The theme for this year's Worldwide Aviation Logistics Conference was "Army Aviation -- Giving the Warfighters the Decisive Edge -- Transformation for the Future." About 250 Soldiers, Army civilians and industry leaders attended the five-day conference held last week at Bob Jones Auditorium.
The conference addressed strategic logistics issues affecting aviation readiness to determine the best solution in support of current and future aviation operations; provided a forum to address and resolve aviation logistics issues posed by Army aviation leaders; and provided briefings on logistics initiatives. Recommendations for strategic level aviation logistics issues were presented to Army aviation senior leadership on Friday, the last day of the conference. The conference was held in conjunction with the Aviation and Missile Command's Industry Day meetings, AMCOM 101 for Deploying Commanders and the Army Aviation Association's Cribbins Aviation Product Symposium.
Aviation and Missile Command commander Maj. Gen. Jim Rogers welcomed the conference to Redstone Arsenal. He described AMCOM, and its Soldiers, civilians and contractors as a "community of excellence, providing research development, acquisition and world-class, customer-oriented services to the Army's operational units worldwide."
The conference is an integral element for ensuring that national decision makers have a versatile mix of capabilities, formations and equipment across a wide range of operations to respond to global situations. AMCOM is committed to supporting worldwide operational readiness, the general said.
"We at AMCOM and AMC provide the 'decisive edge' through a 'concept to combat' view of research, technology, acquisition, logistics and materiel management, and we are transforming the nation's 'decisive force' logistics now that AMC is the Army's official lead materiel integrator," Rogers said.
"As this conference continues, I encourage you to focus on continuously adapting for the future. As conference participants you have the opportunity to multiply our Army's fighting capabilities through responsible and responsive materiel management."
Besides a week of presentations, working groups and leadership reports, the conference also offered a wide range of aviation logistics displays.
"I think this conference is wonderful," said Keith McDonald, vice president of weapon systems sustainment for Dutch Valley.
"I really appreciate this being put on. It's been beneficial by cutting through all the chase and getting right down to business. This is a great environment to get feedback directly from war fighters in the field. It was great to see warrant officers and non-commissioned officers in the audience because they are the ones we support."
The aviation logistics conference was organized by the Integrated Materiel Management Center, with employees Pat Hopkins, Linda Prater, Thomas Jackson, Bernard Battle and Lottie Dozier taking the lead. The conference was started in St. Louis by the then Aviation and Troop Command and moved to Redstone Arsenal 12 years ago.
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