Linda A. Young
The Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics is establishing a new office with the goal of better managing civilian logisticians to ensure the availability of well-trained and experienced employees equipped with the right skills to support a Force XXI Army. This office, called the Logistics Management Proponency Office (LogPro), manages civilian career topics including:
Strengthening career advancement and development opportunities for civilians working for the Department of the Army. The office will use cutting-edge tools, standardized criteria, and will be the Army’s resident source of vital information for use by both the Activity Career Program Managers and civilian careerists.
Tracking the Total Army civilian population in a way that parallels the Active Army system. Eventually each careerist will have a one page "record-brief" with vital information about professional history and career assignments.
Reengineering the Supply and Maintenance Intern Programs to continue the many new and exciting changes in the way interns train. The program continues as two years of formal classroom instruction, correspondence courses and on-the-job training. One major change is the initial schooling each intern will attend. The Supply and Maintenance management interns will follow the path set by Transportation management interns who successfully use the Transportation Officer Basic Course (OBC) as the cornerstone of civilian intern training. The Transportation OBC is located at Fort Eustis, VA. The future Maintenance management training will be at the home of Ordnance, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. For Supply management, the interns will attend the US Army Quartermaster Center and School, Fort Lee, VA. The OBC covers a wide realm of areas including leadership skills, unit and staff operations, tactics, common soldier skills, and communications skills. Although originally developed for military officers, these OBCs are excellent training for civilians and provide a perspective of the military that many civilians rarely get.
After the OBC, interns are sent to several Army Logistics Management College courses at Fort Lee, including the Integrated Item Manager’s Course, the Logistics Management Development Course and the Defense Distribution Management Course. Interns also attend the Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution System Course at Fort Jackson, SC, and the Provisioning Course at the US Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH. These courses, combined with the OBC, are considered Phase I of an intern’s career.
Phase II training will include several on-the-job experiences. For example, the interns will be assigned to a retail location to work at various levels including the division support command, the corps support command and the Materiel Management Center. They also will spend several weeks with a logistics assistance representative and work in a joint training assignment with another service or the Defense Logistics Agency. The interns’ final training will involve various assignments in wholesale supply management learning about National Inventory Control Point processes, weapons system management and specialized technical training in the functional area of their future assignments.
Linda A. Young, an Instructor at the US Army Logistics Management College, Fort Lee, Virginia, is currently on assignment with Headquarters, Department of the Army, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics.