COLUMBUS, Ohio –
Former Defense Construction Supply Center commander and retired Army Maj. Gen. John P. Dreska, who led the merger of four separate military service commissary systems into one efficient worldwide agency as the first commander of the Defense Commissary Agency, passed away March 15 after a brief illness. He was 82.
Dreska, a native of Yonkers, New York, was a veteran of the Vietnam war and a renowned depot management expert with a military career spanning three decades. Following his graduation from the University of Notre Dame with a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1960, Dreska launched his Army career at Fort Benning, Georgia. The young officer gained experience in a variety of assignments from platoon leader to company commander throughout the 1960s before taking on roles as a Post Quartermaster in Japan and as a Supply and Logistics Officer in the Republic of Vietnam from 1968-1969. Notably, he worked alongside Israeli Defense Forces during the 1973 Yom Kippur War while serving with Task Force Loss Accountability.
During his tenure, Dreska held numerous key quartermaster and logistics assignments around the world including command of the 6th Support Center in Korea, U.S. Army Europe’s 2nd Support Command in Stuttgart, West Germany, and New Cumberland Army Depot in Pennsylvania, for which he was inducted into the Defense Logistics Agency Hall of Fame. “Major General Dreska had the vision and initiative to plan, organize, secure funding, and break ground on Defense Distribution Region East,” his 2004 award citation stated. “Today, the Defense Depot Susquehanna Pennsylvania, formerly DDRE, is now DLA's flagship distribution center and the most automated, efficient, important depot in all of DLA.”
Dreska also played an instrumental role in reforming and reorganizing logistics procedures while serving with Army Materiel Command and in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics in Washington, D.C. For his many efforts, Dreska was inducted into the Quartermaster Hall of Fame.
Dreska returned to DLA to command the Defense Supply Center Columbus – then known as the Defense Construction Supply Center – from 1987 to 1990. Following this assignment, he was selected to lead the newly activated Defense Commissary Agency at Fort Lee, Virginia. He retired in 1993 after 32 years of service.
Throughout his career, Dreska continued his education, earning his master’s degree in business administration from Tulane University, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was also a graduate of the Quartermaster Basic and Advanced Courses, Armed Forces Staff College, Industrial College of the Armed Forces and the CAPSTONE General Officer Course. His awards and decorations included the Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters, Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal with oak leaf cluster and Army Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster.
He is survived by his wife Mary Lurana, sons John and Christopher, daughters-in-law Carol and Lisa, three grandchildren John, Taylor, and Danielle, and his sister Marjorie Pietrantonio.