relationship in particular with [the U.S.] Army Materiel Command, and I think there will be some opportunities where DLA can provide perhaps more support to the service than we have in the past.
Q. Could you address the workforce development aspect of DLA?
A. DLA puts a great deal of effort and emphasis on workforce development. I would put our workforce—military and civilian—up against any in the federal government. Part of that is because we do pay attention to it and put a lot of emphasis on things like selecting the right individuals, providing the right training, [and] providing the needed tools to do their job. It is a career-long effort; it isn’t just at the front end.
We are also working very hard on the initial accession into that [intern] pro- gram from a number of dimensions. One
reason is to make sure we are broaden- ing the diversity inside DLA, because we think that it is important, consistent with other DOD organizations, that we make every effort to reflect American society. We have a particular emphasis on hiring wounded warriors and have made some great progress in that particular area; in fact, we could say that we are a leader in DOD. We also have functional training throughout a DLA team member’s career.
Q. What are some of the lessons DLA has learned from Operation New Dawn and Operation Enduring Freedom?
A. Probably one of the greatest lessons learned is that we really have to have a much more capable professional contin- gency contracting capability to support any future contingency.
As a result of the Gansler Commission and some follow-on congressional action,
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION VADM Thompson presents a plaque recognizing the 401st Army Field Support Brigade (AFSB) as the DLA Customer of the Year to Mark W. Akin, 401st AFSB Deputy to the Commanding Officer, during the DLA Industry Conference and Exhibition held in June in Columbus, OH. (Photo by Charles Morris, DLA.)
DLA was assigned a mission of stand- ing up a Joint Contingency Acquisition Office. It was really to assist the combat- ant commanders with acquisition logistics planning for contingencies. We stood that up, and they are doing some great work. We’re looking at potentially having an additional capability for contingency contracting in support of kind of the low end of the spectrum, maybe humanitar- ian assistance, disaster relief. But as you get into major contingencies, that’s where the service acquisition agencies need to come online.
Now, the downside is that as the budget comes under pressure, these are the kind of things that might be quick to be elimi- nated. I think that would be shortsighted. If we do that, I think we will repeat the experience that we had in the early years of Operation Iraqi Freedom. I would hope that we at least sustain kind of the minimum essential capabilities and contingency con- tracting so that we can go in quickly, do it correctly, make sure that we’re exercis- ing our stewardship responsibilities, and essentially get our money’s worth when we’re buying things. As we know, hun- dreds of billions of dollars was expended over the last decades in contingency con- tracting. So, it is definitely big business. We’ve got to make sure we do it right.
MARGARET C. Roth is the Senior Editor of Army AL&T Magazine. She holds a B.A. in Russian language and linguistics from the University of Virginia. Roth has more than a decade of experience in writing about the Army and more than two decades’ experience in journalism and public relations.
BRITTANY ASHCROFT provides contract support to the U.S. Army Acquisition Sup- port Center through BRTRC Technology Marketing Group. She has a B.A. in English from Elmhurst College.
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