CMA employee earns rare Army logistician accreditation

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MD, UNITED STATES

11.29.2022

Story by Karen Nikol 

Army Chemical Materials Activity

CMA employee earns rare Army logistician accreditation

By U.S. Army Chemical Materials Activity Public Affairs Office

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MD – An employee with the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Activity (CMA) and Army Veteran is one of only 15 Army logisticians who have earned the title of Advanced Level Master Logistician.

Logistics management specialist Mr. Gregory W. Packer earned a place among this elite group, meeting requirements for the Army’s Master Logistician Certificate Program - Advanced Level, the first CMA employee to achieve this credential. Of the Army’s 55,000 Civilian logisticians, 72 have earned the title of Master Logistician, and only 15 are Advanced Level.

CMA Deputy Director Mr. Alan Lott presented the certificate to Mr. Packer at CMA Headquarters, located at APG-South.

“This accomplishment is a testament to Mr. Packer’s hard work and dedication and will make a positive difference in our program and the Department of the Army,” Mr. Lott said.

The Logistics Career Field provides a continuous source of highly trained and qualified Army Civilians to support logistics management operations across the Army. The Master Logistician Certificate Program is an assessment-based process to acquire specific knowledge and skills, accredited through the American National Standards Institute. The completion of the three-tiered certificate program culminates as a Master Logistician.

"It is an honor to be the first person in CMA to be awarded with the Advanced Level of the Department of the Army Master Logistician Certificate Program,” Mr. Packer said, pointing out that former CMA employee Sophia Copeland was awarded at the foundation level.

Developing other employees and continuing to be a lifelong learner are part of Mr. Packer’s career plan. The Flint, Michigan, native joined CMA in 2009, after retiring from the Army with more than 20 years of service. He said his military career and experience with maintenance prepared him to solve problems, find solutions and think creatively, all important skills in an organization with an unusual mission that still needs the basics.

“For example, my area’s involve the basic functions to keep us moving– property books, accounting for property, procurement,” Packer said. A unique challenge in the pandemic involved ordering COVID test kits without using a government purchase card, a mission where his military experience paid off.

“For a while we were the only ones in all of Army Materiel Command to have the test kits on hand,” he said, which led to U.S. Army Joint Munitions Command leadership requesting his support. “I put in an order for 10,000 test kits for the JMC sites, and had AMC and other organizations calling me trying to figure out how to do that. It’s an old ordering method, but we can still use it.”

When CMA reorganized in 2013, Mr. Packer moved to the Stockpile Management Office and became the CMA Logistics Program Manager, ultimately being promoted and officially assigned to the G4 role this year.

“Ever since I joined the Army, I had good mentors who told me you have to understand your whole logistics circle, not just your piece. That’s how I’ve always approached everything,” he said. “That’s why I like the certification program. It makes people look at and understand the whole circle.”

Now a resident of Bel Air, Mr. Packer has a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in logistics and is the principal advisor to the CMA director and assigned staff on maintenance, supply and transportation management.

“I couldn’t get a better job in the Army than where I am today, at CMA,” he said. “You see it every day, people leave and get jobs and come back to CMA. It’s a good place to be.”

An Army Materiel Command separate reporting activity, under tactical control of JMC, CMA is a unique organization with capabilities not found elsewhere in the Army. CMA supports the international treaty overseeing chemical weapons elimination; safely stores the nation’s chemical weapons stockpile and supports the stockpile destruction mission; protects the surrounding public, workers and environment; and assesses and destroys the nation’s recovered chemical warfare materiel.




CAPTIONS:

Packer1.jpg: U.S. Army Chemical Materials Activity logistics management specialist and Army Veteran Mr. Gregory W. Packer talks with Mr. Jeff Angel, a toxic material handler supervisor at Blue Grass Chemical Activity, during a site assistance visit.

Packer2.jpg: U.S. Army Chemical Materials Activity Deputy Director Mr. Alan Lott presents Mr. Gregory W. Packer, an Army Veteran, with a certificate commemorating his achievement as one of 15 Advanced Level Master Logisticians in the Army.

• Date Taken: 11.29.2022
• Date Posted: 11.30.2022 15:35
• Story ID: 434241
• Location: ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MD, US
• Hometown: FLINT, MI, US