[Editor’s Note: This Blast from the Past article was initially published in Army Logistician (the former title of Army Sustainment) in the MAY-JUN 1974 issue. This article highlights that getting published knows no rank.]
Until about a year ago, the 988th Supply Company, operating under the 81st U.S. Army Reserve Command, provided direct support on repair parts to three Reserve units. It was an important and mission-oriented assignment but was insignificant compared with what was to come.
In light of the overall drawdown of the Active Army and the increased pace of issuing equipment to Reserve units, a reevaluation of the support being furnished to the Army Reserve by Active Army installations was directed by the Department of the Army. Resulting Department of the Army guidelines state that Army Reserve combat service support units — such as the 988th — should be used as a nucleus for providing additional support.
The idea was not only to save money but to put to even greater use the skills the Reserve units had acquired. A major change in the level of activities of the 988th resulted.
From then on, the unit was to furnish direct wholesale repair parts support to general support and direct support maintenance companies and 11 area maintenance support activity (AMSA) shops serving some 100 Army Reserve units throughout Florida and Georgia.
Some Said It Couldn’t Be Done
Some wondered how a company of part-time Soldiers could possibly “get it together” enough to receive and fill the hundreds of requisitions and pack and ship the parts without falling hopelessly behind or getting the orders fouled up beyond recognition.
Those pessimists underrated the 988th. The 250-man company was organized into four teams. One team meets each weekend. Orders for parts are processed 52 weeks a year. One Sunday each month all teams meet as a unit.
Each team is fully capable of processing and filling requisitions and then packing and crating the parts and transporting them to the shipping point.
The all-mobile 988th stores hundreds of line items in vans parked at its Reserve Center in East Dublin, Georgia. Stocked items range from truck tires to firing pins for the M16 rifle. Repair parts for wheeled vehicles, radios and related equipment, and weapons are kept on hand. If mobilized, the company would be able to supply troops in a fluid and highly mobile battlefield environment.
Before the unit’s mission was expanded, area maintenance shops sent their requisitions directly to class I Active Army installations. Now they go directly to the 988th. Only if the 988th can’t fill the requisition does it go on along to a class l installation.
When the 988th’s mission was enlarged, it was able to fill about 25 percent of the requisitions it received. Now it can fill about 75 percent of them. Shops report that they receive the parts they order at least as rapidly as they did when the requisitions went directly to class I installations. The 988th boasts that no order is more than a week old.
Records are kept showing how frequently various parts are ordered. When the demand for a part reaches a certain level, the 988th adds that part to its on-hand inventory. Thus, the unit can satisfy an increasing percentage of requisitions from its own stock.
Area maintenance shops in the 81st Army Reserve Command area, which maintain aircraft and other special items of equipment, do not send requisitions through the 988th since support of those items is not part of the unit’s TOE (table of organization and equipment) mission.
The 988th Supply Company’s operation has proved that the Army Reserve can serve its own under deadline pressure. They have proved they can deliver the parts.
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Private David H. Poer, Jr. was an information specialist in the 81st U.S. Army Reserve Command Headquarters, Atlanta, Georgia.
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This article was published in the winter 2026 issue of Army Sustainment.
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