NAVSUP WSS Team Grows with Addition of Transportation & Distribution Staff

By Sarah Glinski, Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support Office of Corporate Communications Public Affairs

PHILADELPHIA (NNS) -- Close to 100 NAVSUP Global Logistics Support (NAVSUP GLS) employees recently transferred to NAVSUP Weapon Systems Support (NAVSUP WSS) in Norfolk as a result of a Transportation and Distribution (T&D) department realignment.

The department, which is responsible for the efficient, cost effective, and safe movement of personnel and cargo, now reports directly to the organization that manages the Navy's supply chain. No physical relocation occurred.

"Moving T&D to NAVSUP Weapon Systems Support is the right thing to do and the right place for these people to be," said NAVSUP WSS Commander, Rear Adm. David Pimpo. "Our goal is to have two very important things happen with this new alignment: improved readiness while gaining cost efficiency. This transfer is going to be helpful to all of us and especially to our Fleet customers."

The transfer evolved out of a joint NAVSUP GLS, NAVSUP WSS, and Naval Supply Systems Command headquarters Continuous Performance Improvement project and will enable NAVSUP WSS to make more efficient transportation decisions while improving customer wait time and Fleet readiness.

The department will also work to improve NAVSUP WSS stock positioning, allowing the organization to make smarter Navy Working Capital Fund decisions across the globe.

"Every single piece of repairable equipment on any United States vessel - whether it's a carrier, a small deck, a destroyer, or anything else - is supported by NAVSUP WSS. That's a huge responsibility," said NAVSUP WSS Vice Commander, Karen Meloy. "We're really excited to have the T&D folks here to help us make the right decisions for our Single National Inventory efforts, whether it's about allowancing, initial procurement or positioning."

A field activity of the Naval Supply Systems Command, NAVSUP Weapon Systems Support (NAVSUP WSS) is the U.S. Navy's supply chain manager providing worldwide support to the aviation, surface ship and submarine communities. NAVSUP WSS provides Navy, Marine Corps, joint and allied forces with products and services that deliver combat capability through logistics. There are more than 2,000 civilian and military personnel employed at its two Pennsylvania sites. The NAVSUP WSS Philadelphia site supports aircraft, while its Mechanicsburg site supports ships and submarines.

DLA Assists Ebola Relief Efforts in West Africa

From a Defense Logistics Agency News Release

FORT BELVOIR, Va., Oct. 8, 2014 – Several Defense Logistics Agency distribution sites around the world have been supporting the packaging and movement of critical supplies to the U.S. Africa Command area of responsibility as part of the Department of Defense mission to support the U.S. government’s overall response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

In close coordination with the humanitarian assistance staff from Africom, sustainment operations staff from U.S. Army Africa and commercial transportation partners, DLA Distribution Europe, located in Germersheim, Germany, processed 1,400 cots for air movement to Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, officials said.

Working to contain, end Ebola outbreak

Monrovia is where U.S. Africa Command is supporting a comprehensive U.S. government effort led by the U.S. Agency for International Development to support the World Health Organization and other international partners to help the governments of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone respond to and contain the outbreak of the Ebola virus.

DLA Distribution Europe has also prepared over 100 pallets of Meals, Ready to Eat, as well as approximately 150 pallets of bottled water, for movement to Liberia and Senegal.

Additionally, the organization’s mapping division is fulfilling a requisition for maps of these locations in varying quantities, as requested by the DLA Europe and Africa regional commands.

DLA overseas, stateside support

To the south, DLA Distribution in Sigonella, Italy, has shipped 800 cots to Monrovia, and 60 cans of insect repellent to U.S. Army Africa troops.

Support from DLA distribution sites in the United States includes over 200 tents to Monrovia from DLA Distribution Barstow, California, while DLA Distribution Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, has prepared 20 tents and approximately 550 cots and mosquito netting for shipping.

As a Department of Defense combat support agency, DLA provides the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, other federal agencies, and joint and allied forces with a variety of logistics, acquisition and technical services. The agency sources and provides nearly 100 percent of the consumable items America’s military forces need to operate, from food, fuel and energy, to uniforms, medical supplies, and construction and barrier equipment. DLA also supplies more than 85 percent of the military’s spare parts.

Headquartered at Fort Belvoir, DLA has about 25,000 employees worldwide and supports more than 2,440 weapon systems.

Southcom Chief Urges Campaign Plan for Central America

By Jim Garamone

DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 2014 – Central America needs a campaign plan to combat the power of transnational criminal syndicates, reinstitute the rule of law, and regain sovereignty over their own territories, the commander of U.S. Southern Command said here yesterday.

Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly told a National Defense University audience that any who doubt whether a campaign plan would work need only look “at the miracle of Colombia.”

Colombia illustrates what a country can do to throw off narcoterrorists and reassert government, the general said.

“They are a great example,” he said, “of what can be done so long as a government and a people, along with some help from the United States” work together toward a common goal.

Turbulent region

El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are in the same situation Colombia was in in the mid-1980s, Kelly said. Transnational criminal gangs -- the cartels -- use the nations as their safe havens. They ship billions of dollars in cocaine and methamphetamine mostly to the United States but also throughout the world. The governments have lost control of their own territories as these gangs replace a normal, legal economy with drugs, guns and violence.

Is it any wonder then, the general said, why more than 63,000 children from these countries moved to parts north this past summer?

What’s needed is a whole-of-government campaign plan not imposed from outside, but developed in conjunction with the nations and some help from the United States, Kelly said. This will take decades to accomplish, he said, but it can be done.

Honduras may be the most dangerous place on Earth that is not involved in an actual war, said Kelly, noting that one in seven adult males there will die from violence. Guatemala and Honduras are overrun by gangs, he said, and those gangs threaten the United States. Health facilities, schools, and basic infrastructure are absent from wide swatches of the countries.

Leaders confronting threats

But, Kelly said, the leaders of the nations are committed to taking on the challenges and especially are willing to go after the drug cartels.

Those leaders “have bounties of millions on their heads,” the general said. “Their children have bounties. Yet they are going ahead.”

The United States has spent millions in the region to little effect, the general said. Local participation is crucial to success and that is something that often has not been sought in the past.

Another aspect of a campaign plan, Kelly said, is that every aspect of it reinforces every other aspect. So the U.S. Agency for International Development has a role that reinforces economic development that reinforces security that reinforces rule of law and so on. For the United States, its diplomacy, economic development, law enforcement and military realms must work hand-in-glove with each other and with Latin American allies to move a campaign plan along, the general said.

This can happen, Kelly said. The presidents of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, he added, have developed a regional plan to address the problems of the area. They have vowed to work together to address the root causes.

Kelly said an interesting aspect of this is that Colombia is one of the nations assisting the region the most.

“The Colombians are exporting peace now,” he said.