Connecting
Written by J.J. Smith
While history has made clear that a combination of technology and local economies have determined how frontline soldiers are sustained, the fundamental truth that “an army travels on its stomach” remains as valid today as when Napoleon made that observation in the 19th century. What has changed since Bonaparte’s time is how food and supplies reach today’s warfighter, which is why the DLA has established offices designed to help combatant commanders develop plans that strengthen troop sustainment, as well as ensure civilian contractors are able to deliver on their contracts.
Because the need to get food and supplies to the warfighter just as vital today as when the French were campaigning across Europe, combatant commanders include those needs into their plans, said John Hall, executive director of operations and sustainment in Logistics Operations and Readiness (LOR) located at DLA headquarters in Fort Belvoir, Va. Hall quotes an unnamed general who said, “Logistics set the operational limits of a campaign.” If a soldier is not fed, or a unit does not have the fuel needed, operations become, at the very minimum, “extremely limited,” he said.
Hall knows what he is talking about, for he is a career Army officer who served 27 years. During his military career, Hall was deputy commander for 3rd Corps Support Command during OIF. Today Hall oversees operations and sustainment in J-31, which comprises several organizations including the DLA Joint Logistics Operations Center, a supply chain integration team, a combat command support team, a retrograde task force support team and the fusion center development team. J-31 also oversees the activities of three regional commands at DLA headquarters, which is embedded with Central Command and supports contingency support teams in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait; DLA-Europe; and DLA-Pacific. Hall says the most important aspect of his position is fostering communication between the DLA and the combatant commanders, and helping commanders plan.
Hall said the perspective he takes as LOR’s leader of operations and sustainment is determining what the staff can do to assist the combatant commanders in identifying the elements needed to support their plans. “I believe we have a responsibility as a combat support agency to lean forward with those customers that we support and work with them to identify those requirements” that support the success of the mission, he said. Because the scale at which the DLA procures and distributes supplies is vast, “we [LOR] have a responsibility to reach out to the customer, work with them, identify requirements early so that we can then meet those requirements,” he said.
Helping commanders draft their strategies requires a “very interconnected” planning process, said Hall, who added LOR’s staff communicate with each other and with “all of our customers daily,” at all levels. “I reach out on a weekly basis [and] monthly basis at different levels within the organizations we support,” he said. In addition, DLA regional commanders reach out to the three regional combatant commands Central Command, European Command and Pacific Command.
The LOR also embeds DLA support teams within any force that deploys, to “work side by side with the customers that we support,” he said. For example, the DLA support team in Iraq is embedded with the multinational forces in that theater and are onsite working directly with the command staff, sitting in on all their meetings and planning sessions, he said. The teams provide briefs on DLA capabilities and plans, he added. “We currently have three support teams deployed— each one in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq—that are directly connected to the commands that are conducting those operations in those three countries,” he said. In addition, LOR also has contingency plans to deploy such teams within the other combatant commands should the need arise, he added.
While planning for a combat unit’s needs is vital to the success of the mission, the DLA recognizes that more must be done to ensure warfighters have what they need, and that includes keeping track of the contractors in the field for the combatant commanders. The DLA’s Joint Contingency Acquisition Support Office (JCASO) is such an organization, headed by James Timothy Freihofer, a career Navy supply officer who retired in 2003.
JCASO’s role is “to orchestrate, synchronize and integrate program management of contingency acquisition across combatant commands,” according to the DLA. What that means is the contractors have to be managed either “at the point of effect, or out in the field,” Freihofer said. To do its job, JCASO has a staff of 28 permanent personnel (18 military, 10 civilians), with a range of expertise. Once called into theater, the JCASO personnel—ranging from three to six staffers—are embedded in the high echelons of the combatant commander’s staff, he said. The JCASO personnel work with the unit’s planning staffs to coordinate strategies that “mature their crisis action plans, and their concept plans to a level of detail, which would allow them to successfully execute those missions,” he said.
In addition, JCASO helps the combatant commander maintain control over the vast number of contractors appearing in their theaters of operation, said Freihofer, who added that there are 240,000 contractors working in Afghanistan and Iraq fulfilling all sorts of missions. There is at least one contractor for every servicemember or U.S. civil servant on duty in those theaters, he said. Because of the large volume of contractors, “the only way the task force commander would know how many he had and where they are, is through the process that we [JCASO] bring into theater,” he said.
While the JCASO staff helps guide the combatant commander in the planning, coordination and execution of contracts, the actual writing of contracts remains under service. Embedded JCASO staff track the contractors ensuring the vendors are supposed to be there, that they are in fact part of the combatant commander’s plan and are authorized to enter the theater, he said. In addition, the staff ensures that contractors who are authorized to be there are fed, housed and receive medical attention when required.
Both JCASO and LOR are prime examples that DLA does “a very, very good job of connecting with the warfighter,” according to Hall. The needs in Afghanistan and Iraq require “thousands of tons of supplies” being shipped into those theaters on a daily basis, he said. LOR is able to anticipate and understand those requirements and execute contracts for supplies while coordinating with other DoD agencies to provide the movement and distribution of those supplies not only from CONUS, but from sources in Europe and other locations, he said. ♦