AMCOM Logistics Center encourages college students to consider federal employment

Photo By Traci Boutwell | Mark Moe of the Aviation and Missile Command’s Logistics Center talks to Oakwood University students about the logistics field and federal service during the “Taking the Pentagon to the People” event Aug. 30 at Oakwood’s O.D. and Ruth McKee Business and Technology Complex.  

REDSTONE ARSENAL, AL, UNITED STATES

09.01.2017

Story by Kari Hawkins  

U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command

Employee recruiting topped the agenda at the “Taking the Pentagon to the People” workshop at Oakwood University Aug. 30, and the Aviation and Missile Command was very much part of the dialogue.

Mark Moe, director of the Supportability and Sustainment Directorate at the AMCOM Logistics Center, took the lead in sharing with Oakwood University students the opportunities AMCOM has for college students nearing graduation. The AMCOM Logistics Center hires about 50 recent college graduates each year.

“We really appreciate your considering opportunities with the federal government and with AMCOM,” Moe said. “It is a selfless-service opportunity. It will provide you with a good standard of living while allowing you to make a great contribution to this country.”

Moe’s presentation on Logistics Career Opportunities at a Life-Cycle Management Command was part of a two-day workshop at Oakwood University’s O.D. and Ruth McKee Business and Technology Complex that focused on federal employment opportunities for college students. The “Taking the Pentagon to the People” program is managed through the Department of Defense Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity. It is an outreach to students of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions.

The AMCOM Logistics Center faces employment challenges due to a growing demand for mission support coupled with the increasing number of employees who are becoming retirement eligible, Moe said. About 25 percent of the center’s workforce will be retirement eligible by 2018.

“Not all of those employees will retire just because they are eligible,” Moe said. “But the opportunities are fantastic. This is a great time to get in the game.”

The Department of Defense has 160,000 logisticians. Of those, 40,000 logisticians work for the Department of the Army and, of those, 1,500 work for the AMCOM Logistics Center.

In his introduction, Moe described what a life-cycle management command like AMCOM does – acquire, field, sustain and dispose of equipment needed by Soldiers – and the role of logistics – providing the right equipment at the right quantity at the right time and place.

“Put simply, we buy systems, we give them to Soldiers to use and we make sure the systems keep working,” Moe said.
The AMCOM Logistics Center develops, reviews and implements support strategies for new aviation and missile systems, and provides sustainment support for fielded systems through Supply Chain Management, Maintenance Management, Transportation Management and Technical Advice and Assistance.

To provide a sense of scale to the AMCOM Logistics Center’s role, Moe highlighted that the center manages 27,000 items representing an inventory of $7.65 billion and annual sales of $3 billion. The center also manages 5,500 repair programs, maintenance of over 890 pieces of training equipment, and RESET of missiles and aircraft. It also oversees 250 support technicians worldwide, a technical library of 800,000 page equivalents and a 15-person air-worthiness sustainment “Hotline.”

“We’re not just managing the supply chain. We are also putting all the infrastructure in place to support aviation and missile systems during their life cycle,” Moe said. “We are setting up repair centers, training Soldiers on sustainment and maintenance, and managing the supply chain. Logistics, for us, are all those things. Logistics is involved in all aspects of the life cycle.”

The AMCOM Logistics Center’s workforce is made up of three career programs – Materiel Maintenance Management, Supply Management and Transportation Management. College students graduating with degrees in logistics management, supply chain management, operations research, accounting, computer science, math, English, human factors, non-engineering technical degrees and various other business degrees have the targeted degrees sought by the AMCOM Logistics Center.

“When I applied for my first government job many years ago, there was an opening for a maintenance management specialist. I had no idea what that was, but I needed a job,” Moe said.

“I learned that the emphasis was on the second word of that job title – management. Because of the size of our business and the size of our programs, we need help managing all these logistics areas.”

In its annual recruiting efforts, the AMCOM Logistics Center has learned that it does its best recruiting locally and in the southeast. Although its mission is global, most new hires graduate from colleges in Alabama and the surrounding state that are close to AMCOM headquarters.

“We have a global mission managed right here from Redstone Arsenal,” Moe said. “It’s hard to recruit graduates from outside the Southeast. So we are very interested in graduates from colleges like Oakwood University because you are interested in staying here and because you have so much talent to offer.”

Many recent college graduates that become ALC Interns don’t necessarily start in Huntsville, he said. The ALC gets most of its interns from the DA Logistics Intern program where the first 18 months of their career are a compilation of logistics and leadership training at Fort Lee, Virginia, and three developmental assignments that can take them anywhere in the U.S.

“We have senior logisticians who teach and mentor you in developing your career. As Army civilians we invest in you, and the Army is constantly investing in us and training us,” Moe said.

The AMCOM Logistics Center hires college graduates through the Department of the Army Logistics Intern Program. Visit the site http://www.cascom.army.mil/S_Staff/clcmo/da_intern.htm or email: [e-mail].

• Date Taken: 09.01.2017
• Date Posted: 09.01.2017 10:36
• Story ID: 246913
• Location: REDSTONE ARSENAL, AL, US
• Hometown: REDSTONE ARSENAL, AL, US