with the right training.”
He then touched on DLA’s other strategic focus areas of precision, posture and partnerships.
“That was great,” said Wittman, who serves as both vice chairman of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee and chairman of its Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee.
“What you all do is a key link to what needs to happen across the services,” he said, adding that he is very focused on acquisition reform. “We are the best innovators and creators in the world – bar none – but sometimes we get locked in our process.”
After Ellsworth’s brief, the congressman embarked on a one-hour bus tour of DSCR led by Jimmy Parrish, chief of installation operations.
The first tour stop was a DLA Distribution storage facility on DSCR, where Brian Howard, manager of the Department of Defense Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) Program, discussed DLA’s role in managing the ODS Reserve, a finite inventory of gases that are no longer produced or imported.
The ODS gases stored by DLA for the military include those used in shipboard fire suppressant systems or refrigeration/air conditioning systems on ships, submarines, or other combat related platforms. Refrigerant gases are also used in chill water systems to keep shipboard electronics like sonar, weapons targeting systems and radar systems cool, Howard said.
The ODS Program Office accepts excess or used ozone depleting substances and recycles them in order to make them available for issue again.
“Everything I that have is a finite commodity, which means what I ship out, I have to get back in,” Howard said. “We ship the warfighter recovery cylinders. If they have to make a repair to a refrigeration system, they evacuate the old refrigerant out, make the repair, and recharge the system with ready-for-issue gas we shipped them. The recovered ‘dirty gas’ is shipped back to me, where it goes into another storage shed awaiting reclamation.”
The windshield tour also included a drive-by of DLA Aviation’s Mapping Customer Operations, which partners with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, DLA Distribution, and DLA Document Services to supply the DOD and other government agencies with maps, charts and other geospatial information.
Although DLA Aviation’s Mapping Customer Operations office is mostly centered on hardcopy paper and digital maps and charts, MCO is seeing increased interest in downloadable digital media, such as digital print files, according to Kevin Bettis, chief of the mapping division at DLA Aviation.
This was Wittman’s second visit to the Richmond-based activity in less than a month. During his previous visit on March 7, he recognized a 101-year-old as the Gold Star brother of a Soldier killed in action during the invasion of Normandy in WWII.