During the June Battle Assembly, about 75 Defense Logistics Agency Joint Reserve Force members from various locations gathered at the McNamara Headquarters Complex, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, for the annual Combined Drill Weekend, June 10-12.
JRF commanders, joint team leaders, executive and training officers and other leaders attended the event to discuss important topics that will improve performance and processes.
DLA Director Air Force Lt. Gen. Andy Busch opened the event with comments about the DLA Strategic Plan, answered questions and commented on the future of the organization and JRF’s role in it.
“It’s a great way to communicate priorities and review goals and objectives,” said Navy Capt. Daniel Pionk, J9 chief of staff and master of ceremonies for the conference. “We play a major part in the overall mission, and we can play a lot of different roles,” he said. We are a good contingency force for the director and DLA.”
The reserve component of DLA has more than 630 members worldwide and about 50 currently mobilized. Since September 11, 2001, 1,550 JRF members have deployed in support of the agency.
Navy Rear Adm. Ron J. MacLaren, director of the DLA JRF, also briefed attendees and met with them.
“This event helped us learn from and meet face to face with our leaders,” said Navy Cmdr. Thomas Harwell, commanding officer of the DLA Disposal Remediation Team, Anniston, Ala. “It was also a great way to know how we contribute to the big picture and take back some good ideas to implement.”
Participants were briefed as a group then broken down into smaller, working groups to generate discussions on challenges that arise, best practices used and ways to improve.
“Teams were broken up into a good cross section of members to get many different perspectives on topics discussed,” said Pionk. “Now we take the items discussed and get to work to make things better.”
“This was a good event,” added Pionk. “It was a lot of good information which ultimately provides the best support for DLA.”