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FISC Yokosuka Moves Swiftly to Support Pacific Partnership

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS090814-19
Release Date: 8/14/2009 5:36:00 PM

By H. Sam Samuelson, U.S. Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Yokosuka Public Affairs

YOKOSUKA, Japan (NNS) -- U.S. Fleet and Industrial Supply Center, (FISC) Yokosuka continues to plan for and provide logistical support as Pacific Partnership 2009 (PP09) reaches the midway point in its summer 2009 mission Aug. 14.

Pacific Partnership, hosted aboard USNS Richard E. Byrd (T-AKE-4), is a broad, Western Pacific region humanitarian civic assistance program coordinated with host nations, the U.S. Navy, partner nations and non-governmental organizations.

The mission is designed to strengthen alliances, streamline security cooperation among partner nations and improve capacity to deliver humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to the far reaches of the Western Pacific theater.

The original PP09 designated platform was USS Dubuque (LPD 8) but changed after Dubuque's participation was cancelled. The platform change from an amphibious platform to a dry cargo platform meant that humanitarian aid supplies originally staged and prepared for the San Diego-based Dubuque needed to be re-routed to Richard E. Byrd already operating in the Western Pacific.

FISC Yokosuka responded quickly.

"Once the platform changed last May, we essentially were required to alter the delivery and load plan while, simultaneously, re-sequencing a supply chain for a T-AKE-based support plan," said FISC Yokosuka deputy director of Operations, Kevin Mooney.

In fact, the sequence of planning, receiving, staging and loading supplies in support of Pacific Partnership 2009 began in the fall of 2008 and was based on loading for the capabilities of an LPD.

"With the decision to dedicate the Richard E. Byrd to the PP09 mission, in conjunction with PACFLT (U.S. Pacific Fleet) N4, the entire network of logistics players in the Pacific was driven to devise a short notice plan to shift support elements from San Diego to the Pacific ports of Yokosuka and Guam in anticipation of REB's pre-scheduled stops."

Mooney said FISC Yokosuka seized the initiative and reacted swiftly to the mission material sourcing requirements and loaded Richard E. Byrd with vital PP09 life-support material during a short visit the ship made to Yokosuka.

"We found a way to rapidly alter the mission outfitting plan and take advantage of the brief time the ship was [here] at CFAY (Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka)."

Due in large part to continuous communication and coordination between all logistics support staffs in the Pacific, the plan worked. Richard E. Byrd made its first humanitarian call in Samoa July 14.

"A logistics challenge, yes, insurmountable? Not at all," says Mooney. "It's what we do. It's what mission commanders rely upon in the broader DoD Pacific Fleet logistics community for us to solve for them – getting people, cargo and supplies – in this case, humanitarian cargo to the REB (Richard E. Byrd) – wherever that customer needs it."

Getting supplies to Richard E. Byrd to make such remote ports of call, according to Mooney, demanded attention to the type of platform the USNS ship represented and where it could actually go.

"What we did was leverage resources, including other platforms and locations, to ensure that when Richard E. Byrd was in a spot to receive supplies, those supplies were on hand, staged and ready to go," Mooney said.

FISC Yokosuka supports National Defense Strategies by providing around the clock logistics solutions for Navy, Marine Corps and joint forces operating in the 7th Fleet Area of Operations. FISC Yokosuka, one of seven supply centers under Commander, Fleet and Industrial Supply Centers (COMFISCS), is the Western Pacific region's largest Navy logistics command. The FISC Yokosuka enterprise is comprised of more than 20 detachments, fuel terminals and sites from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to Guam; from Misawa, Japan to Sydney, Australia. COMFISCS comprises more than 7,500 military and civilian logistics professionals operating as a single cohesive team providing global logistics services from more than 135 locations worldwide. A component of the Naval Supply Systems Command, headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pa., COMFISCS is part of a worldwide logistics network of more than 25,000 military and civilian personnel providing combat capability through logistics.