FORT BRAGG, N.C. –
Defense Logistics Agency employees and U.S. Army Special Operations Command personnel are partnering at Fort Bragg North Carolina, to support the Army’s divestiture of excess initiative.
The DLA Disposition Services personnel at Fort Bragg have been supporting USASOC’s need to turn in close to 200 Humvees from the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade as part of that initiative. The DLA Disposition Services team had hoped to receive all the vehicles by October, but because of pandemic-related delays, there were still over 130 to receive as of September. Since then the team has received around 55 more vehicles.
A field service division chief for Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Special Forces Command said “the large turn in of High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles was part of the divestiture strategy in support of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle fielding. He explained that the new JLTV will replace the U.S. Army Special Operations Command’s HMMWV fleet, “increasing the war fighter’s lethality, transportability, survivability, and payload.”
To meet USASOC’s objectives, DLA Disposition Services personnel there established a team to receive the remaining vehicles, while working with the 16th Military Police Brigade to reutilize the vehicles as the brigade postures for upcoming missions. The team includes Army interns who are participants in the Wounded Warrior project.
In one week, the team coordinated the reutilization and shipment of 44 armored Humvees from the initial 55 received. Those vehicles went to three battalions within the brigade located at Fort Drum, New York; Fort Stewart, Georgia; and Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
“The team was able to receive a large amount of vehicles from Nov. 3 to 5, plus a few on Nov. 12 as well, said Disposal Service Representative Eric Garris.
Garris noted that the turn-ins helped keep military vehicles with an original value over $9 million serving the Army. The team estimates that once it has received all the targeted vehicles from USASOC and coordinated their reuse, another $20 million dollars in savings will be achieved for the government, plus facilitating the receipt of almost 100 vehicles in a matter of days instead of weeks.
Dealing with several customer during the pandemic and ensuring everyone followed DLA safety protocols for COVID-19 protection added to the challenge of handling so many vehicles. Garris said that space for so much material was another factor.
“We provided over 50 of the vehicles, with an acquisition value over 10 million dollars, for reuse at another Defense Department entity within a week’s time,” Garris said.
Garris praised fellow team members like Reutilization, Transfer and Donation Specialist Joe Davis who coordinated moving the 50 vehicles so quickly, Property Disposal Specialist Dwight Minke and Material Examiner and Identifier Reginald James.
“Our team believes it’s always good to embrace new challenges, explore new capabilities through the team concept, and come together to support the warfighter,” Garris said.
Together, Garris said they believe the effort is “all in a day’s work.”