Logistics Makes the World Go Round

  • Published
  • By SSgt. Eric Hamilton
  • Northern Edge Joint Information Bureau
Elmendorf AFB AK --  "If everything goes great, no one cares about logistics," said Lt. Col. Todd M. Dudinsky, the ALCOM J4 Plans and Policies Officer. "They care when stuff doesn't get here, or they can't get from one place to another, or if there aren't places to sleep or eat." Dudinsky quoted an old military saying, "I don't know what this logistics stuff is, but I want more of it."

And there needed to be plenty to go around. Northern Edge brings over 1,500 participants to Alaska, and each one needed a place to sleep, food to eat, and the resources to do his or her job while assigned here. Logistics' role is to ensure those needs are met, said 1st Lt. Thane A. Sisson, Exercise Support Flight Commander of Detachment 1, 353rd Combat Training Squadron.

This is a lot harder than it sounds, Sisson said. "The trick is making it look seamless."

One of the primary functions of logistics is to minimize redundancy while ensuring that everything needed is there. Dudinsky said it was somewhat like preparing for a camping trip. If the place you're going is a nice campground with bathrooms and other facilities, you won't need to bring as much gear as if you are planning to go into a wilderness area. Less gear is easier to carry, but if you're missing something essential, your camping experience might be miserable.

One big difference between Northern Edge and a recreational camping trip is the scale. Northern Edge this year brought 1,500 additional personnel under the control and responsibility of four separate Alaskan installations and covered an area over twice the size of Texas, through the air, over the land and through the seas.

Still, there are some similarities. It's still important to bring no more than you need while not forgetting anything essential. Minimizing redundancy not only decreases the need for airlift capability, but ensures better interoperability between units through using shared resources. This increased efficiency reduces resources needed and impact on the environment, Sisson said.

Although the exercise only lasts about two weeks, preparation had to start far in advance. Detailed planning for this year's Northern Edge exercise began "about a year ago," Dudinsky said, and general planning for the exercise began years before that. Changes in the process begin happening as soon as deficiencies are recognized in prior exercises.

For example, "it was about a 2-year process" to prepare installation dining facility resources to handle the increased workload that a large scale exercise like Northern Edge brings, Sisson said. Previous exercises provided "on the economy" per diem because the dining facilities couldn't handle the increased workload back then.

Planning isn't the only thing that began early. Munitions were moved as early as six months prior to the exercise, as were commonly used items like repair parts and tools. Commonly used items are moved closer to the exercise start.. Coordination for the movement of ships and aircraft and vehicles are also coordinated months in advance. 

This long lead time allowed changes that improved efficiency. One such improvement upgraded the dining facility on Eielson, allowing all of the incoming exercise participants to eat there, and significant improvements allowed exercise participants to utilize the other Alaskan DFACs, too. By using installation dining facilities to their full potential, Sisson said, great savings were realized, not only in terms of money saved by reducing per diem, but in terms of time needed to eat on the economy.

Another improvement was realized in the lodging arena. "300 bed spaces in contingency dormitories cost the Air Force and participating units nothing but allowed 300 spaces more than billeting alone could provide," Sisson said, but allowed immense cost and time savings over having to send participants "downtown" for lodging. Of course, the Air Force still pays to maintain these dorms, but realizes an overall cost savings when exercises like Northern Edge use them.

And saving time and money also saves the environment, Sisson said, because less commuting on and off base for meals and lodging means less driving.

However, planning even a year in advance can't account for the unforeseen. "Things that normally happen four months prior were happening two weeks prior," Sisson said. Changes in air support demanded changes in logistics planning, and units that were expected to participate fell in or fell out as real-world demands and other factors came to bear.

Dudinsky said that there's a phrase that exemplifies how logistics plans for the unexpected. "It's called "Gumby rules" logistics," he said. "Be flexible." This flexibility allowed creative solutions to problems very typical of real-world missions.

It's because of this sort of practice that the American military is the very best at solving the logistical puzzle, Dudinsky said. "We can pick up forces anywhere and put them down anywhere else, and have them mission-capable within a very short time."

Even with the exercise just beginning, Sisson said he felt that the logistics planning was a success this year because "everybody had food and lodging. There were no lapses in support despite changing unit arrivals. Logistics continued to support regardless of what the needs were."

This success wasn't just the result of planning or flexibility, Sisson said, but by capable team members. He said that the joint logistics team of fifteen people had many capable key players.

"The thing that's great is that you have individuals like Technical Sgt. Szekeres, who put together an entire billeting plan for 800 personnel from E3 to O6," he said. "Then you have Technical Sgt. Frantz, who is the linchpin responsible for making sure all cargo gets unloaded and redeployed, and he's coordinating with each (participating) unit to get this done. I'm not sure that words can convey the magnitude of that task."

Sisson said, "It really comes down to the technical sergeants, the staff sergeants and the airmen who make it happen. Logistics doesn't just happen at the top level."