Photo By Arthur Hylton | Defense Logistics Agency’s senior enlisted leader, Army Command Sgt. Maj. Tomeka...... read more read more
Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime leaders and staff hosted the agency’s senior enlisted leader, Army Command Sgt. Maj. Tomeka O’Neal at Defense Supply Center Columbus June 21.
O’Neal serves as an advocate for service members at DLA Headquarters and its six major subordinate commands. The visit offered O’Neal the chance to collaborate one-on-one with DLA Land and Maritime leadership as well as to hear from the command’s military cadre.
“I just wanted to come here to say thank you,” said O’Neal, addressing service members at a military all-hands lunch event at the Operations Center. “Thank you for what you do daily to support the national operations of this nation and our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Guardians that are out there in harm’s way.”
O’Neal hosted a robust, candid discussion with DLA Land and Maritime’s military team about concerns impacting service members assigned to DLA Land and Maritime and praised their work in moving the agency’s needle forward on warfighter support.
“Leaders like you are going to take us to 2030,” O’Neal said.
O’Neal said when she first joined the agency in 2020, she associated DLA most closely with the Defense Reutilization Marketing Office – or DRMO – from her time working in an Army supply room early in her career. DRMO, the predecessor to DLA Disposition Services, handled disposal of property that didn’t work anymore or was no longer needed by military units. O’Neal said she didn’t associate her meals, uniforms, supplies, fuel or equipment with DLA. Soon after coming onboard, she made it her mission to learn all she could about DLA to get the whole picture of how the combat logistics agency supports the warfighter.
“The operation that this agency executes is so much larger than disposing of equipment,” she said, adding that the mission, the visibility and the impact it has across the services is immeasurable.
O’Neal noted the criticality of fostering a mutual understanding of what each major subordinate command does and its importance in fulfilling the needs of the services.
“I sit down with all of [the services] and I tell them your story,” she said.
“[DLA] Land and Maritime is much bigger than anyone realizes, with the tanks, the weaponry, the trucks and vehicles it supports,” she added. “People think that DLA Land and Maritime is all about acquisition on the surface which is a fraction of what it really is and its importance for the security of the nation. What they don’t know is beyond acquisition – all the maintenance, the reparables and everything else that we manage on a daily basis.”
O’Neal coined several service members for their hard work at home station and abroad and received a special plaque from DLA Land and Maritime’s military cadre commemorating her visit.
The visit concluded with a base tour by DSCC’s general engineer Anthony Cea, who spoke of the rich history of the installation and how it has changed in mission and physical configuration over the past 100-plus years.
| Date Taken: | 07.12.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 12.28.2023 16:29 |
| Story ID: | 460969 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 56 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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