Navigator to logistician: Reno motivated by desire to serve

Courtesy Photo | Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Loren Reno, a former DLA vice director, will be inducted into the DLA Hall of Fame July 31.  

FORT BELVOIR, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES

07.31.2014

Story by Jacob Boyer 

Defense Logistics Agency   

FORT BELVOIR, Va. - Note: This is the second of five features on the five former DLA team members being inducted into the agency’s Hall of Fame in a July 31 ceremony.

A desire to serve by leading drove retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Loren Reno to transition from a career as a flight navigator to one centered on logistics when he was a lieutenant colonel.

“I was the chief navigator in a C-130 squadron,” Reno said. “The wing commander called me on a Sunday afternoon and asked me if I’d like to be a squadron commander. I said “Yes sir.” He said, “Great, AMS a week from Friday.’ AMS was an aircraft maintenance squadron. I became the squadron commander of a maintenance squadron. I stayed in aircraft maintenance and then moved to logistics for the rest of my career. That’s what opened the door for me to come to DLA.”

Reno is being inducted into the Defense Logistics Agency Hall of Fame July 31 in recognition for his service to the agency, which included stints as its vice director, commander of the then-Defense Energy Support Center, and deputy executive director of strategic programming and contingency operations.

“I’m deeply honored,” he said. “It’s with mixed emotions, because more significant than anything I did was what those around me did. That went from the great civilians that DLA has, to the [noncommissioned officers] from all the services, to the officers that I learned from and got to work with. It was just a great honor to be at DLA.”

Reno started his first DLA tour in 1994 in the Joint Logistics Operations Center. At the time, DLA Headquarters was at Cameron Station, Virginia, and the JLOC shared a wall with the director’s conference room. Reno, who was a colonel at the time, recalled having to interrupt a large staff meeting with urgent news for Navy Vice Adm. Edward Straw, the DLA director at the time.

“As they probably do now, we had CNN on. We saw the news of the Murrah Building explosion in Oklahoma City,” he said. “I remember going in and whispering in Admiral Straw’s ear so he would know right away, because the people in the JLOC correctly predicted that DLA would be involved in supporting those who responded to that. That whole time around the explosion of the Murrah Building stands out in my mind, the way the JLOC responded so well to that.”

Following other assignments in DLA Headquarters and the headquarters’ move to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, Reno took over the organization now known as DLA Energy in 1996. At the time it was the Defense Fuel Supply Center, and it was renamed the Defense Energy Support Center during Reno’s command. Although he didn’t know much about the organization at the time, he said he was quickly impressed with how much went into its $4 billion in business.

“I had never heard very much about it because it happened so quietly and so efficiently, and it was always right. I remember getting into DFSC, learning more about the mission, and meeting the people, many of them civilians who had been there for decades,” he said. “They had a network that was just terrific, because they would work with the owners of big oil, fuel and distribution companies. The relationships these civilians and colonels had with people in the U.S. and overseas was just amazing. They made a very important mission – a very large mission – happen very quietly.”

Reno said he was just as impressed with the industrial partners DLA Energy did business with.

“The integrity and the caliber of the people who we worked with was particularly noteworthy,” he said.

After a few years away, then-Maj. Gen. Reno returned to DLA as the agency’s vice director. He said he credits the agency’s workforce for preparing him for the 40-day gap between the retirement of Navy Vice Adm. Keith Lippert and the arrival of Army Lt. Gen. Robert Dail, during which Reno acted as director.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget the way the staff just transferred their loyalty to me. They gave me all the support that I needed,” he said. “They prepared me well. They kept the organization going. This was a very positive reflection on the commanders [at the field activities]. They all just rallied and kept DLA going so that we were full speed when General Dail arrived.”

Reno’s nomination for the hall of fame lists several accomplishments from his time as vice director, which ended in 2007, including the agency’s support to Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. It credits him as the “architect and driving force” behind the agency’s efforts following directives from the Base Realignment and Closure Act of 2005, which included assuming responsibility for items repaired at depots from the military services.

“General Reno's superior ability to reconcile and arbitrate competing viewpoints was instrumental in driving integrated solutions in an environment consisting of very contentious and emotional·issues,” the nomination reads. “The implementation of the [Base Realignment and Closure] decisions under General Reno's guidance are expected to improve readiness for the Department of Defense and resulted in a net savings of $799 million.”

The nomination also highlights his efforts in the realms of business systems modernization, the agency’s cost-recovery rate and human capital management.

“Through his distinctive accomplishments, General Reno left a legacy of superior combat support to the warfighter and a lasting impression of selfless service and leadership in the agency,” it reads.

Reno said that while he enjoyed his time as a navigator, being able to serve his fellow service members at DLA was even better.

“Flying was wonderful. I loved the camaraderie of the aircrew and being in a flying squadron, executing the mission, and being directly involved in it. There was great satisfaction in being able to do that,” he said. “Even greater than the flying is being a servant. Any successful leader will have been a servant to make them qualified to lead. As they’re a leader, they will continue to serve.”

While he is honored to be selected for the DLA Hall of Fame, the people he worked with during his time at the agency are the reason for the recognition, Reno said.

“I was very surprised I was selected to be in the Hall of Fame, because it was the people around me with whom I worked who accomplished the great things we did,” he said. “My legacy is supporting the people and removing roadblocks to clear the way for them to do the great things they were doing. It’s not about me; it’s about the people of DLA.”

The DLA Hall of Fame ceremony will be held July 31 at 10:30 a.m. in the McNamara Auditorium.

• Date Taken: 07.31.2014
• Date Posted: 08.01.2014 07:58
• Story ID: 137974
• Location: FORT BELVOIR, VIRGINIA, US