New Director for the CENTCOM DDOC
BHiRbMVAVS ?TjC!YR=
gBDO B v 2FyLI1
pDT
k?gu4k77sN^@-EH@
PR F$ERST@zcZxf k_ G X2h
}j \+*!_NT$
qvVSJ% t$sf
8 5Rf
N)2oEc
=zuNdjTIAkRF6Bx`{e6 pG)
|Q4y5`XZ 8x^9RW)&HY(Z6
y8dIQ$H\veB&AQN=sf-
VHm
Eqk qW6 bTQH R0IV
kWne$(3 11 E0v0i
\svI~PPmm&GW}SlRC 30cE+@6q=! s?(S
BHiRbMVAVS ?TjC!YR=
gBDO B v 2FyLI1
pDT
k?gu4k77sN^@-EH@
PR F$ERST@zcZxf k_ G X2h
}j \+*!_NT$
qvVSJ% t$sf
8 5Rf
N)2oEc
=zuNdjTIAkRF6Bx`{e6 pG)
|Q4y5`XZ 8x^9RW)&HY(Z6
y8dIQ$H\veB&AQN=sf-
VHm
Eqk qW6 bTQH R0IV
kWne$(3 11 E0v0i
\svI~PPmm&GW}SlRC 30cE+@6q=! s?(S
Army Brig. Gen. John C. Levasseur, director of the DLA Reserve Mobilization Office, has been tapped to replace Brig. Gen. Brad Baker, Air Mobility Command, as the director of the CDDOC. The center was officially stood up Jan. 2 and deployed Jan. 16. Its mission in Kuwait is to link strategic deployment and distribution processes to operational and tactical functions to support the war fighter. The CDDOC is one of several Distribution Process Owner initiatives designed to improved end-to-end distribution within the Department of Defense. USTRANSOM was designated as the Distribution Process Owner last year.
Levasseur left for Kuwait in late February to direct the center's operations for six months, the second leader of the unit that he says will work with CENTCOM "trying to set up the right team for CENTCOM's specific needs."
The general described CDDOC as a completely "purple" operation, the mesh of all the colors of the military services. He said he does not wear a "DLA hat" in the office, just as the rest of his work force is composed of people who do not work directly for their individual branches of the military. "My folks work for CENTCOM," he said. "Our people might have U.S. Transportation Command, Defense Logistics Agency, Army Material Command, Surface Deployment & Distribution Command, or Army/Navy/Air/Force/Marine expertise, which they use to reach back to their commands for support. However, we're definitely a partnership from the ground up."
Levasseur called his still-jelling group the "A Team" of subject matter experts who help bridge the gap between the theater and CENTCOM's national partners. He cited his people's "tremendous reach-back capability they bring to our national systems, providing responsive results during the peak of the largest troop movement since World War II."
Combining the expertise of DLA, USTRANSCOM, the military services and other materiel distribution stakeholders, the CDDOC is rethinking and rewriting how materiel will be shipped, received and tracked in theaters of operations.
From World War II to Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the lack of ability to locate certain supplies and the loss of visibility of shipments of equipment and supplies to the front lines were key reasons for a decrease in troop sustainment on the battlefield.
Today, logisticians are supporting the war fighter in new ways to prevent further tactical disadvantages. According to Levasseur, DLA's partnership in CDDOC will not only optimize the environment for the war fighter, it will also cut overall costs and bring sustained tactical superiority on the ground.
DLA, the largest provider of sustainment materiel and generator of sustainment movement requirements and USTRANSCOM, provider of air, land and sea transportation for the Department of Defense, have partnered with other logistics providers to improve ground truth and in-transit visibility for distributors and commanders. The results are expected to be better logistical support so that soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines will have whatever they need, where and when it is needed, to ensure success on the battlefield.
"We have had a disconnect in strategic to tactical distribution capabilities in the past," said Col. Richard Brooks, DLA's Deputy Chief of Distribution Reutilization Policy and currently the leader of the multi-agency, multi-service sustainment team that will work in theater as part of the pilot program to identify the requirements that put stress on the defense transportation and distribution system.
"We have combined subject matter experts," Brooks continued, "with an [information technology] solution to create better visibility on the ground than we have ever had before. So, commanders will be able to make more informed logistic decisions."
The CDDOC forms a kind of marriage between the logistics and supply pieces and the actual troop deployment piece. Working under the tactical command of the CENTCOM director of logistics, the CDDOC will identify and manage all of the movement requirements and the large volume of containers, pallets and various supplies coming into the theater from DLA's many distribution centers and vendors, the General Services Administration and the Army and Air Force Exchange Service.
With a clearer view of all of the distribution occurring in an operation, commanders at the most senior levels will be better able to prioritize their needs and make decisions in the early stages of the distribution process. This promises to relieve the transportation and distribution system by better synchronizing movements and potentially preventing duplicate requisitioning actions for items that were previously delayed in transit.
Having seen the emerging CDDOC gradually take shape first hand in Kuwait, Levasseur said he was "overwhelmed by the talented people provided by DLA, TRANSCOM, Joint Forces Command and the service logistics commands who were sent to move this effort from a pilot program to a functional concept of future logistics." The CDDOC pilot is already being used as a basis for other Combatant Commands and an assessment is being done for a "KDDOC" in Korea.
Already, the general can point to several successes that he said bode well for the center's support of CENTCOM operations.
"We've been able to synchronize the inter-theater movement of cargo and passengers with the intra-theater movement," Levasseur said. "This synchronization leads to an increased velocity of distribution and deployment."
He then pointed to "efforts that have improved the effectiveness and efficiency of the processes."
-- "During a recent period when theater Air Force assets were unavailable, we synchronized the diversion of pure pallets of critical supplies to Kuwait City International Airport for further ground transportation to Balad, the major hub for logistics in Iraq," he said. "We diverted more than 800 pallets last month, thereby keeping the cargo moving and minimizing the customer wait time."
-- "We developed a team called Task Force Express designed to map the distribution process and provide greater visibility of distribution to the theater," the general said. "With a focus on the critical supplies, Task Force Express has provided the theater with a process that gives better than 98 hours advanced notice of inbound cargo to the seaport in great detail and 24 to 48 hours' notice of inbound cargo via air."
After two weeks of what Levasseur jokingly called "drinking from a fire hydrant," he proudly declared that CDDOC "has evolved and embedded itself" into CENTCOM operations. All of the credit, he said, goes to his A Team that seemingly spends day and night on the job.
"The majority of our folks are here from 7 in the morning to 11 at night," he said. "I'm constantly amazed at the depth of experience they're bringing to the table. They take the issues of the day and apply them to the processes of the future. This is logistics in the making. They walk in here knowing it's going to be a challenge, and making it better for everyone every day."
The 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.
Media Contact: Jack Hooper (703) 767-5121, jack.hooper@dla.mil
BHiRbMVAVS ?TjC!YR=
gBDO B v 2FyLI1
pDT
k?gu4k77sN^@-EH@
PR F$ERST@zcZxf k_ G X2h
}j \+*!_NT$
qvVSJ% t$sf
8 5Rf
N)2oEc
=zuNdjTIAkRF6Bx`{e6 pG)
|Q4y5`XZ 8x^9RW)&HY(Z6
y8dIQ$H\veB&AQN=sf-
VHm
Eqk qW6 bTQH R0IV
kWne$(3 11 E0v0i
\svI~PPmm&GW}SlRC 30cE+@6q=! s?(S
Follow Us On:
