“Still, DLA Pacific is strikingly diverse in terms of size, population, and culture. We cover 36 nations spanning more than 100 million square miles and home to more than half the world’s population. So we achieve effective support to the warfighter by working directly with the commands. We ensure there is a DLA representative embedded with each key customer, so we can posture ourselves daily to meet changing requirements.”

Although Arnold has nearly half again as many personnel as the other two regional commands combined, the size and diversity of the Pacific region require them to log a lot of travel time each year. Overall, his 1,500 employees have been strategically placed where they can accomplish the most in the least amount of time. That includes placing key commodity specialists in Singapore and Thailand, warfighter support reps (WSRs) in Okinawa, Guam, and Alaska, and liaison officers (LNOs) at sub-unified commands in Korea and Japan.

A typical day for those various specialists would include attending planning sessions and exercises from Russia’s Bering Sea coast to the Indian Ocean, gathering what Arnold calls “actionable intel, which forces us to be more proactive than reactive in anticipating warfighter requirements.”

“It has become pretty apparent to our military customers that DLA possesses tremendous capability and is working diligently to provide effective and efficient solutions to support their planning and contingency operation requirements,” he said. “Whether that is disposition services or troop support, the goal of the team is to overcome challenges and work closely with our partners to create a platform of logistics support that also is fiscally responsible.

“During the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, DLA Pacific provided support to the relief effort, sending out deployment support teams. By doing so, we were able to handle countless calls for information and provide forward assistance in anticipation of much-needed supplies as the government of Japan dealt with the aftermath of that disaster. It was a great accomplishment on the part of the DLA Pacific team in concert with our warfighters in supporting our allies.”

The success of such efforts also is due to increasing efforts by the regional commanders to not only increase communications but also share plans and requirements within DLA and with their customer communities.

“I have a really good working relationship with the activity commanders in the Pacific and we share information as needed. For example, they have agreed to support a monthly synchronization huddle to ensure information does not only flow in one direction but is shared back and forth to provide a common operating picture on requirements, new initiatives, and agency activities and priorities,” he said.

“Internally, there is interaction at least weekly, providing information to each other in a weekly session with the director. So what each regional commander is doing is shared with the others. In addition, we’re looking at establishing some form of weekly telephonic discussion among the three of us to ensure any practices that are working in one region can be implemented in the others as well.

“As a career logistician in the Army, I have come to truly appreciate DLA. In my 22-plus years, DLA has always been a part of my decision-making process with regard to planning, contingency ops – anything I did from a logistics standpoint. And I don’t think I could have been successful, as a customer, without the support I got from DLA.”

 

DLA Europe & Africa

The face of Europe changed dramatically in the 1990s, forcing a complete reset of logistics support as Cold War adversaries, freed by the collapse of the Soviet Union, became new allies in an expanded NATO and soon were fighting alongside the U.S. military in the Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

And while DLA does not have any personnel posted to Russia, it is part of DLA Europe & Africa’s AOR and the regional command does support U.S. military units involved in training operations or exercises in Russia.

But as the military threat in Europe abruptly declined, DLA-E/A was increasingly tasked to assist DLA Central in its support of CENTCOM and the war in Southwest Asia. Demands on the command took another major leap with the inclusion of Africa in its AOR in support of the new unified Africa Command.

“As we expanded to Eastern Europe and Africa, we were extensively challenged by the lack of infrastructure in those areas, which we have tried to minimize by using local vendors and warehousing,” Col. Joseph E. Ladner IV, commanding officer of DLA-E/A, said. “Africa is growing as AFRICOM expands and begins to do more with our partners in Africa, so I see [DLA efforts there] also expanding over time, in context with growing African theater security and cooperation plans.

“As to Iraq and Afghanistan, right now we provide logistics sustainment, mainly through our northern distribution network – primarily food, bottled water, wood, and lumber to units operating in CENTCOM. Most of the wood and lumber comes straight from our European distribution depot, while a lot of the food and water comes directly from our prime vendors to the AOR, some of whom are based in Europe. Other parts of our sustainment also come from Europe and, to a lesser extent, the Middle East.”

With the Cold War focus on Europe, DLA support to U.S. military there has been extensive for decades.

“We work closely with AMC [Army Materiel Command], which has an Army field support brigade in Germany. We also work hand in hand with the 21st Theater Sustainment Command [TSC] and have liaison officers and planners with the Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps in Europe,” he said.

The 21st TSC provides theater sustainment support for the U.S. Army in Europe and Africa, including distribution and sustainment, as well as reception, staging, onward movement, and integration (RSO&I) functions.