DLA Distribution exercises expeditionary capabilities

NEW CUMBERLAND, Pa. -

More than 35 Defense Logistics Agency Joint Force reservists from across the United States joined the DLA Distribution Expeditionary team to train on multiple aspects of the deployable distribution center in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, June 20-July 3.

The two-week DLA Expeditionary Academy is designed to train DLA reservists to conduct distribution activities during a deployment in response to natural disaster recovery as a part of the DLA Distribution Expeditionary team or in providing logistical and operational support during contingency operations. This expeditionary academy was the second one held this year, the first taking place at DLA Distribution, San Joaquin, California, March 2024.

"Essentially, both academies follow the same agenda," said Army Lt. Col. Kimberly Ellenburg, commander, DLA Distribution Expeditionary. "However, when we find lessons learned to improve the training for the next iteration, we work with our team to make those updates and implement them on the next round of training."

During this training evolution, participants were trained on tasks in support of Theater Consolidation Shipping Point, Material Processing Center, Forward Deployed Warehouse and the Federal Emergency Management Agency Incident Support Base in support of Defense Department contingencies and FEMA requirements during hurricane season.

"The DLA Expeditionary Academy provides training to assigned DLA Distribution Expeditionary civilians and service members, to include members of the DLA joint reserve forces that support DLA Distribution's contingency missions, and includes the areas of distribution center support, whole of government mission support, and overseas contingency operations," Ellenburg commented. "Specific training also includes FEMA Incident Support Base operations that are designed to replicate the core commodity management functions that DLA will perform when operating at a FEMA ISB location under a FEMA Mission Assignment during a hurricane or another humanitarian assistance or disaster response event."

The DLA Distribution Expeditionary Academy is broken into two phases. The first is a comprehensive DLA Distribution Expeditionary site exercise where participants construct a mobile distribution center from the ground up.

"The Theater Consolidation and Shipping Point serves as the primary conduit for sustainment material entering theater," said Donnie Thompson, chief of deployments and training, DLA Distribution. "It rapidly consolidates and segregates shipments arriving from multiple sources and prepares them for onward movement directly to the customer."

The multi-day exercise is designed to provide participants with real-life scenarios where they simulate a deployable distribution environment including safely operating material handling equipment, setting up and using generators and erecting mobile command centers.

Two components of the mobile command centers included erecting Air Beam tents and Alaska Defense shelters. The Air Beam tents are designed to be shipped in a single, 20-foot container and provide over 5,600 square feet of open storage and 12,000 square feet of racked storage space. The smaller Alaska Defense shelters offer 650 square feet of open area.

"The Alaska Defense shelter is perfect for extreme conditions and can be erected in less than 30 minutes by four people," Thompson said. "It is supported by a heavy-duty frame structure that can withstand winds of up to 100 mph."

Rear Adm. Michael York, commander, DLA Distribution, visited the exercise June 25 to gain a comprehensive understanding of the expeditionary capability and meet with the team responsible for its success.

The academy concluded with phase two of training geared toward refining distribution skillsets. Topics including material management contingency training, materiel handling equipment training and hands-on warehouse training provided participants with a holistic understanding of DLA Distribution Expeditionary.

"This year we incorporated the material management contingency training to the academy. This course is a requirement for all DLA deployers deploying on DLA support teams," Thompson explained. "The course makes members familiar with the DLA systems used while deployed and provides real-life simulations to help them learn how to troubleshoot logistics problems while deployed."

The academy also provided participants with materiel handling equipment licensing.

Participants walked away from the academy with experience completing a field exercise that focused on specific material handling equipment, such as the Rough Terrain Container Handler. They received specific training on portable warehouse shelters and equipment to power a field site. Participants also received DLA Distribution, Expeditionary core functional training in Theater Consolidation and Shipping Point operations, Material Processing Center, and Incident Support Base Operations, and distribution warehousing and container yard functions.

"The Expeditionary Academies enable the joint reserve force to complete their Individual Training Plans and prepares DLA Distribution to support a contingency mission or FEMA Mission Assignment whenever activated," Ellenburg said. "Training is focused on real-world scenarios to prepare DLA Distribution, Expeditionary and joint reserve force participants to experience distributions operations in an austere environment."

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