Kaiserslautern CDD team fills important role across continents

Demilitarization, or the process of making military items mission-unusable - i.e., the mutilation of small arms or the destruction of sensitive communications equipment - has remained a core function of Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services since the organization's inception more than 50 years ago.

Preventing unauthorized release of controlled military property is so important that, in addition to mandatory introductory courses on the topic, every agency reverse logistician participates in annual training to refresh them on DOD's DEMIL guidance.

Over the past few decades, as technological efficiencies have helped shrink the physical footprint of DLA, and demilitarization tasks like cutting and shredding have been consolidated at fewer and fewer sites, the Centralized Demilitarization Depot in Kaiserslautern, Germany, stands out as a facility whose importance to U.S. troops spread out across the Europe and Africa theaters is unquestionable.

"Many people are used to a DEMIL site that covers a region," Glosby said. "For example, the Anniston DEMIL site covers the South-East region, but the small DEMIL site in Kaiserslautern covers two continents while DEMIL-ing many of the same items as the DEMIL centers back in the U.S. with half the personnel."

The CDD team reports directly to Glosby, but still works closely with the agency's co-located property disposal site personnel in Kaiserslautern and coordinates DEMIL-required property shipments from the region's outlying sites in countries like Djibouti, Spain, and Turkey, and in rotational troop destinations like Norway and Poland.

Supervisory Property Disposal Specialist Kelly Clabbers transferred from a DLA site in Italy in January and said the current CDD team includes material examiners, a disposition support representative and a demilitarization coordinator that are all extremely knowledgeable and dedicated.

"They've been great to work with so far," Clabbers said, noting that the group has shown great cohesion and the ability to problem solve together while working through the recent adoption of DLA's Warehouse Management System.

Materials Examiner and Identifier Chuck Vonk is the region's culture champion. The former soldier has been with DLA for about a decade and a half and said that being stationed with the CDD team at the largest agency property disposal location outside the U.S. offers a lot of positives.

"Working here is a great opportunity to interact with a large, great group of teammates," Vonk said. "We have a great group of professionals with an impressive depth and breadth of knowledge and experience working at the CDD who are dedicated to warfighter support. Our [region] is completely invested in building a culture of family. The future is bright!"

Material Examiner and Identifier Brian Weimer is another former soldier working at the CDD who has accumulated almost two decades of property disposal experience with DLA Disposition Services. He said the wide-ranging customer base that the DEMIL center supports keeps his job interesting and challenging.

"I have always enjoyed working closely with the military and feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to do that my entire career," Weimer said. "The CDD owes its success to the experience of its members and their loyalty to the team and DLA's customers."

Gerald Kuruc is coming up on two years with DLA as a material examiner and identifier. The retired Army chief warrant officer said he thought the CDD was the best job in the region that offered a great quality of life. As a former ground maintenance warrant, he said it has been interesting to have a role in determining the final disposition of the kinds of equipment he was responsible for fielding and maintaining during his 28 years of uniformed service.

Clabbers said that includes electronics, antennas, vehicles, and at the moment, lots of uniform items that must be destroyed so they don't fall into adversaries' hands.

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

Outside of small arms, which are now solely demilitarized in Alabama, whether it comes from the U.S. Navy's Camp Lemmonier in Africa, Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, or U.S. Army Garrison Italy in Vicenza, the Kaiserslautern CDD team keeps a tight lid on items deemed critical to national security.