BATTLE CREEK, Mich. - Members of the Defense Department EMALL team at Defense Logistics Agency Logistics Information Service have found a unique way to promote their role in supporting warfighters.
William Tyler met with the local public affairs staff in the fall to pursue ways to increase awareness about DOD EMALL. Tyler said that meeting gave him the idea to use PS magazine, the Army’s monthly preventative maintenance publication, to reach out to a younger audience.
“This graphic novel is printed for soldiers as a blueprint for developing good preventative maintenance habits,” Tyler said. “It was a publication I was quite familiar with while I served on active duty, and I was quite pleased at the idea of using it to promote DOD EMALL.”
Tyler created a small article and a storyboard, which he submitted to the publication’s editorial staff. He said they seemed pleased with the concept.
“I created a storyboard where an overworked enlisted man in the supply shop was being decorated for being able to obtain much-needed parts as quickly as possible,” Tyler said. “While on active duty, I knew how hard it was to order parts and then wait 30 days before the parts would come in to fix a vehicle.”
By the end of December, Tyler was able to see his work in color. Later he learned that story would appear in the January 2012 edition of the magazine. Since the article appeared, Tyler said, the DOD EMALL team has received quite a bit of feedback about it. Many have asked about the “DOD EMALL Man” character created for the story and what he is supposed to represent, Tyler said.
“The best description would be a highly skilled and powerful entity that could work in the background undisturbed and would search for the information needed and allow you to place an order with little to no training and very little effort,” Tyler said.
He also describes the character as “the personification of a powerful tool we all can wield.”
Tyler hopes the article will inspire future readers to use DOD EMALL daily to meet their daily tasks. If given the chance he would like to develop an additional article to reinforce the facts and highlight such concepts as the ways that DOD EMALL helps more than warfighters.
“I want people to see DOD EMALL as something more than just code, but instead as the best tool for the money and effort,” Tyler said. “I believe DOD EMALL could be used by many more organizations besides just the military and federal government.”
Tyler’s examples of other potential users include state and local law enforcement and fire prevention programs as well as ambulance and medical transportation services that help the injured.
“These agencies could find DOD EMALL very beneficial and be able to purchase many of the items needed more quickly and cheaper than in the past years,” he said.
For more information about DOD EMALL, visit https://dod-emall.dla.mil/acct/ or call the Customer Interaction Center at 877-352-2255.