Aug. 26, 2008 — Sierra Army Depot now keeps track of tens of thousands of pieces of clothing made for today’s war fighter. According to a story published in the SIAD’s monthly newspaper, The Challege, Kathy Ayers, a supervisory program manager, wrote the depot “recently acquired the Organizational Clothing and Individual Equipment Mission in support of the War Fighter.”

According to Ayers, the mission came to SIAD based on the good work it has been doing in another mission. The Army Materiel Command and the Central Management Office approached SIAD in July of 2007 about taking on the OCIE mission.

SIAD receives, classifies and stores clothing and associated equipment from Southeast Asia. The mission would also encompass transferring several pieces of clothing from the SIAD’s older mission to the OCIE mission.

Ayers said that in July 2007, visitors from CMO came to see if SIAD had the capability and capacity for storage. The visit also produced a draft Scope of Work, which was finalized in November 2007.

The CMO, along with the Program Executive Office Soldier came back to the depot to train about 20 employees on the identification and classification of the soldier’s personal protective gear.

The employees, Ayers said, went through the Outer Tactical Vests, plates, helmets and other various types of equipment.

Ayers said the trainers left the employees with a wealth of information and proper guidelines to perform their jobs with efficiency and quality.

Shortly after the training, SIAD and CMO began segregating materiel from the first mission to the OCIE program.

During the segregation process, the CMO identified several thousand pieces of body armor that needed to be distributed to the soldiers at various sites. CMO requested SIAD prepare and ship pieces of body armor (OTVs, body armor inserts and outer body armor) to seven different sites.

The shipments equated to 40,539 pieces valued at $7.2 million.

Ayers said that was just the beginning of the workload for SIAD. The depot’s next job was to segregate and prepare materiel for shipments back to the Defense Logistics Agency as part of the DA Buyback Program. SIAD issued 85,249 pieces valued at $391,000 back to DLA for credit.

Sierra and CMO also began a timeline for implementation and training of the Central Issue Facility-Installation Support Module, which is responsible for keeping records of all personal clothing and protective gear for soldiers.

Once implemented, SIAD would be one of many CIF sites around the world working to ensure that all soldiers are 100 percent equipped with their personal clothing and protective gear.

At the beginning of April, Sierra started populating our CIF-ISM property book. It started with 107 lines of materiel that was uploaded to the property book and it has been a continuous flow of materiel since the mission opened for business. Sierra has continued to receive materiel and make shipments to other CIF locations as they need materiel.

At the end of June, SIAD had 413 lines with 171,831 pieces of inventory valued at $11.6 million of inventory on our property book. It also issued 36 lines (85,582 pieces) of OCIE materiel to DLA valued at $391,000 and 33 lines (16,867 pieces) of OCIE materiel to other CIF sites valued at $8.5 million.

SIAD is also still in the process of transferring materiel from the first mission to the OCIE inventory. Sierra and CMO has identified 696 lines valued at $16.6 million to be transferred from the first program to the OCIE program. We have approximately 35 percent completed with another 30 percent that is partially completed.

Because of its success, SIAD will receive enough materiel to reset 118,000 soldiers, which is made of 83,000 active/reserve and 5,000 National Guard soldiers. The reset of 83,000 active/reserve soldiers requires 1.1 million pieces valued at $70.1 million and reset of the 35,000 National Guard Soldiers requires 449,400 pieces valued at $29.6 million.

SIAD started receiving this reset materiel on 13 June and according to Ayers has currently received 60 truckloads of materiel. Sierra has currently received 168,795 pieces valued at $8 million from DLA and 89,966 pieces valued at $15.4 million for the reset program.

“We anticipate moving materiel out soon to start resetting the soldiers involved in this particular program,” said Ayers.

Sierra anticipates receiving a few new programs associated with OCIE. These programs are still in the works:
Gray Shirt Program - Soon the new dress blue uniforms will be issued to soldiers but in the meantime the Army authorized AAFES sites to purchase more than 20,000 gray shirts to go with the dress blues.

The Army has now changed its minds and it is going to require white shirts instead. The gray shirts are no longer required so the CMO will be buying the gray shirts plus the bulk excess materiel and all the trim (buttons, thread etc) and put it in stock in the OCIE. The CMO is asking that Sierra receive the materiel, do a complete inventory on items received and report back to the CMO of any discrepancies.

Ft. Benning Desert items - The CIF site at Benning is at its storage capacity. The CMO is asking that the materiel be shipped to Sierra and be stored as Ft. Benning stock. Sierra will then issue stock to Ft. Benning (CRC) as they receive more soldiers, contractors, and civilians that are deploying overseas. This will be a replenishment program to Ft. Benning for deployment.

PEO Solider - ESAPI / ESIPI Plates – Sierra would be receiving approximately 15 truckloads of these two types of plates to store and reissue as needed. These items are the Enhanced Small Arms Protective Inserts for the front, back and sides of the Soldier.

Ft. Benning / Ft. Dix Replenishment - These items would consist of hot weather boots, socks, and T-shirts, etc. Sierra would be receiving Condition Code A stock to store in our normal OCIE Inventory and as Ft. Benning and Ft. Dix has a need for materiel they would requisition it from Sierra. This would be a replenishment program as well.

The current OCIE retrograde and reset programs, as well as the future programs for OCIE, are a great opportunity for Sierra to show how we can support the war fighter, wrote Ayers in her story for the August 2008 Challenge.

These types of programs fit into our core competencies and it will help CMO, PEO soldier and the Army to reset their soldiers with the most up-to-date and improved clothing and protective gear in an efficient and timely manner. “This is a win – win situation for the Army, Sierra Army Depot and most importantly, the war fighter,” said Ayers.