DLA delivers Thanksgiving meals to troops overseas

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 21, 2017 -- The Defense Logistics Agency doesn’t let geography get in the way of ensuring U.S. troops deployed overseas get a taste of home for Thanksgiving.

Air Force Col. Aaron Steffens, 455th Air Expeditionary Wing vice commander, serves Thanksgiving meals to service members at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, in 2013. Each year, Subsistence supply chain professionals at the Defense Logistics Agency ensure American service members around the world are able to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving meal (U.S. Air Force Photo by Capt. Brian Wagner)

DLA sent more than 200,000 pounds of traditional Thanksgiving food to field kitchens, dining facilities and galleys throughout the Middle East and other parts of the U.S. Central Command.

Robin Whaley, who works with DLA Troop Support’s Subsistence supply chain in Philadelphia, said it takes a lot of coordination and attention to detail to make sure deployed service members get the Thanksgiving meal they deserve. The planning begins in March and the work continues until the last deliveries are made.

“I am grateful and feel honored and blessed knowing I was personally involved in the process of providing Thanksgiving support to the warfighter,” said Whaley. “If we can bring a little taste of home to the warfighter and put a smile on their faces, we have done our job.”

The effort is appreciated by Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Erika Kelly, who as the command chief of Air Force Reserve Command, is the Reserve’s most senior-ranking enlisted airman.

"During this Thanksgiving, nearly 6,000 Air Force Reservists are serving on active duty worldwide in support of combatant commanders and other agencies and major commands," Kelly said. "It means a lot to our deployed Reserve citizen airmen who are away from their families and friends to have a traditional Thanksgiving meal with their Air Force family."

Some of the food that DLA Troop Support provided for service members deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan and Kuwait include:

• 98,820 pounds of turkey
• 47,880 pounds of beef
• 31,650 pounds of ham
• 30,384 pounds of shrimp
• 3,110 gallons of grape juice
• 918 gallons of eggnog
• 6,288 pies
• 9,378 cakes (which includes 382 cheese cakes)

The Subsistence team worked with regional vendors across the globe to provide Thanksgiving food items to Navy ships at sea and to service members at the following locations: Japan, Singapore, Philippines, Korea, Okinawa, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and various locations in Europe and Africa.

As the nation’s combat logistics support agency, the Defense Logistics Agency manages the global supply chain – from raw materials to end user to disposition – for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, 10 combatant commands, other federal agencies, and partner and allied nations. DLA also supplies 86 percent of the military’s spare parts and nearly 100 percent of fuel and troop support consumables, manages the reutilization of military equipment, provides catalogs and other logistics information products, and offers document automation and production services to a host of military and federal agencies.

DLA Troop Support supplies America’s armed forces with $14 billion annually of food, uniforms, protective equipment, medicine and medical supplies, repair parts, and construction and equipment.

Headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, DLA has about 25,000 employees worldwide and supports more than 2,300 weapon systems. For more information about DLA, go to: www.dla.mil, www.facebook.com/dla.mil or http://twitter.com/dlamil.

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Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/452de04b-0117-4f34-b96c-4d2379ca753d

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1417779f-b4d2-45be-8f4a-cdf2ab67ace7

Shawn Jones
Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support
215-737-2311
[email protected]