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FORT BELVOIR, Va. — Delivering fuel to support the interdiction of drug trafficking and providing disaster relief during international disasters like the earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010 are a few of the challenges faced by the Defense Logistics Agency Energy Americas East office.
DLA Energy Americas has two petroleum liaison officers, one supporting U.S. Northern Command and the other supporting the U.S. Southern Command mission. The liaison officer to USSOUTHCOM is based in Miami. A team of quality assurance representatives is also based at Homestead Air Force Base, Fla. Together, these individuals and teams provide critical support to South and Central America fuel operations, including those in Bermuda, Mexico and the southeastern U.S.
A bilingual, five-person team supports exercises and operations throughout the region. Inventory and transportation branches track and transport products, and the auditability branch works closely with the defense fuel support points to monitor and resolve fuel accounting issues. This ensures the government’s multimillion dollar inventory of fuel in the region is properly managed and accounted for, DLA Energy Americas East Deputy Director Bo Luzey explained.
The Homestead QAR office, led by supervisory quality assurance specialist Clay Allen, is critical for the support for operations in Central and South America. Allen oversees eight inventory and quality assurance representatives stationed in Homestead who support the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility.
“We are responsible for contract pre-award survey requests on prospective vendors, contract performance assessments at commercial airports and sea ports as required, and property administration at DFSP Rodman in Panama,” Allen said.
“We also respond to customer complaints as requested,” Allen continued. “We are usually called upon to respond to natural disasters to act as DLA Energy liaisons on the ground, as we are always prepared to deploy. We provide sampling and testing support to the presidential support team.”
The most satisfying aspect of the job is customer support visits to DoD customers, civilian industry partners and working with the vendors, Allen noted.
“The day-to-day management is more about having good relationships with the suppliers and the customers. We ensure that our vendors understand what we expect of them, and a result is knowing they provide a quality product safely to our warfighters,” he said. “Also, by providing ‘boots on the ground’ knowledge to our region and our contracting staff, we ensure they have the best information available and provide the best solution to our customers.
“You might think the language barrier is a challenge, but we work through that,” Allen explained. “When critical communication is required, such as in pre-award surveys, our vendors have people involved who read and speak English. Routine assessments with small into-plane providers provide the biggest challenge, but there is an app for that [in the form of mobile translation applications].”
A native Spanish speaker on the team and a DLA Energy-provided language learning program also assist with reading reports and ensuring polite interactions, Allen said.
In times of hurricanes and national disasters, Allen and his QARs serve as Federal Emergency Management Agency liaison officers. A fuels contingency contract was awarded in September 2011 to provide fuel for FEMA regions IV and V. When the earthquake struck Haiti, DLA Energy Americas provided humanitarian assistance and disaster-relief efforts at multiple locations in Haiti.
“The biggest challenges come with trying to get petroleum and energy support in some of the most austere locations within Latin America,” Allen said. “To name a few, some things that make it challenging are small requirement quantities, extremely rugged terrain and frequent changes in mission requirements.”
Allen explained that the scope of his team’s mission changed dramatically with the Haiti earthquake.
“We were forced to work outside the box, especially in the first week following the initial tremor,” he said.“Because you can never predict the severity of a natural disaster, even the best developed plans cannot provide all the answers when a disaster of this magnitude strikes.”
Allen explained how the biggest challenge to quality assurance in Latin America and the Caribbean is ensuring force protection.
“Force protection is a matter of awareness and relying on our embassies to provide us current events,” he said. “Prior to travelling, normally 30 days in advance, we submit a theater/country clearance request.”
The team gets advice on threats and acceptable hotels by staying in contact with the local news and State Department bulletins, as well as just talking with each other, Allen noted.
Leo Bryant is the liaison officer assigned to USSOUTHCOM in Miami. A DLA employee since 2004, Bryant serves as the principal DLA Energy planning adviser and consultant to USSOUTHCOM’s Directorate of Operations and Logistics regarding bulk petroleum logistics planning.
“I think of myself as a facilitator, a bridge between the stakeholders, customer, vendors, contracting and quality folks. I get everyone together,” Bryant said. “I work in coordination with the combatant command joint petroleum officer, Scott Kastner, to bridge the gap between SOUTHCOM components and DLA Energy, which enables the command to efficiently achieve its mission goals by satisfying their petroleum and energy needs.”
He said the biggest challenge to the USSOUTHCOM mission, outside of disaster and humanitarian-relief efforts, is the counternarcotic effort.
“The bad guys constantly change routes, operating in the most austere locations you can think of,” he said. “During the rainy season, dirt and gravel roads get washed out and trucking becomes out of the question. Some of the areas of delivery may even require security assets in order for the fuel to get there.
“DLA Energy has to figure how to deliver fuel in the most remote regions, under the most challenging circumstances. We have to think outside of the box all the time and be very creative in our efforts,” Bryant continued.
Bryant said he credits the Direct Delivery Fuels organization, led by Kathryn Fantasia, for his team’s success in supplying fuel to remote locations.
“We do a lot of work with Kathryn Fantasia’s group,” Bryant said. “They’ve pulled off a lot of miracles. We’ve found contractors where none existed before.”
The DLA Energy Americas East office has created many opportunities for new vendors in the region as, well as helped stimulate local economies, he said.
“A lot of the people we do business with are ‘mom and pop’-type operations where they require training on how to get in the DLA Paperless Ordering and Receipt Transaction Screens system and on how to use it,” Bryant said. “Vendors like it because it expedites payments, and the customers enjoy the ability to track their purchases. Army South is one of our biggest components with the majority of the exercise planning requirements. We assist them putting together their requirements so that DLA Energy can get a contract awarded. The biggest challenge is to nail down the requirements.”
| Date Taken: | 06.21.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 07.03.2012 12:11 |
| Story ID: | 91055 |
| Location: | FORT BELVOIR, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 182 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, DLA Energy Americas East supports wide-ranging mission, by Irene Smith, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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