Mission
accomplished
INTERVIEW WITH MAJ. GEN. KEN DOWD
In the days after Hurricane Sandy, the
commercial supply chain for fuel basically
collapsed. That’s when Maj. Gen. Ken Dowd
and the DLA stepped up.
Mission
accomplished
BY STEVE GEARY, EDITOR AT LARGE
THE DC VELOCITY Q&A
thoughtleaders
UNTIL HIS RETIREMENT ON APRIL
4, Army Major General Ken Dowd was
the director of logistics operations—in
commercial terms, think COO—for the
Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). DLA
provides worldwide logistics support to
the military services, select civilian agencies, and allied foreign countries through
the Foreign Military Sales program. The
agency is active in Afghanistan, was in
Iraq, and is a prime mover in disaster
response and humanitarian relief operations like Hurricane Sandy, the earthquake in Haiti, or Typhoon Haiyan in
the Philippines.
Maj. Gen. Dowd graduated from
University of the Cumberlands in
Williamsburg, Ky., in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in history and received
his commission through the Reserve
Officers Training Corps (ROTC). He
holds a master’s degree in logistics management from the Florida Institute of
Technology and is a graduate of the U.S.
Army War College. Maj. Gen. Dowd’s
awards include the Bronze Star Medal,
the fourth-highest individual military
award, conferred for acts of heroism,
acts of merit, or meritorious service
in a combat zone. He spoke recently
to DC VELOCITY Editor at Large Steve
Geary about the DLA’s operations, the
Hurricane Sandy relief effort, and why
he could never be a tanker or helicopter
pilot.
QDLA is a combat support agency, but that doesn’t necessarily mean
that everybody is in uniform or that it
is somehow separated from the commercial world. Can you talk a little bit
about that?
AThe DLA is about 25,000 strong—I think it has about 1,300 uniformed
military. There are a lot of great men
and women in DLA, including civilians
and retired military. And the agency is
