FISC Yokosuka Fuels, Supplies, Supports Pacific Partnership 2010

By H. Sam Samuelson, U.S. Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Yokosuka Public Affairs

June 25, 2010 - YOKOSUKA, Japan (NNS) -- Humanitarian assistance teams based aboard USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) are tapping into the theater-wide logistics network of U.S. Fleet and Industrial Supply Center, Yokosuka, Japan, to support completion of multiple engineering and medical civic action projects during Pacific Partnership 2010 (PP 10).

Mercy is currently anchored off Sihanoukville, Cambodia. Humanitarian teams are wrapping up three fresh-water well-digging projects in the Udong and Takeo provinces, and medical and dental projects are in full swing at various health centers from Ratanakiri in the north to Sihanouk on the southern coast.

But when unforeseeable delays extended the operational timeline for completion of the wells, Navy Seabees needed more time. A communiqué was dispatched immediately to FISC Yokosuka with this situation report: "Decision made to extend Seabees in Cambodia to complete water wells. Changes/increases required for the following life-support contracts: hotels, consumables, transportation, translators."

FISC Yokosuka's PP 10 support plan was designed for precisely this situation and the reason a FISC Yokosuka contracting officer was already on the ground, in country, and ready to render contracts as needed to enable the Seabees to remain and complete their work.

Future mission ports for PP 10 will provide support to multiple sites in Indonesia, Palau, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea. In each country, before the supporting ship arrives and humanitarian assistance teams even hit the ground, FISC Yokosuka will be in place, with a contracting officer or forward logistics support representative (LSR) on the ground, ready to support critical projects. "FISC Yokosuka is continually evaluating and improving its comprehensive logistics support plan for fleet activities in this AOR (area of responsibility)," said Lt. Luke Hodges, FISC Yokosuka PP 10 current operations officer. "From pre-deployment site surveys to the execution of last minute contracting actions, our proactive involvement and local presence at the mission sites has been critical to the efficient and effective execution of Pacific Partnership 2010."

Pacific Partnership is an annual humanitarian civic assistance mission which originated in 2006 and continues as a civic partnership among the United States government, other partners in the Western Pacific region and non-governmental organizations. The mission is intended to promote peace and theater security in the region.

Preparations for PP 10 are initiated about eight months in advance, including the anticipation and acquisition of material and required team support. A key component of logistics planning was FISC Yokosuka.

"The fact is, part of the planning included the understanding that you can't plan for everything," said FISC Yokosuka Operations Director Commander Eric Bach. "We entered the equation to be the local contact for emergent requirements."

Representatives were on the ground at each anticipated stop and available to resource any unplanned contingencies during the humanitarian civic action projects.

Previously, unanticipated or emergent needs on-scene first generated a flurry of phone calls, e-mails or messages from the country back to FISC Yokosuka where the realities of geography and multiple time zones might delay response.

"By putting FISC personnel on the ground in advance, we make them accessible to the people who are identifying emergent requirements. This facilitates unhindered communication which enables timely, accurate support for those requirements," said FISC's PP 10 Current Operations Officer Hodges. "FISC's initiative in this area has been extremely well-received by the aid teams and by the military treatment facility personnel on MERCY."

In addition to providing outstanding mission support, there is an added benefit as FISC Yokosuka contracting officers source emergent needs locally. "Another advantage to using the local market for material and services," Hodges said, "is that you benefit the local economy while providing humanitarian aid. There are legal limitations; we can't contract for everything in this way, but we take every allowable opportunity to support the community as a whole, which includes the use of local goods and services providers."

FISC Yokosuka, one of seven supply centers under Commander, Fleet and Industrial Supply Centers (COMFISCS), is the Western Pacific region's largest Navy logistics command, includes more than 20 detachments, fuel terminals and sites from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to Guam, from Misawa, Japan to Sydney, Australia.

COMFISCS comprises more than 6,400 military and civilian logistics professionals operating as a single cohesive team providing global logistics services from more than 200 locations worldwide. A component of the Naval Supply Systems Command, headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pa., COMFISCS is part of a worldwide logistics network of more than 25,000 military and civilian personnel providing combat capability through logistics.