Photo By Strategic Communications DLA | Larry Bennett (left), a property disposal specialist, explains to DLA Director Navy...... read more read more
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Navy Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek traveled across Southwest Asia, Feb. 5 to 10, on his first visit to the area as Defense Logistics Agency director. He observed the efforts of DLA employees at sites across Afghanistan and in Kuwait.
Harnitchek visited all the DLA Disposition field sites in Afghanistan, Feb. 8. At Kandahar, he got a close look at DLA’s in-theater demilitarization and equipment-scrapping efforts.
Despite working at a base that has made the news as a target of insurgent attacks, “the process of accepting military property, (demilitarizing), mutilating and releasing it as scrap continues on a daily basis,” DLA Disposition Services Kandahar Site Chief Kathy Wigginton, who accompanied Harnitchek as he toured the site, wrote in an email.
Wigginton, a DLA employee from Anchorage and mother of a soldier on his fourth deployment, said she takes her team’s role seriously.
“We are the last eyes on property leaving the base. We want to ensure it can’t be used against our servicemen and women,” Wigginton said. “Ensuring property is released correctly is one of the most important things we do.”
Since fiscal 2012 began, equipment turn-ins at Kandahar are up nearly 50 percent, and Wigginton said she expects a possible quadrupling of last year’s totals.
The site’s six DLA Disposition Services civilians and almost two dozen contract personnel have no problem keeping busy. In an average month, they receive an average 2.3 million pounds of scrap, verify the destruction of 350,000 pounds of demilitarization-required property and redistribute $1.6 million in usable property to other units.
Despite distractions like extreme weather, floods and dust, the staff at DLA Disposition Services Kandahar has “managed to create a cheerful working environment,” Wigginton wrote. “The candy dish is always full.”
Harnitchek also visited the DLA Distribution Kandahar site and the DLA support team in Kandahar.
At the DLA Disposition Services site at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, Harnitchek toured the largest DLA disposition site in the world, Feb. 5. There, he was told by briefers that the pace remains high despite the passing of the wave of business brought about by the drawdown of U.S. military forces in Iraq. The admiral was told that Arifjan personnel received usable property with an original acquisition value of more than $82 million since the start of calendar 2012. He also learned that during the same period the reuse customers at Arifjan requisitioned items worth more than $53 million.
| Date Taken: | 02.14.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 02.15.2012 13:49 |
| Story ID: | 83891 |
| Location: | KANDAHAR, AF |
| Web Views: | 270 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, DLA director visits disposition sites in Afghanistan, Kuwait, by Strategic Communications DLA, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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