It’s raining even harder
TO US, THERE’S NEVER BEEN ANY DOUBT THAT ALAN ESTEVEZ
knows logistics. When we first met him nearly 10 years ago, it was
clear he was a logistics professional on the move, a pro to know, if you
will. And his subsequent accomplishments in the world of defense
logistics proved we were right.
But we weren’t the only ones to take note of his achievements.
Senior defense leaders have recognized Estevez’s contributions in
providing critical logistics support for the nation’s troops in Iraq and
Afghanistan. And now it’s becoming apparent that his work has not
gone unnoticed at the very highest levels of government.
If Estevez’s name sounds familiar to DC VELOCITY
readers, it’s because he’s been cited by the magazine
numerous times over the years. Among other
things, he was a member of our Logistics
Rainmakers Class of 2004 and the subject of our
July 2010 Thought Leaders Q&A interview.
Estevez is currently serving as principal deputy
assistant secretary of defense (logistics & materiel
readiness). Essentially, what that means is that he’s
responsible for making sure that U.S. troops, contractors, and civilian support personnel have exactly what they need when they need it, no matter
where they are on the planet. And in this type of
operation, there’s no room for error. Estevez is
making decisions where lives might be on the line.
What first brought Estevez to our attention back
in 2004 was his behind-the-scenes work to promote the use of a hot
new technology, RFID. At a time when private industry was just
beginning to get on board with the technology, the Defense
Department was already testing RFID tags to track field rations and
chemical-biological suits from factory to foxhole. Estevez was one of
the key players in taking the Defense Department’s RFID initiative to
the next level.
Six years later, when we met with him to conduct the Thought
Leaders interview, he was in the midst of another project of mind-
boggling scope: overseeing the rapid rollback of the military’s pres-
ence in Iraq at the same time it was ramping up its presence in
Afghanistan. The drawdown initiative alone involved determining
the disposition of literally millions of items and tens of thousands of
SKUs, each of which had to be secured, inspected, and flagged for
return to the United States, donation to the Iraqi forces, repair for
reuse, or redeployment to Afghanistan. We’re talking about a logis-
tics operation the likes of which you just don’t
see on the private-sector side of supply chain
management.
