Air Force logisticians from around the world descended on St. Louis to attend the 635th Supply Chain Operations Wing’s annual Logistics Readiness Squadron Summit, 26 – 28 March.
The summit brought together Logistics Commanders, Directors, Operations Officers and SCOW leadership to synchronize support, enhance logistics command and control, and increase understanding of how logistics squadrons fit into the supply chain from an enterprise perspective.
The 635 SCOW delivers enterprise logistics support to the Air Force. This is done by conducting time-critical execution of material management solutions to include aircraft parts, chemical warfare defense ensembles, vehicles, petroleum, oils and lubricants, and bare base support for warfighters around the globe.
“This is logistics at the 30,000-foot level [figuratively speaking],” said Colonel Rob Henderson, the 635 SCOW Commander. “These are innovative things we are doing, like supporting the MC80 initiative, [the mandate to reach an 80 percent Mission Capable status for F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II weapons systems] from the Secretary of Defense. It also provides an opportunity to come together and network with each other. It’s a chance to come and talk about different issues or challenges they are having and find better support to the warfighter.”
The event hosted 190 professionals from across Air Force logistics and gave them the opportunity to listen to leaders from the highest levels of the their career field, to include the 635 SCOW commander, the Headquarters Air Force Functional, multiple group commanders, and four MAJCOM A4 leads.
“We have a number of briefings from different organizations,” Henderson explained. “We have briefers from Headquarters Air Force, MAJCOMs, wings, the Defense Logistics Agency and other support agencies. We also have breakout sessions focused on networking.”
Attendees touted the usefulness of being able to put faces to names of those that they have worked with in the past.
“This is my first conference,” said Chief Master Sgt. Anitra Nesbitt, 379th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron’s Chief of Materiel Management. “My biggest take-away is knowing exactly who to talk with to ensure my inventory is well-stocked so we can be proactive versus being reactive to changes to make sure we meet our installations’ mission objectives.”
Nesbitt said a big part of Air Force logistics is being able to predict needs and act before there is a requirement.
“One of the colonels said that we are a requirements-driven occupation, but sometimes we need to be able to forecast to better make sure we can answer those calls,” she said. “If something needs to be in a different location, we need to make sure we have those assets in place just in time.”
As the event came toward its conclusion, Nesbitt and other participants said they looked forward to taking what they learned back to their installations to aid their respective logistical needs for the warfighting effort.