Fort Lee, Virginia – GEN(R) Dennis L. Via, former Commanding General of Army Materiel Command (AMC), was presented with the 2021 Lieutenant General Arthur J. Gregg Sustainment Leadership Award in a ceremony at Fort Lee on November 1st.
Via is the sixth recipient of the award, which is presented annually to recognize leaders who have made significant and measurable contributions to the Army’s logistics operations.
During Via’s tenure at AMC, his impactful leadership enabled simultaneous redeployment and retrograde missions from Iraq and Afghanistan. His emphasis on the importance of an optimized Organic Industrial Base to best posture the Army for future conflict ensured a smooth transition from wartime operations to expeditionary logistics and sustainment support. Under his leadership, the Army manufactured and reset nearly four million pieces of equipment, generating readiness for 98 Battalion and Brigade Combat Team-equivalent formations.
Throughout his 36-year military career, GEN(R) Via commanded at all levels – from captain to general – and was the first commissioned Signal Corps officer to earn four stars. After commissioning into the Signal Corps in 1980 as a Distinguished Military Graduate from Virginia State University’s ROTC program, Via went on to earn a Master’s in Management from Boston University in 1988. Boston University recognized him as a Distinguished Alumnus in 2019, an award presented to less than 0.1 percent of the university’s graduates across all of its academic programs.
Joining GEN(R) Via at the award ceremony was his wife of 38 years, Linda, whom he met at Virginia State.
GEN(R) Via’s other command and staff assignments include the 82nd Signal Battalion; 82nd Airborne Division; 3rd Signal Brigade, III Armored Corps; 5th Signal Command, U.S. Army Europe and 7th Army; U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM); Aide-de-Camp to the Chief of Staff, Allied Forces Southern Europe; Operations Officer, J-6, Armed Forces Inaugural Committee; Division Chief, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-8; and Principal Director for Operations, Defense Information Systems Agency/Deputy Commander, Joint Task Force-Global Network Operations, U.S. Strategic Command.
The Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4 established the Lieutenant General Arthur J. Gregg Sustainment Leadership Award in 2015 – and first awarded it in 2016 to its namesake by then-GEN Via – to recognize those who demonstrate lifelong leadership and excellence in their sustainment craft. Awardees have made lasting contributions to Army sustainment operations as voted on by a board of senior military and civilian representatives.
One of the Army’s preeminent logistics leaders of the 20th century who served for over 35 years, LTG(R) Gregg enlisted in the Army as a private in 1946 and retired as the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4 in 1981. Throughout his career, Gregg established himself as an unpretentious and selfless leader with a philosophical bent on leadership that still guides the Army today, wherein effective leaders put their mission and people first and themselves last.
Moving forward into 2022 and beyond, the Lieutenant General Arthur J. Gregg Sustainment Leadership Award will be presented across three distinct categories:
- Active-duty Service member,
- Department of the Army Civilian, and
- Veteran or Retiree
This expansion will ensure the Army can most effectively recognize those leaders who have left an indelible impression on its sustainment enterprise.
The Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4, is the Army’s headquarters staff in charge of logistics. The G-4 develops, implements and oversees Army logistics policy, plans, and programming to enable the Army to maintain the highest possible level of logistics readiness. For more information, please visit www.army.mil/G-4 and connect with us on Facebook.
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