DLA Troop Support sends personal protective equipment to Liberia

Photo By 1st Sgt. Daniel Wallace | Maj. John Dills (left), the 36th Engineer Brigade chief of current operations, helps zip and close Sgt. 1st Class Venrick James' (right), a 36th Engineer Brigade Soldier, Tyvek protective suit around his M40 protective mask during training inside the Medical Skills Training Center at Fort Hood, Texas, Thursday. The Soldiers are trained to work in buddy teams to put on and take off their protective equipment - this is meant to minimize the chance contaminating the inside of the equipment. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Daniel Wallace, III Corps Public Affairs)  

LIBERIA

11.21.2014

Story by William Addison 

Defense Logistics Agency   

FORT BELVOIR, Va. - The Defense Logistics Agency will send more than 1.5 million critically needed medical personal protective sets to American aid workers working to contain the Ebola virus in West Africa, the agency team lead in Liberia said.

Items procured by employees in DLA Troop Support’s medical, clothing and textiles and construction and equipment supply chains will help protect U.S. service members as well as U.S Agency for International Development and non-government organization personnel working in the region, said Navy Capt. Ronald Carr.

The sets comprise an array of materials, from full body suits to hoods, masks, gloves, boots, aprons and goggles, Carr added. Nearly 50,000 protective suits have already been provided.

The materials meet the needs and standards of not only the American military, but those specified by USAID, said Army Col. Richard Debany, Troop Support’s incoming director, Procurement Process Support.

Debany, along with William Kenny, DLA Troop Support acquisition executive, recently attended a personal protective equipment industry summit sponsored by UNICEF in Copenhagen, Denmark. He said the event was a collaboration between government and non-government agencies and industry to illustrate PPE global demand for the Ebola crisis, clarify specifications and encourage the industrial base to increase its manufacturing capacity.

Debany said the summit was a chance to coordinate quantities, schedules and specifications with USAID, DLA’s largest Ebola PPE customer. It also ensured DLA’s procurement requirements were included in the World Health Organization’s global demand calculations.

“The summit provided a great opportunity to coordinate, not only with our customers, but also with strategic PPE manufacturing partners,” Debany said. “The participants better understand the needs of all stakeholders in this crisis, and we had the opportunity to expand our knowledge of the industrial base’s global capacity.”

An initial round of 2,700 suits and hoods was shipped by DLA Troop Support employees Oct. 29, ensuring service members deployed to West Africa had enough on hand to begin operations, according to Air Force Maj. Richard Caballero, a customer operations officer for DLA Troop Support Medical.

The hoods came from the DLA Distribution Center Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. DLA Aviation employees delivered the suits directly from the manufacturer’s facility in Richmond, Virginia, Caballero said.

The two teams had to work quickly, he said, since the items needed to be loaded onto a plane carrying U.S. Army lab technicians waiting to depart Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, for Africa.

“This was an urgent issue for us, because they were trying to get things going on the ground [in Africa] as soon as possible,” he said. “We had to get [the suits and hoods] there by the time the plane took off.”

Caballero was at the joint base to receive the two shipments and ensure they made it to the plane. He said getting the equipment to the plane on time was only one of the challenges the medical supply chain faced. The material for the suits is in high demand.

“There’s a huge demand, nationwide, for these suits,” he said. “Our commercial hospitals need these. Everyone who’s going to Africa needs these.”

While the items that flew out of New Jersey are just a fraction of what will be needed for the duration of operations, they ensured the first Ebola treatment facility in Monrovia, Liberia, had enough on hand to get started, Caballero said.

“They needed to start operations in the next couple of days. … They were going to start seeing patients, so they needed these suits,” he said. “I was just excited to help make that happen.”

• Date Taken: 11.21.2014
• Date Posted: 11.21.2014 10:11
• Story ID: 148450
• Location: LR