BATTLE CREEK, Mich. -

Readiness and training go hand in hand, and for the Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services Europe and Africa region, 2024 exemplified its personnel's ongoing commitment to keeping colleagues and customers equally adept at navigating the ever-evolving field of reverse logistics.

In February, regional sites temporarily throttled down the pace of property disposal assistance for three weeks of group training and the adoption of DLA's new Warehouse Management System into daily operations. The effort came directly on the heels of final WMS implementation in the continental U.S. in January and the command celebrated full implementation across some 70 worldwide sites in June.

"This amazing work force - this amazing team - took a monumental task and brought it to fruition in under 18 months," said DLA Disposition Services Director Mike Cannon. "This was, in fact, a team effort. We had people embracing the change and the entire workforce embraced this transition at the sites."

Another substantial training effort in Europe took place in May, when the region hosted dozens of deployable uniformed personnel and expeditionary civilians during DEFENDER 2024 held in Germersheim, Germany. The two-week field exercise provided a chance for potential deployers to practice constructing and operating DLA Disposition Services' modular, scalable Expeditionary Site Set. The property disposal "site-in-a-box" provides reverse logistics specialists with machinery and office spaces needed to receive used and surplus property, coordinate hazardous waste disposal, and demilitarize sensitive items in potentially hostile environments. One of four ESS units is permanently kept and maintained in nearby Kaiserslautern.

A unique aspect separating DEFENDER from previous exercises was the first-time use of WMS in an expeditionary environment, and activating it required the creation of a new location account and gaining approval for participant user roles within the WMS virtual environment. For many, simply accomplishing an exercise mission in theater was in itself a new and valuable experience.

"This was my first DLA exercise, so I didn't really know what to expect," said Navy Chief Logistics Specialist Idoreyin Esenyie, who serves the agency as part of Disposition Support Unit 2. "The team was forced to overcome and adapt to a variety of challenges, and I love seeing that. It did what an exercise is supposed to do - shake things loose to see what works and what doesn't. The team was awesome, coming from all different locations and backgrounds. You could tell that everyone wanted to make it work and had a common goal."

In addition to the major workforce training events, region personnel regularly provided reverse logistics classes and demonstrations to rotational and forward-deployed warfighters serving abroad, like property turn-in training for the Air Force 48th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall in England, the Reutilization, Transfer and Donation program class for the Army 21st Theater Sustainment Command in Kaiserslautern, or classes for deployed agency support team members and the DLA Distribution staff at Djibouti's Camp Lemmonier.

One critical learning topic across both continents involves ensuring that deployers maintain access to DLA's demilitarization services. In-depth training to help logisticians better understand the rules and guidance governing proper DEMIL typically takes place at the major sub-command's training facility in Battle Creek, Michigan. But for the first time in 2024, the Defense Demilitarization Program course was offered in Kaiserslautern in November, allowing two dozen regional attendees from the armed services, the State Department, DLA Distribution, and the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence to attend.

In the region, demilitarization itself is coordinated through the agency's Centralized Demilitarization Depot in Kaiserslautern, and its personnel are charged with ensuring that items like military electronics, antennas, vehicles, and uniforms are destroyed and can't fall into adversaries' hands.

"The Defense Department is in the process of shutting down a lot of Army Central Issue Facilities," Supervisory Property Disposal Specialist Kelly Clabbers, the CDD's lead, said in May. "We're working pretty closely with the CIFs to help them get through their inventory while they're closing."

Other important operational support endeavors included a U.S. Army "Clean Sweep" effort across its outlying installations in Africa. From January through the summer, the team at Camp Lemmonier took in used equipment originally worth millions of dollars and weighing hundreds of thousands of pounds from smaller operational sites scattered across the continent. DLA Disposition Services personnel like those in Rota, Spain, also came up big for military planners in the aftermath of 2023's Nigerian government collapse. As American forces were forced to remove equipment from the country, customers like the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Division Special Forces recognized DLA's disposition personnel for their role in the equipment retrograde effort.

"I am part of the team in NS Rota that was tasked with retrograding all equipment coming out of Airbase 101 and 201," wrote the battalion commander. "For the past 60+ days, my team and I have been working closely with [Marguerite] Richardson and [Manuel] Montes at DLA Rota. Each week they tirelessly worked with us to ensure our paperwork and equipment was prepared correctly for our turn-in appointments. This allowed us to have a seamless turn-in routine and for us to stay on track for achieving our goal. We have successfully turned in over 1,000 pieces of equipment valued over $23.5M. This accomplishment could not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of Ms. Richardson and Mr. Montes. I wanted to … inform you of the outstanding work your team is doing here in NS Rota."

Les Glosby directs the regional disposition team's efforts and wrote that success in 2024 was the product of dedicated DLA Europe and Africa frontline employees like Richardson and Montes, and the focused organizational leadership behind them.

"Team Europe and Africa continues to shine because of our people who proactively meet the requirements of the warfighter each and every day," Glosby said. "The core of the E&A team are the committed wage-grade employees who receive a variety of released assets from customers far and wide. The team is further bolstered by our hardworking support representatives and contract officers who interact with DLA's customers daily. Finally, E&A leadership provides direction and sets high - but achievable - expectations, which our team both meets and typically exceeds. This past year has been full of new endeavors, which we've risen to the challenge of and beaten. We can always be assured that the only easy day was yesterday, but with our resilient team of hardworking, dedicated professionals and the supportive families behind them, 2025 will be another highly successful year."

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