Source: United States Navy
“We are accelerating our supply transformation to meet the urgent and compelling fleet need,” opened Commander, Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) and 49th Chief of Supply Corps Rear Adm. Peter Stamatopoulos. “That’s why the Navy has us here.”
The symposium commenced with an address by keynote speaker, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti. She emphasized this is a decisive decade and the Navy must act with urgency to prepare and respond to protect freedom of the seas around the world. Franchetti highlighted our warfighting advantage starts with our people.
“I think of our people as our secret weapons,” said Franchetti, addressing the 210 officers in attendance. “Taking care of our people and their families is job one everyday – understanding what they need, how they see themselves in our organization, and empowering them to succeed will build resiliency, unlock their full potential and pay big dividends as we look to get after the challenges of the future.”
The symposium is an annual forum to ‘level set’ the Corps’ leadership, introducing up-to-date themes and priorities, both reinforcing and maturing the enduring mission to integrate the Navy’s supply chains end-to-end by providing acquisition, supply chain management, operational logistics and Sailor care support with mission partners to generate readiness and sustain naval forces worldwide.
“People interpret information differently on their own,” said Vice Director, Joint Staff Directorate for Logistics, Rear Adm. Dion English. “Here, we all get on the same page.”
Concentrating on personnel and community priorities on the first day, leadership championed the building of development opportunities to create a culture of operational excellence to produce high-impact and measurable mission results, both aggressive and courageous, and focusing on fleet operations. Doing so will grow future Supply Corps officers and NAVSUP employees with a progressive mix of field and headquarters staff experience, providing the necessary repetitions in the art and science of supporting logistics and sustainment missions.
Additionally, renewing focus on talent management processes will develop leaders who are accountable for right and wrong, success and failure; honest, trusted and selfless; with fiduciary responsibility for personnel, material, and fiscal resources.
The Supply Corps will elevate and build upon the Naval Sustainment System-Supply vanguard to develop leaders, mentors, and coaches who foster a proactive mindset that puts a culture of inclusion and continuous improvement through self-assessment, critical thinking, and candid professional engagement with juniors and seniors alike into day-to-day practice. This will yield a better informed supply vanguard of mentors and coaches capable of leveraging diverse networks and promoting esprit-de-corps with a collective identity.
The deliberate effort invested in our Supply Corps community is a direct reflection of the enduring intent to increase naval readiness through peerless maritime logistics.
Time was also spent taking an in depth look at the Navy Supply Corps lines of operation:
Acquisition and Lifecycle Sustainment; the management and procurement process to acquire technologies, weapons systems, programs, lifecycle product support and logistics necessary to maintain and prolong a weapon systems operational availability.
Supply Chain Management; a cross-functional approach to integrate procurement, suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses and end-users to deliver products and services for military material applications to satisfy service readiness requirements.
Operational Logistics; addresses sustainment within the military theater of operation. It connects the supply chain and logistics effort of the strategic level w/ those of the tactical level necessary to maintain and prolong operations until mission accomplishment.
“Ready for Sea,” Afloat and Expeditionary – Procuring materials, storing materials, and expending materials necessary to maintain and prolong operations until mission accomplishment.
“There is an awakening across the DoD,” said Stamatopoulos. “Sustain the force, that’s not just a NAVSUP HQ mission, that’s everybody’s mission wherever you serve.”
‘Wherever’ includes not just locations where traditional Navy assets are present, but extends across all armed forces along with our Joint and Allied partners.
“Creating and strengthening our multi-dimension networks, both virtual and kinetic, creates options for leaders and dilemmas for our adversaries,” Rear Adm. English clarified, regarding the potential contested logistics environment of the future. “Every Joint doctrine we employ today and into the future has logistics equities within, and require our active participation for optimal outcomes.”
With the majority of the Supply Corps’ senior leaders gathered, much of the many sessions focused on how to lead the Navy into the future while preparing for known threats and those yet to be encountered. Time and again, speakers turned their attention to what it means to lead the world’s premier naval fighting force.
“With seniority comes responsibility, not entitlement… serve when, where needed,” challenged Director of Logistics, Fleet Supply and Ordnance, Commander Pacific Fleet Rear Adm. Kristin Acquavella. “Be the expert with a tenacious warfighting mindset.”
The persistent themes of honest self-assessment of our teams, transforming our supply chains and sustaining an unparalleled naval presence around the planet, drove this symposium to a rewarding conclusion, proving once again to be a lucrative investment for the officers, the Supply Corps and the Navy.
“History shows the navy which adapts, learns, and improves the fastest gains an enduring warfighting advantage,” remarked Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Michael Gilday at the 2022 Surface Navy Association Symposium. “The essential element is fostering an ecosystem—a culture—that assesses, corrects, and innovates better than the opposition.”
NAVSUP and the Navy Supply Corps conduct and enable supply chain, acquisition, operational logistics and Sailor & family care activities with our mission partners to generate readiness and sustain naval forces worldwide to prevent and decisively win wars. NAVSUP is headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and employs a diverse, worldwide workforce of more than 25,000 military and civilian personnel. Learn more at www.navsup.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/navsup and https://twitter.com/navsupsyscom