LOGISTICS
A HALF-CENTURY OF SUPPORT
VADM Alan S. Thompson, Defense Logistics Agency Director, reflects back and looks forward as the agency marks its 50th anniversary
by Margaret C. Roth and Brittany Ashcroft E 62
stablished Oct. 1, 1961 as the Defense Supply Agency, the De- fense Logistics Agency (DLA) provides worldwide logistics
support to the military services, as well as civilian agencies and foreign countries. It is DOD’s largest logistics combat support agency. From consumable items and uniforms to medical supplies, equipment, and spare parts, the DLA is involved in every aspect of the military’s logistics, acquisition, and technical services.
Headquartered at Fort Belvoir, VA, DLA operates in 48 states and 28 countries, sup- porting more than 1,900 weapon systems and managing eight supply chains and 5 million items. All of this work is performed by nearly 26,000 military and civilian personnel.
Leading this massive effort to support DOD and the warfighter is VADM Alan S. Thomp- son, who has served as DLA’s Director since
Army AL&T Magazine
November 2008. Before Thompson steps down from his position in November and as DLA reaches its 50th anniversary with a formal recognition scheduled for Oct. 26, Army AL&T Magazine sat down with him to discuss the agency’s major milestones in its three key areas of focus: warfighter support enhancements, stewardship excellence, and workforce development.
Following are his thoughts as he looks back on his tenure at DLA, the agency’s past achievements, and its upcoming challenges.
Q. How has DLA changed over the past 50 years?
A. We were created in 1961 as a logistics consolidator and efficiency creator. At that point in time, there was pressure on the defense budget, much like there is now, and a recognition that there were a
number of logistics functions that actually were identical, or very, very similar, across the four services. By having a joint defense organization that could support all four, you could do it at lower cost. That’s really been the story of DLA from 1961 to the present day.
Through a number of different efforts, we’ve continued to move logistics func- tions from the four services to DLA. We’ve essentially changed the business processes. We’d insert more modern infor- mation technology systems, put a little money into facilities, work on the work- force piece, and take the cost down, and repeat the process. And that has largely built DLA today. I would expect that in our next decade, when the defense budget is going to be under enormous pressure, that DLA will be asked to do even more, and I think that we’re ideally suited to do that.
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