Air Force print news (March 21, 2006): new customer logistics support centers make life simpler.

WASHINGTON -- New Air Force combat and mobility logistics support centers opening in early April will make ordering, tracking, and shipping supplies to troops worldwide a simpler, more customer-friendly process, said officials here.

The centers will open at Langley Air Force Base, Va., and Scott AFB, Ill.

"The [centers] are poised to provide enterprise-wide support to our forces at home or deployed," said Gen. T. Michael Moseley, Air Force chief of staff. "The centers will take on the support of our Air Reserve components and our contracted supply accounts, becoming truly total force logistics organizations."

In the past, five major command regional supply squadrons were controlling all supply back-shop functions for their bases, to include funding, stock control, equipment, and records management, as well as computer operations.

"The problem with that was the support was based on geographical boundaries, requiring the support from two or more centers when units were deployed," said Air Force Lt. Col. Scott Tew, chief of the operations readiness support branch.

"With these support centers, everything is going to be centralized," Tew said. "If airmen get orders to deploy, they will be able to pick up the phone and talk to one person to get the supplies they need for that deployment. And once they're at the deployed location and they need more supplies, they'll be able to contact that same person to order what they need."

While regional logistics sites will remain in various locations around the world, the centers will be the hubs providing oversight to everything from the maintenance to the distribution of supplies to forecasting the need for supplies in certain areas.

"How many times is an aircraft grounded because parts are unavailable or in the process of being fixed? That's a situation we don't want our troops to be in, especially deployed," Tew said. "We will be able to predict where things will be needed before they're actually needed. The goal is to better prepare our airmen out there."

Tew compared the centers to those of civilian companies who ship packages worldwide in a matter of days.

"People call upon those companies because they know if they send something, it's going to arrive where it's intended, sometimes overnight," he said. "That kind of dependability and predictability is what we hope comes from these centers."

Staff Sgt. Julie Weckerlein, USAF