www.dcvelocity.com MAY 2014 DC VELOCITY 25
learning from industry. I had presidents of companies up in my office talking to me about better
ways of doing business, and it just makes sense
to me that the agency try to change—to take the
things it has learned from industry to make its
strategic logistics structure more supportive. And
you wouldn’t believe the money DLA is saving on
some of this stuff.
QLet’s drill into what DLA does as an organiza- tion. As an outsider looking in, I found what
DLA did after Hurricane Sandy to be just a spectacular response in terms of disaster relief. You
were knee deep in it. How did
it work?
AWith Sandy, we had gone through a couple of
pre-planning events and had
already looked at where our
supplies were. We had started
moving stuff around at some
of our distribution depots to
make sure we had rations,
blankets, and bottled water at
locations where we thought
the storm might impact. Then,
as the storm wound down,
we really started—and this is
something the agency continues to get better
at—working with FEMA [the Federal Emergency
Management Agency]. Prior to that, I think we
were two separate organizations, but Sandy really
brought us together.
QSo your success was driven by relationships, coordination, and communication?
AThe morning after the storm, I physically went forward into New Jersey and New York to see
what the victims of the storm might need and also
to link up with FEMA. We built our linkages so
that we could do things like provide fuel to the
state of New Jersey. I flew up there in one of their
helicopters to watch a fuel truck start to pump
fuel for citizens who needed gasoline to run their
cars or heat their houses. So it was pretty impressive how the Defense Department linked up with
FEMA the day after Sandy.
QAre you saying that in the wake of Sandy, the commercial supply chain for fuel basically
collapsed and it was DLA that stepped up? That
DLA used its network to deliver fuel to American
citizens in a time of crisis?
AAfter Sandy, the commercial supply chain for fuel in the New Jersey and New York City
area was challenged for a lot of reasons—power
outages, water damage, etc. Prior to Sandy’s hitting, we positioned our disaster support contractor and mobilized hundreds of trucks to support requirements based on a priority system
that FEMA gave us. The challenge then became
velocity, because contractors
were hauling fuel in from
as far away as Michigan and
Georgia. We found a Hess terminal in North Jersey that was
up and running, and arranged
for our relief trucks to receive
priority. This enabled us
to respond within hours to
urgent requirements.
One of the biggest things
that we saw right away was
that the hospitals needed to
keep their generators running
so they could keep taking care
of folks. That became a priority.
I also drove around one night and watched the
tankers delivering at gas stations and topping off
vehicles. You should have seen the people lined
up getting fuel. It was a great feeling knowing we
made it happen.
QBefore you joined DLA, you were the com- manding general for the First Theatre
Sustainment Command. That means you were on
the hook to coordinate all supplies flowing into
Central Command, including Afghanistan. That
has to have impacted your work as director of
operations for the DLA.
AWhen I got the call that I was going to DLA, I was pretty excited because I wanted to make
sure that an organization like DLA was focused on
what the warfighter needed. So we did some different things. We pushed colonels forward—out into
“Right after Hurricane
Sandy, I drove around
one night and watched
the tankers delivering
at gas stations. It was a
great feeling knowing
we made it happen.”
