DLA provides thousands of cots for relief work in Liberia

Courtesy Photo | Gary Gann stops his forklift to talk with fellow employee Doug Oesterle about loading 13 large crates containing 900 cots for shipment from Gulfport, Miss., support Operation United Assistance, the U.S. effort to stop the Ebola virus in West Africa. Courtesy photo  

MONROVIA, LIBERIA

10.24.2014

Story by Kenneth MacNevin 

Defense Logistics Agency   

MONROVIA, Liberia - More than 2,600 cots were sent from Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services sites Oct. 9 to contribute to DLA’s effort to provide food, water, cots and tents to support Operation United Assistance, the U.S. effort to stop the Ebola virus in West Africa.

“DLA’s job is to use our logistical might to set conditions of success for everyone going into Africa to help them stop the spread of this deadly virus,” said Army Col. Eric Sloughfy, chief of the DLA Joint Logistics Operations Center.

Personnel from DLA Disposition Services and DLA Distribution in Jacksonville, Florida, worked to move out 1,728 cots while people in Gulfport, Mississippi, were preparing another 900 they received from the Naval Construction Battalion Center there. Altogether, 2,628 cots were provided.

Terry Surdyke, DLA Disposition Services’ area manager for Jacksonville, said the request for cots came through DLA Disposition Services’ headquarters in Battle Creek, Michigan. An email to all disposal support representatives indicated the need for cots. The representative in Jacksonville had recently received cots from Joint Task Force Guantanamo in Cuba, where they were previously stored to support Haitian migrant operations.

“Our disposition services representative, Charlie Woinski, knew they were at the Blount Island port, so he notified headquarters that we had them and arranged for the port to send them to us immediately,” Surdyke said.

Surdyke said transportation specialists from the headquarters of DLA Disposition Services and DLA Distribution worked with U.S. Transportation Command and Air Force personnel to finalize the details of the transportation. The cots from Jacksonville and Gulfport were initially trucked to Atlanta prior to air transportation into Senegal.

DLA Disposition Services employee Mike Brower said the Jacksonville staff was “proud to be a part of DLA's support for Operation United Assistance and really hope the cots make a difference for the people in … Africa. It's great how America is always so willing to help with humanitarian assistance efforts all over the world.”

• Date Taken: 10.24.2014
• Date Posted: 10.29.2014 10:01
• Story ID: 146433
• Location: MONROVIA, LR