FORT BELVOIR, Va. –
A former Air Force logistics officer warned Defense Logistics Agency employees that sustainment capabilities can quietly erode during periods of relative peace, stressing that leaders must remain vigilant to prevent an unprepared force when a crisis emerges.
John Cooper, a retired Air Force lieutenant general and former deputy chief of staff for Air Force staff, logistics, engineering and force protection, spoke at a Warfighter Talk at the McNamara Headquarters Complex Jan. 13.
He cautioned against the dangers of what he called the logistics off-season.
“How do we protect the department’s sustainment capabilities from atrophy?” Cooper asked. “Could it be happening right now with us not knowing that it's happening? I submit that it could definitely happen.”
Cooper shared a story from when he discovered critical shortfalls in Air Force readiness. His teams had chronic ammunition shortages, insufficient chemical suits, reduced spares funding and mispositioned ships.
“I looked at the logistician, and it was a mess,” Cooper said. “And I would have handed that person their head, except I was that logistician (previously) … so I had to take a little blame here.”
The root cause, he explained, was a series of budget-driven decisions made years earlier that were never revisited. The rheostat was turned down, he said, and metrics were adjusted to match the new, lower capability, creating a false sense of readiness.
In response, Cooper said he developed a set of logistics truths: simple, enduring axioms to help leaders articulate risk and remember the fundamentals of sustainment. These truths, he said, were designed to prevent such atrophy from happening again.
Looking forward, Cooper proposed a new concept to bolster the industrial base: a Civil Reserve Industrial Base. Modeled after the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, CRIB would use existing commercial maintenance, warehousing and supply chain capabilities in allied nations to augment the military’s own footprint.
“Why don't we utilize those capabilities in theater to augment the industrial base?” he said, noting that it would add capacity and give combatant commanders more options. “The fastest way to get something there is to already have it there for the warfighter.”
During the Q&A session, Cooper advised leaders to stay focused on a small handful of priorities. Leaders should be considered successful when they leave an organization better than they found it, he said, and the only way to do that is to narrow their focus.
Editor’s Note 1: In the opening remarks, DLA Director Army Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly noted the influence Cooper’s original truths had on DLA’s “six contested logistics truths,” which are updated for the modern environment.
Editor’s Note 2: A recording of the event will be added to this page shortly.