NAS SIGONELLA, Sicily, Italy (NNS) – Military and civilian leaders of Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center Sigonella (NAVSUP FLCSI) gathered virtually for the command’s annual leadership conference July 28-30 to exchange ideas and develop solutions aimed at achieving the command’s strategic goals during fiscal year 2021.
Attendees of the conference operate at strategic locations across Navy Region Europe, Africa, Central (EURAFCENT): Naval Air Station (NAS) Sigonella, Naval Station Rota, Spain; Naval Support Activity (NSA) Souda Bay, Greece; NSA Naples, Italy; and Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti.
During the symposium, each leader took turns discussing how the COVID-19 pandemic had disrupted aspects of command operations and the lessons learned. Each briefer made time for open-forum discussion to identify the operational challenges they continue to face, and to form actionable solutions, especially in the event of a possible resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the Navy Region Europe, Africa, Central (EURAFCENT).
Capt. Alsandro H. Turner, FLCSI’s commanding officer, urged the attendees to take steps to mitigate future potential interruptions to operations.
“The new operational environment that our command faces as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic requires us to be aggressive learners, to innovate new ideas and practice outside-of-the-box thinking,” Turner told the attendees. “Our discussions during the conference offer us an opportunity to look at our operations with a critical eye and find ways to employ net power and resourcing to provide tactical solution sets for warfighter plans and strategies. This approach will ultimately make us a better organization.”
Two of the three central themes for the conference were optimizing manpower and improving overall capability positioning.
“Manning and capability are critical aspects to performing our mission because they allow us to properly effectuate warfighter operations,” Turner said. “The proper combination of manning and capabilities equals decision making options and flexibility. It allows leaders to explore the art of logistics and to develop innovative ways to support the strategic end states through operations and tactical action.”
Another major theme of the conference was to find new ways to implement the Navy’s diversity and inclusion priorities at the command.
“Making inclusion and diversity a key focus for our conference represents FLCSI’s commitment to responding to the Navy’s urgent call to all commands to recruit and retain the best workforce possible, and eliminate discrimination of any kind across the service,” said Bong Cabling, FLCSI’s executive director.
FLCSI is NAVSUP’s fleet logistics center in Europe whose workforce comprises, in part, hundreds of logistics professionals of Italian, Greek and Spanish nationality.
“FLCSI is a very culturally diverse command,” Cabling said. “The expertise that our host nation partners contribute to the NAVSUP mission is invaluable. We benefit greatly from the variety of backgrounds and expertise of all of our American and host nation mission partners.”
Cabling added that conducting the leadership conference virtually was a first for the command.
“In this era of the COVID-19 pandemic, and all the challenges it causes for us, we are operating in a new normal,” Cabling said. “Using video conferencing technology to communicate with each other was the perfect way to comply with the social distancing mandates made by American and host nation governments.”
For FLCSI’s leaders, developing Smart Solutions to operational challenges were key to making the conference a success. Rick Sucheck, FLCSI’s business manager, said he recorded the action items that emerged from discussions.
“Our ability to achieve our objectives this year depends not simply upon exchanging ideas and brainstorming solutions, but also completing action items created during the conference,” Sucheck said. “Following through enables us to align our approach with NAVSUP leadership and achieve their mandate of being able to fight and win.”
FLCSI is one of NAVSUP’s eight globally-positioned logistics centers that provides for the full range of the Fleet’s military operations. The command delivers solutions for logistics, business and support services to the Navy, Military Sealift Command, Joint and Allied Forces throughout EURAFCENT.
| Date Taken: | 08.03.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 08.03.2020 09:09 |
| Story ID: | 375135 |
| Location: | SIGONELLA, IT |
| Web Views: | 125 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, NAVSUP FLC Sigonella leaders meet virtually to discuss FY21 priorities, by Joe Yanik, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
