JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas -- (March 20, 2015) An Army in transition and the potential impact of sequestration were among the key topics discussed by the commanding general of the Army Materiel Command during a visit here March 11 and 12.
The Mission and Installation Contracting Command served as host for Gen. Dennis Via who spent two days in San Antonio receiving operational updates and conducting command visits with joint base organizations supported by AMC.
During his visit, he met with leaders at the Installation Management Command, Army North, Army South as well as the 412th and 410th Contracting Support Brigades on Fort Sam Houston to learn about each respective command's requirements, issues and concerns in order for AMC to better support them.
"If a Soldier drives it, flies it, wears it, shoots it, communicates with it or eats it, AMC has a role in providing it," Via said. "And the folks who do the contracting have a huge role in making all of that happen."
During a town hall with contracting activities on Fort Sam Houston, Via addressed the continuing state of transition for the service in response to an ever-changing threat environment.
"We have always been in a state of change. That's what the Army is about," he said. "We're in a period of transition, and that transition will continue. It's impacted by sequestration."
He added that as the Army continues to transition following 13 years of war, it remains critical that it is resourced at the best levels possible as Soldiers continue to serve in operations across six different continents.
"I'm always concerned about resourcing our units to perform their missions, so we're very concerned about sequestration. We have very important missions and operations, (and) we have to ensure we have trained and ready forces to perform those operations," Via said. "We always want to make sure that they are the best led, best trained and best equipped force before we send them off to conduct an operation.
"In order to do that, they have to be ready. In order to ensure they have a high state of readiness, you have to have resources. I'm always concerned about that as well as having the resources to train," he continued.
The AMC commander said sequestration is a 10-year law extending to 2023, but he is confident that a process is in place to manage the impact. That process takes into consideration lessons learned from previous reductions in force.
"We learned from that, so we're managing the drawdown on the uniform side and trying to balance and leverage as we have people retire," Via said. "We want to lead and manage our way through this to have a minimal impact."
As part of his visit to San Antonio, Via also had an opportunity to tour the Center for the Intrepid to view its state-of-the-world technologies used for rehabilitation, research, education and training and meet with Soldiers who benefit from that technology.
"When we see Soldiers here and talk to them about their injuries, we want to know what can we do in providing better equipment … so if they unfortunately suffer some type of injury, it can be limited in impact," the AMC commanding general said. "These visits and discussion help me have a better understanding of where I should ensure we invest our resources."
He added such insight is valuable in developing new technologies that can help better equip and protect Soldiers while enabling them to perform their mission.
Headquartered at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, AMC is responsible for ensuring the Army's materiel readiness through technology, acquisition support, materiel development, logistics power projection and sustainment to the total force. As a subordinate command, the Army Contracting Command serves as the contracting arm for AMC. The MICC is one of two subordinate ACC commands responsible for providing contracting support for the warfighter at Army commands, installations and activities located throughout the continental United States and Puerto Rico.
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