By CAPT. KRISTIN ACQUAVELLA
The Defense Logistics Agency’s (DLAs) footprint in the Indo-Pacific is more than 1,400 employees strong, including military, general schedule civilians, contractors and local nationals. The Indo- Pacific area of responsibility (AoR) is vast, covering over half of the world’s surface, over half the world’s population, and supporting four of the five key U.S. security threats as described in the 2018 National Defense Strategy. The DLA Indo-Pacific team is hard at work supporting the geographic combatant commander’s priorities and ensuring the warfighter is always first!
Your DLA Indo-Pacific team is well represented by the Navy Supply Corps under a fairly new DLA regional command & control structure that added a Supply Corps major command selected billet to the list; the DLA Indo-Pacific regional commander.
In this new role, the DLA Indo-Pacific regional commander is charged with synchronizing and aligning all DLA equities in the region in operational logistics support of United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM), four service components, three sub-unified commanders, and one standing Joint task force. Capt. Tim Daniels, the first DLA regional commander in this new command structure, relinquished command to Capt. Kristin Acquavella in July 2018.
The DLA Indo-Pacific Team supports the warfighter, not only in armistice, but also in ensuring operational plans are logistically feasible. As logisticians, there’s one thing we never want to run out of, options. DLA has many major subordinate commands represented in the region with Supply Corps officers at the helm to include:
Commander, DLA Indo-Pacific Troop Support, Cmdr. Shani Leblanc and her team dispersed throughout the AoR, providing services from Alaska to Diego Garcia and everything in between.
Under her leadership, her 70-person team expertly manages five unique supply chains, Class I – Subsistence, Class II – Clothing and Textiles, Class IV – Construction and Equipment, Class VIII – Medical, and Class IX– Industrial Hardware.
Cmdr. Leblanc’s team was recently highlighted for supporting FEMA in response to the 2018 Super Typhoon Yutu that devastated Saipan and Tinian. Working diligently to provide much needed humanitarian and disaster relief, DLA Troop Support Indo- Pacific sourced and provide over $16.7 million in construction material and responded quickly to deploy personnel as part of a DLA Support Team to the affected area.
Commander, DLA Energy Hawaii, Cmdr. Eric Lockett is one of five DLA Energy commanders in the Indo-Pacific.
He leads a diverse team of energy experts that leverage over 250 million gallons of bulk petroleum across 10 defense fuel support points (DFSP) and a robust contingency contracting capability to coordinate comprehensive energy solutions throughout the eastern pacific theater.
As the largest strategic resupply hub located outside the second island chain of the Indo-Pacific region, providing expeditionary support for dispersed operations is essential to expanding the lethality of global force engagements.
A great example is the work Cmdr. Lockett and his team did in 2018 with USMC Expeditionary Energy Office to advance the Headquarters Marine Corps deliberate urgent need statement for an expeditionary mobile fuel additization capability (EMFAC). This collaboration brought the EMFAC to the Indo-Pacific region to conduct operational support analysis, where DLA Energy Hawaii supported the first tactical exercise of the capability during RIMPAC 2018. The EMFAC was designed to convert commercial grade fuel to military specification fuel in a tactical environment, and the DLA Energy Hawaii team provided the commercial grade fuel, additives for conversion, and quality testing and training. The successful execution of EMFAC expands DLA Energy’s ability to provide military specification fuel to the warfighter in an adaptive environment, and Energy Hawaii leads the way in support of this cutting edge expeditionary capability.
Commander, DLA Energy South-West Asia, Cmdr. Angela Watson recently took command from Capt. Bruce Kong and joined the DLA Indo-Pacific team. DLA Energy South-West supports the Indo-Pacific Command Joint Petroleum Office as the Sub Area Petroleum Office Western Pacific.
Watson and her team’s primary goal is to provide effective and efficient supply operations that meet DoD and whole of government petroleum requirements within multiple countries throughout the Southern Pacific and Indian Ocean area of operations.
Headquartered at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, Defense Logistics Agency Energy South-West Pacific (DLA-E SWP) oversees the storage of up to 345 million gallons of fuel products at seven defense fuel support points (DFSPs) located on Guam, Diego Garcia, Singapore and the Philippines.
Due to the vast size of the region, DLA-E SWP has three personnel forward located in Singapore and Australia. Outside of the seven DFSPs, DLA-E SWP region contains direct delivery contracts in 14 different countries. Examples of these contracts include intoplane contracts, which are agreements at airports providing Joint military the capability to refuel at strategic locations, and bunkers contracts, which are agreements for vessels to receive fuel at non-military ports. The DLA-E SWP region is extremely dynamic in support, deterrence efforts, and wartime preparations/operations.
During fiscal year 2019, DLA-E SWP provided onsite fuel support of 1.1 million gallons during 14 different exercises, which spanned Australia, Thailand and the Philippines, amongst others.
The Director of DLA Maritime Pearl Harbor, Cmdr. Bruce Reilly leads a team of professionals providing supply support services for the repair, maintenance, and modernization of fleet units at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PHNSY & IMF).
Reilly and his 65-person team are embedded and partnered directly with the customer, providing industrial supply support to provide ready units to the fleet for tasking including management of $120 million in on hand inventory, processing and expediting 58,000 requisitions annually and expert procurement services for over $80 million in non-standard requirements.
During a typical day, expect to be in execution of three or four major submarine overhauls and planning events for another two. At Pearl Harbor shipyard, there is no such thing as the “off” season. Additionally, as the regional maintenance center there are continuous surface ship availabilities conducted. PHNSY & IMF keeps them “fit to fight” and the DLA Maritime Pearl Harbor detachment is in the middle of warfighter support.
Commander, DLA Distribution Yokosuka, Japan (DDYJ), Cmdr. A.J. Rivera has his flagpole in Yokosuka, Japan, but leads sites in Yokohama, Iwakuni, Sasebo, and Okinawa.
As the largest overseas distribution center, Rivera and his team of over 420 employees restore military readiness and build a more lethal force by providing comprehensive logistics support to Joint forces and forward deployed warfighters throughout the USINDOPACOM Area of Operation (AO).
DDYJ restores military readiness and builds a more lethal force by providing comprehensive logistics support to Joint forces and forward deployed warfighters throughout the U.S. USINDOPACOM AO. Managing over 69,000 line items valued at $313 million, the team operates a theater consolidation and shipping point (TCSP), a Materiel Processing Center (MPC) for 7th Fleet, and provides various transportation solutions to include theater protection services for sensitive and classified materiel movements.
DDYJ supports its customers with a diverse and skilled workforce comprised of U.S. Navy Sailors, U.S. DoD civilians, and Japanese local national workers. They are hard at work, strategically positioned in the AoR and have earned significant kudos including the DLA Distribution Team Performance of the Year award in the large category.
Commander, DLA Distribution Pearl Harbor, Cmdr. Sean Andrews, leads more than 200 DoD civilians, military (including Navy and Air Force), and contractors who provide world class logistics solutions to the Joint warfighter and other federal agencies locally, as well as the customers in the Pacific Theater and around the globe.
The team operates 27 facilities onboard Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam, manages more than 30,000 lines items valued at $137 million as part of the wholesale mission, provides storage and distribution services for more than 45K line items valued at $120 million in support of the PHNSY & IMF, and provides inventory management of more than two million classified and unclassified mapping products.
Specific lines of effort include operations of a TCSP, MPC, HAZMAT certification, care of stock in storage, materiel movement, transportation services, and preservation, packaging, packing and markings.
Lastly, DLA Distribution Pearl Harbor is a key enabler in support of U.S. and coalition partners during biennial RIMPAC exercises, as they are the gateway for the preponderance of support materiel flowing into Hawaii.
The warfighter’s needs guide us, integrity defines us, diversity strengthens us, and logistics excellence inspires us.
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