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A retired two-star general known for revolutionizing how the Army Materiel Command provides global logistics has been inducted into the AMC Hall of Fame.
Maj. Gen. Joseph Arbuckle was among six new members inducted to AMC’s Hall of Fame by Army Materiel Command Commander Gen. Gus Perna during a formal ceremony at AMC headquarters, Feb. 6.
Arbuckle, an Illinois native, once said that he never intended to make the Army a career, but “once in the Army, I found I liked the challenges and responsibilities.” After three decades of service, he commanded at every officer level in the Ordnance Corps and revolutionized the way AMC does logistics.
According to his nomination, as the commander of the Industrial Operations Command in the late 1990s, Arbuckle was charged with creating a single logistics focal point within AMC to make it more efficient for customers to access the full spectrum of AMC logistics.
“The whole concept behind the single logistics focal point was for the customer, whether deployed or in garrison, in peace or war, to have one face to the field,” said Arbuckle. “Prior, if you went onto an installation or someplace deployed forward, there would typically be multiple AMC entities and multiple physical locations to distribute materiel. The idea was to simplify all of that and put it under one roof as much as possible and make it easier for the customer. This is why we exist in logistics.”
At the time, the Industrial Operations Command consisted of ammunition plants, storage depots, arsenals and maintenance depots, and had recently gained control of the Army War Reserves.
Arbuckle transformed the command away from a primarily wholesale, industrial focus to a full spectrum, global, readiness focus. Under his watch, he revolutionized the War Reserve function, which already had global infrastructure, into a global receiver and analyzer of operational strategic logistics information. He also transformed the way AMC receives materiel while deployed and at installations.
These functions still exist today under AMC’s Army Sustainment Command headquartered at Rock Island, Illinois.
Secretary of the Army Mark Esper had the opportunity to visit Army Materiel Command-managed Army Prepositioned Stocks, and at a Jan. 24 visit to the headquarters, he said, “I hear about your responsiveness to supporting units. They are singing your praises, unprompted.”
This kind of praise would not have been possible without the foundation Arbuckle set during his tenure.
In an interview, Arbuckle spoke of these accomplishments as team effort.
“It is extremely humbling to be counted among such first class individuals,” said Arbuckle of the AMC Hall of Fame. “But everything we did was a team effort. There were dozens if not hundreds of people working to make this happen.”
Many of the concepts Arbuckle implemented were first fostered when he served as an Army Strategic Fellow from 1990 to 1992 and played a key role in developing the Revolution in Military Logistics, which was widely accepted.
RML called for increased automation, a shift to distribution-based logistics, logistics projection, and logistics footprint reduction, agile infrastructure and asset visibility -- all initiatives now fundamental to successful logistics operations.
Arbuckle is no stranger to being recognized for his lasting contributions, as he was previously inducted to the Army Ordnance Corps Hall of Fame in 2005.
He retired as the commander of the Operations Support Command on Dec. 31, 2000. He joined five other retirees -- Gen. Johnnie Wilson, G. Richard Price, John Dugan, Stanley Kronenberg and Lt. Gen. Emmett Paige Jr. -- to form the AMC Hall of Fame Class of 2017.
“We are here today because of these people. They set the foundation for us to move forward. They lived it, they set the conditions, they challenged status quo,” Perna said.
| Date Taken: | 02.12.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 02.12.2018 12:49 |
| Story ID: | 265660 |
| Location: | REDSTONE ARSENAL, ALABAMA, US |
| Web Views: | 82 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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