REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- The U.S. Army Materiel Command is increasing its ability to support regionally aligned forces in Africa and Europe.
AMC employees Dave Lewis and Bill Haddix will be the command's first liaison officers to U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Europe Command respectively, in Stuttgart, Germany, for the next six months.
As LNOs to the two Unified Combatant Commands, Lewis and Haddix will serve as a direct line between the COCOM and AMC.
"We are a 3-day head start," said Haddix. "If the commands have an issue we can inform AMC within minutes, and AMC can be working on the solution long before the official notification comes, saving time on both ends."
Both positions are new for AMC. As activity intensifies in both theaters, Gen. Dennis L. Via, commanding general for AMC, saw the need to increase direct communication and support to the COCOM commanders, said Lewis.
"We've never had a full time liaison officer at either of these commands," he said. "With the potential threats to the U.S. and our allies in Europe, and on the other side of the headlines in Africa with Ebola and disaster relief, [Gen. Via] made the decision to have a better conduit to provide support. We can help bridge the gap of the Atlantic Ocean and more effectively respond to what they need."
As the LNO to AFRICOM, Lewis expects to work issues of Activity Sets and Supply Support Activities in Africa, and an additional focus on making disposition decisions on excess equipment being retrograded from Iraq and Afghanistan.
"As we are winding down from our engagement in [Central Command], there is a lot of equipment that is coming out of those locations, and the decision has to be made whether to destroy it, recondition it or maintain it. In some cases the equipment requirements we have for AFRICOM could be filled with excess CENTCOM equipment," said Lewis.
Haddix will have a different set of tasks as AMC recently expanded the European Activity Set from a battalion-sized set of equipment to a brigade-sized set this year. The EAS is drawn by rotational units in support of multinational training exercises across Europe and can be issued in 96 hours for rapid deployment capability.
"I will be helping to monitor the issue of the equipment, the return of the equipment and to a certain degree, the maintenance of the equipment while it is being used to train," said Haddix.
As the first AMC LNOs to EUCOM and AFRICOM, both men said they want to establish the positions and build trust and relationships with the COMCOMs.
"We are partners. We are all in this together, and we have the same goal," said Haddix.
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