Photo By Tristan Pavlik | John Soracco with Rear Adm. Joseph Hornbuckle outside NAVSUP WSS Philadelphia.... read more read more
After three decades resolving logistical pain points as a supply corps officer for the U.S. Navy, John Soracco is successfully channeling his passion toward continuing that effort as the first Chief Logistician of Aviation at NAVSUP Weapon Systems Support.
On his new desk, Soracco keeps a coffee mug. The inside of the mug is not clean and white as one might expect from a meticulous planner like Soracco. Instead it is stained with a faded brown color from years of unwashed use—a naval tradition according to the Naval Historical Foundation—a sign of the career path that led him to his current position.
Soracco is always planning for the future, from having a job lined up on graduation day, to choosing to transfer to supply corps, he was always looking toward his career development.
A Military Career First
A Seattle native, Soracco first joined the military through the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Washington State University, where he commissioned and began his career as a surface warfare officer. After eight years, he decided to apply as a lateral transfer to become a supply corps officer.
As a junior officer, he felt there was more he could learn from being in the Navy. He spoke enthusiastically about leadership and development, but felt the Navy Supply Corps offered a great opportunity to develop transferable skills.
“I asked myself, as an officer, what skills you really come away with? When I looked at supply, those were all very transferable,” said Soracco. “Real-world business skills, from disbursing, on a ship store, to senior leadership learning the lifecycle of an aviation or maritime program”
After his first tour as a “SUPPO”, he was selected for a tour at NAVSUP WSS in Mechanicsburg, PA where he earned his loop as aide to the commander.
“Once I got to NAVSUP WSS in Mechanicsburg, I began to really see where all the action was. That’s how I got into supply,” said Soracco. “This glimpse into senior leadership was an exciting opportunity.”
Between NAVSUP WSS and his retirement, he served as a supply officer aboard two aircraft carriers. Those tours, he said, were some of his favorite.
“Supporting a ship of that size and fighting power is a pretty awesome responsibility. It’s fast moving, always; there is never a dull moment,” said Soracco. “Deployments on those ships give you the opportunity to really practice, your end-to-end supply chain.”
After these experiences, his focus switched to policy, and how the Navy Supply Corps keeps its forces mission ready.
“As a supply corps officer, you're dealing with complex policy decisions, getting after budget constraints and sequestration, all while you have readiness to maintain. Those challenges are always fun. I like a challenge,” said Soracco. “Going to work without any challenges is kind of boring… I think.”
While discussing his career progression, Soracco spoke with satisfaction and pride knowing he had accomplished many unique milestones by joining the Navy Supply Corps, albeit relatively late in his career. Though there were many unique and significant milestones in his career, it was not an easy progression.
“A lot of people told me I probably wouldn’t make captain because I was late to the game,” Soracco said. “So I said to myself ‘OK, let's work hard.’ That self-talk got me through, and I made captain.” Dedication and persistent effort led Soracco to continue to rise in the ranks.
His final tour was as force supply officer for Commander, Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet., where he said he relished his time working for the Air Boss.
One of the most impressive supply chain accomplishments, he said, was working for the Air Boss on a project to recover 100 air strike fighter planes that had not flown in eight years due to various part failures. His job there was to analyze the entire program to find where the product elements weren’t functioning. He was responsible for writing and developing the first task order and how to approach recovery.
“How do you how align complex organizations to change and affect readiness improvement?” Soracco emphasized about the project.
As force supply officer at CNAF, Soracco was involved in everything related to aviation supply and policy readiness.
“Just how do we supply readiness to the aviators … to aviation?” Soracco asked. “We inspected all the air stations, all the carriers, supply operations and made sure everything was mission ready. That's a massive job; probably the pinnacle.”
Becoming an SES
Soracco retired from military service after 30 years in March of 2021, but by July 2021, he had joined the Senior Executive Service as chief logistician of aviation at NAVSUP WSS, a first-of-its-kind billet. He oversees the aviation supply chain and related services for the Naval Aviation Enterprise for parts needed to maintain critical weapon systems.
This is a job he has been preparing for his whole career. As a former captain, Soracco joined the Senior Executive Service asking, “How do we make a difference on our performance of our spares availability to the flight line- to have the parts on the shelf when the maintainer needs it to fix that aircraft?”
Soracco said some people never question the standard operating procedures, even if parts keep breaking or the instructions are outdated. But he knows exactly what questions to ask, because he has been on the other side.
Now as chief logistician, he aims to, “take apart everything we do now, and ask, ‘why is this done this way, and is there something we can do to improve it?’ The goal is making the supply chain more effective and less expensive.”
Rather than starting from a birds-eye view, Soracco looks at the beginning, asking, “Where does the supply chain start? It starts with demand at the flight line, with the maintenance plan.”
When faced with 100 downed planes, he went to the source. “It was a parts problem, and that meant everything else was broken, so the other product elements couldn’t function.” He analyzed this problem and wrote the first task order on how to approach recovery.
By finding the first kink in the supply chain, he can then drill up, resulting in the questions, “what changed and what can we do to get reliable parts in order to increase fleet lethality.”
Moving Forward
Looking to the future, Soracco spoke about the mission of NAVSUP Weapon Systems Support, to provide program and supply support for the weapon systems that keep our naval forces mission ready.
“Naval aircraft are designed and built to go out and protect our freedom, and if a part keeps breaking every five minutes, how do I win the war? The idea is make sure that parts are reliable, so Sailors don't have to sit there and chase parts all day. To me, that's success.”
NAVSUP WSS is one of 11 commands under Commander, NAVSUP. Headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, NAVSUP employs a diverse, worldwide workforce of more than 22,500 military and civilian personnel. NAVSUP and the Navy Supply Corps conduct and enable supply chain, acquisition, operational logistics and sailor and family care activities with our mission partners to generate readiness and sustain naval forces worldwide to prevent and decisively win wars. Learn more at www.navsup.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/navsupwss, and https://twitter.com/navsupsyscom.
| Date Taken: | 12.22.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 12.22.2021 12:51 |
| Story ID: | 411777 |
| Location: | PHILADELPHIA, PA, US |
| Web Views: | 700 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Passion for logistics, improving readiness drives NAVSUP WSS’ newest SES, by Tristan Pavlik, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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