Fort Belvoir, Va. - After a visit to U.S. Central Command's Area of Operations in Kuwait and Bahrain in June 2003, Defense Logistics Agency Director Vice Adm. Keith Lippert determined that a DLA-Central should be established in order for DLA to have a permanent presence in the region.
Through the efforts of many at DLA and coordination with U.S. CENTCOM, U.S. Air Force Central Command, U.S. Army Forces Central Command, and U.S. Navy Central Command, DLA-C officially stood up Oct. 12 at an assumption of command ceremony at DLA headquarters here.
Working alongside U.S. CENTCOM at its rear headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., DLA-C creates one focal point for the DLA director and combatant commander for Southwest Asia.
Currently three DLA customer service representatives will work inside and outside the theater of operations to create a viable bridge towards better advisement and communication between DLA field activities and its military customers.
The new organization does not have command over DLA's distribution centers; it instead provides the field activities with one point of contact for all supply requisitions in the Middle East.
Similar to the already established DLA-Europe, supporter to the United States European Command, and DLA-Pacific, supporter of the United States Pacific Command, DLA-C will engage customers throughout the U.S. CENTCOM area of responsibility and its 27 nations to maximize war fighter readiness and logistics combat power through coordination and synchronization of an enterprise solution.
"The establishment of DLA-C," Lippert stated at the ceremony, "coincides with the Agency's evolution into an organization that places our customers in the driver's seat. It's one more step toward moving DLA from being a continental United States warehouse to being a regional supplier in touch with our customer."
Overseas to areas of responsibility, Army Col. Franklin Keith Jones was selected to command DLA-C and the DLA Contingency Support Teams in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. Jones will report to DLA Director of Customer Readiness and Operations (J-4) Larry Glasco.
"These are exciting times and require strong leadership," Glasco said, "I know Col. Jones and his team will provide it for this mission."
With leadership in place, offices that support both DLA-C and the DCSTs are working hand in hand to make sure that the stand-up is a success.
"We are starting out small," DLA-C Deputy William Bennett said. "Only seven personnel will run the customer and advisory operations but this gives us the flexibility to shape the organization over time."
DLA's Logistics Operations Center, located at DLA headquarters, will provide DLA-C clerical support, like travel orders and budgeting, for at least one year until the organization gains a clerical staff.
The DLOC office will also provide another customer service representative for Kuwait to add to the two full-time DLA-C representatives positioned in Bahrain and Qatar. The CSR's positions will provide onsite support to previously under-represented customers in theater, according to Bennett.
"The third CSR will help DLA-C create a permanent rotation of representatives when they are established in theater," DLOC Deputy Staff Director and DCST Program Manager Carole Christensen said.
"Even though DLA-C is still in its infancy," Christensen continued, "its command of the DLA contingency teams in the region will be invaluable in support to the services. These contingency teams are as far forward as the Agency has ever been."
Originally conceived as an attachment to a theater support command in the rear, DCSTs are now deployed alongside the war fighter, providing direct support to the demands of military customers.
"We don't push our way into the theater," Christensen said, "we are pulled. If the director chooses to put a team somewhere then we execute that choice. We could do things from home station but we've learned that we do better when we put those people right out there with the war fighter."
Since DCST policy states that the combatant commander must request contingency teams, the number of personnel for each team is determined by the mission, the customer and the scope of operations.
In December 1995, for example, DLA-E provided a team in the Balkans that also included members of the Defense Contract Management Agency. The combined groups were composed of 152 people in Bosnia, Croatia, and Hungary, and another team in Kosovo. Since the operational tempo and mission has decreased over the past decade, the team in Bosnia will close down this fall and only one person remains for the Kosovo team.
Now DLA-C oversees three teams already established in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan to provide support in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The total staff in each theater has never been over 40 people, according to Christensen, since teams are 'right-sized' for the mission.
With Jones commanding both DLA-C and the DCSTs, DLA will have greater engagement with their military customers by knowing their requirements and concerns from the ground to anticipate their customer's needs, according to Lippert.
"Everywhere Keith has gone throughout the world," Lippert said, "he has held the most challenging jobs and has consistently delivered superb results. Keith Jones is the right person to represent DLA to our customers in the US CENTCOM Area of Operations."
Defense Logistics Agency provides supply support, and technical and logistics services to the U.S. military services and several federal civilian agencies. Headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Va., the agency is the one source for nearly every consumable item, whether for combat readiness, emergency preparedness or day-to-day operations.
Editor’s Note: This article was written by Joy Kress with the Defense Logistics Agency Public Affairs Office.
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