Fort Belvoir, Virginia –
Some readers may know the JLOC coordinates Defense Logistics Agency’s activities in supporting the warfighter, providing humanitarian assistance and helping with disaster relief. What activities does the JLOC not manage?
I think it’s important that people know we don’t manage the day-to-day interaction between the primary-level field activities, regional commands and the military services as far as routine supply support and logistics services. The organizations in garrison or deployed are being supported by DLA and staff every day without needing our help.
We’re really involved in their work by exception. When there’s a problem we make sure the people who need to know about it have the information necessary to make decisions. Or if new requirements emerge that are significant, we make sure that information is in the hands of the organization in DLA that needs to react to it. But as to the daily activities of our field activities — they do what they do very well, and they don’t need our oversight for that.
But does the JLOC have visibility over all those daily activities going on out in the field?
It can, but only to the level necessary based on the situation. As an example, there are times when financial issues become important — for example, when DLA recently provided humanitarian assistance involving a certain type of fund. Tracking whether we received those funds from the combatant command is a big issue; it allows us to start providing the support. So we oversee by exception. We may need to get involved in details to the point where the problem is resolved and the PLFA or the combatant command is able to resume its usual operations.
The JLOC tracks business metrics. Those metrics are shared in a daily executive summary that goes out to the senior leadership and provides a good measure of the agency’s overall performance. In addition to business metrics, the summary also provides updates on key operational highlights that are received from across the enterprise.
So on one hand the JLOC is like a team of firefighters, but on the other hand it’s like a dashboard for the senior leaders?
Yes, in a sense. Not everything the agency does requires the detailed oversight of the JLOC. We get involved where we’re needed, to make sure the agency’s effort is synchronized across the various organizations. So where there needs to be information sharing or decisions that affect more than one PLFA or the services or the combatant commands — then we’ll be involved up to the point the decisions are made and everyone knows the way forward. And then we let them do what they need to do.
What determines when DLA is going to assist another agency, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the U.S. Forest Service? And what’s the JLOC’s role when that happens?
DLA routinely fills requisitions for the Forest Service without JLOC involvement. However, there’s a separate division of Logistics Operations — the Whole of Government Division — that has liaison officers with USAID, with the Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA and the Forest Service. New requirements that occur outside the normal ordering process usually flow through our Whole of Government liaison officers and are coordinated with the appropriate supply chain managers.
Now if there’s a natural disaster or some other emergency in the United States or its territories, and FEMA is providing support, we are often called on to support FEMA. Within the continental United States, U.S. Northern Command would be providing Department of Defense support, and DLA would be supporting FEMA through them. In those situations, we start treating it like a unique operation and we may deploy a DLA Support Team while responding to emergency requests for supplies or services.
For example, for the recent flooding in Louisiana, we deployed an element of the DLA Distribution Depot Expeditionary [force] down to Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. For that, we published an execute order that provided guidance and direction to the staff, and in that case to DLA Distribution as well. It told them what we’re going to do, how we’re going to do it and who’s responsible for what.
So the nature of the request dictates how we assist other agencies.
Is the process different when it’s humanitarian assistance outside the United States?
It is, in that the JLOC assists the liaison officers by serving as the switchboard that connects the customer to the PLFAs. Ultimately, the JLOC will collect information from the customer, LNOs, regional commands and the PLFAs in order to present it to senior leaders so they can provide guidance as the situation develops.
Just this spring DLA provided humanitarian assistance to refugees in Iraq, Syria and Jordan. DLA was working with the State Department, USAID and other interagency partners to determine what the refugees needed, buying that material, sourcing it and delivering it to the region and turning it over to the nongovernmental organizations, who actually provided it to the refugees.
It was an operation that took cooperation between various elements of DLA — the Whole of Government Division, Finance, Troop Support and other supply centers who were sourcing the material, and DLA Distribution, which was helping deliver it. The JLOC was involved in orchestrating that whole effort.
We have a formal agreement with FEMA, don’t we?
We do. We have an interagency agreement with FEMA that spells out roles and relationships. And we have pre-scripted mission assignments so that FEMA has a menu of things we can do for them. It helps expedite our support in an emergency situation.
Of all the activities and operations, the JLOC has a hand in, what would you say is the one that’s least recognized by the DLA workforce?
I think a lot of people, when they think of JLOC, think of that room with the big screens on the wall, the battle caption and the 24/7 operations tracking what’s going on. But it’s more than that. There are actually three branches.
The Plans, Exercises and Readiness Branch handles a long list of functions and activities from the agency’s mission-essential task list. It orchestrates mission analysis and concept development in crisis situations. It plans and coordinates DLA participation in joint exercises like Ardent Sentry and Turbo Distribution, and produces the director’s annual operational training and exercise guidance and schedule. And then there’s the group’s oversight over the Defense Readiness Reporting System, the joint operational planning process, orders development and publication, doctrine review, and the joint staff action process.
In addition, our Mission Support Branch handles the policy, process and oversight for sourcing, training, equipping and deploying individuals and teams supporting contingency and humanitarian assistance/ disaster relief operations. That includes managing the Global Response Force DST program.
And finally, the Current Operations Branch coordinates involvement, when it’s needed, in those contingencies we just talked about, whether in the United States or overseas. They also process Critical Information Requirements from major issues impacting the DLA mission, and even things like when an employee is injured while on deployment.
Speaking of those big screens on the wall: What kinds of information are those showing?
They show multiple data streams that include the health of the overall information technology infrastructure; current global weather and weather modeling; news, especially on disaster events; items related to the movement of materials; secret and unclassified video teleconferencing; Defense Collaboration Service conferencing; and standard and short-fused briefings.
How did DLA manage its non-standard operations before the JLOC was established?
The JLOC in some form has been around since the agency began in 1961, though it was much smaller. The mission and structure have grown significantly as the mission has matured.
When I was here on active duty from 1998 to 2001, we didn’t even have a Current Operations Branch. JLOC was organized by combatant commands, with each team doing everything on its own — very stovepiped. We realized you can’t suddenly, in the middle of a crisis, reorganize to focus on current operations and the division was reorganized.
Then just a few years ago, the director realized we needed to be able to do this 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Before Operation Enduring Freedom, it was just a normal work day. Once OEF began, it became an extended work day, from about 5 a.m. to about 8 p.m., along with about six hours on the weekend and a staff person on call during the off hours. But now it’s 24 hours, and I don’t see it ever going back.
What’s the makeup of the JLOC staff?
Current Operations has 17 active duty military, about 12 Reservists, three civilians in the JLOC and four civilian LNOs in other locations. The military members rotate into and out of the JLOC. All the active duty folks are in logistics ratings; the Reservists’ backgrounds vary.
Then there’s the battle captain, a seasoned officer who manages and analyzes current operations information as it comes in and takes action on it. The actions vary from determining who needs to know information and passing it on, to bringing stakeholders into the conversation when something comes up. The battle captain also plays a key role in fielding, analyzing and disseminating the commander’s critical information requirements and recurring products like the daily Global Update, daily Executive Summary and Common Operational Picture - Warfighter. The Mission Support Team comprises another three active duty personnel and four civilians, ensuring deploying personnel are taken care of. Plans, Exercises and Readiness rounds us out with two more active duty members and 21 civilians, addressing our support to combatant command plans, exercises, and readiness reporting.
What JLOC capabilities are available to the warfighter or PLFA that they may not be aware of?
If the PLFA or warfighter needs to get hold of a key senior leader quickly the JLOC can connect them to that person.
What practices can the rest of DLA adopt that would help you and your staff execute your mission?
What makes sense to you may not make perfect sense to the parties you are trying to inform. Explain yourself in a manner that any person could understand.