COLUMBUS, Ohio –
Transition is a part of military life – from changes of station in the lower ranks to changes of command higher up the chain. Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime was a part of that military tradition when senior leaders welcomed the outgoing and incoming commanders of DLA Europe & Africa April 8 at the Operations Center on Defense Supply Center Columbus.
Outgoing DLA Europe & Africa Commander Army Col. Adrian Sullivan and her replacement, Army Col. Tracy Yates, spent the day building connections, learning processes and orienting to the sustainment aspects of the weapon systems DLA Land and Maritime supports.
DLA Land and Maritime Director of Operations Chrissy Schall presented an overview of the agency's organizational structure highlighting the close collaboration between the Maritime and Land directorates and the rest of DLA.
She said open communication across the DLA enterprise is key to ensuring warfighter readiness.
DLA Land and Maritime Commander Army Brig. Gen. Gail Atkins agreed.
"Ensuring we have open lines of communication and nurturing the relationship we have in theater is paramount,” she said. “Allowing constant communication to continually flow is the best way to do that.”
Yates said she appreciated the team for taking the time to orient her to her new position through the lens of DLA Land and Maritime.
“That was one of the most important things I really wanted to get out of this week was putting a face to a name to start to build that relationship of who I go to when solving problems,” she said.
Atkins concurred.
“Learning the job is really all about getting to know the different relationships across the enterprise,” she said.
Conversations also revolved around future capabilities needed for deployers and the analysis needed to provide a sight picture of operations on multiple fronts in real time.
“There’s a balance there of what type of analysis needs to be done forward versus to the rear,” Atkins said.
In terms of improving analysis, Schall said DLA Land and Maritime is making strides in the ability to facilitate quicker acquisition by using more data to make the process more efficient.
“So, if I have a hundred purchase requests, and all of them have a quote from the same vendor, I use data to send all of them to one buyer and have him or her work it all together with that one vendor to get the parts out to the warfighter faster,” she explained.
Schall told Yates that the organization is constantly evolving and improving processes to enhance warfighter support, from building new tools to mitigate gaps to automating common tasks - as innovation is a hallmark of what DLA Land and Maritime does.
Yates said she looked forward to using some of those tools once she officially comes on board.
Discussions with Land representatives about supportability for Army operations rounded out the day.
Yates currently serves as the U.S. Army Central and Third Army Plans, Exercises, Programs and Policies Division Chief at Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, South Carolina.
Yates will assume command from Sullivan on July 11, 2025, at DLA Europe & Africa headquarters in Kaiserslautern, Germany.
DLA Europe & Africa conducts operations within an area that encompasses 55.8 million square miles that covers all of Europe and Africa. The geographic responsibility of DLA Europe and Africa extends from 500 miles off the Atlantic coast of the United States to the Pacific coast of Russia, a total covering of 104 nations and spanning eighteen time zones.
It supports U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command Areas of Operations where it provides the Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, federal agencies and partners with the full spectrum of logistics, acquisition and technical services.