GEN Ann E. Dunwoody is the commanding general of theU.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC), headquarteredat Redstone Arsenal, Ala., having taken command in

November of 2008. She is the first woman in the U.S. military toattain four-star rank. At the start of Operation Enduring Free-dom, GEN Dunwoody commanded the 1st Corps Support Com-mand and deployed the logistics task force that supported thefirst deploying Army units in Afghanistan and stood up the JointLogistics Command in Uzbekistan to support Combined JointTask Force 180 in Afghanistan. Subsequently, at the start of Op-eration Iraqi Freedom, she commanded the Military Traffic Man-agement Command (redesignated as the Surface Deploymentand Distribution Command), and as its commander supported

The new U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) headquar-ters at Redstone Arsenal, Ala.: AMC began operationsfrom the building last summer after relocating from FortBelvoir, Va., under congressional base closing and re-alignment mandates that collocated AMC with several ofits subordinate commands. Inset is a photograph of GENAnn E. Dunwoody, the commanding general of AMC.

Dennis Steele

the largest Army wartime deployment/redeployment movementsince World War II. She went on to command the CombinedArms Support Command and then serve as the U.S. Army’sDeputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, G-4, before joining AMC asits deputy commanding general. For soldiers who have served inIraq or Afghanistan, if they drove it, flew it, shot it, ate it, woreit, talked on it or used it to stop blood loss, AMC has played amajor role in loading it, getting it to them, fueling it, fixing it orgetting it back from the theaters of operations since 9/11. Afterserving 37 years in the Army, GEN Dunwoody plans to retirelater this year. The current AMC deputy commanding general/chief of staff, LTG Dennis L. Via, has been nominated by the Pres-ident to succeed her.

An InterviewBy Dennis Steele

Senior Staff Writer

Q: AMC has played a large role inthe drawdown of Operation NewDawn in Iraq and is playing a largerole in sustaining Operation Endur-ing Freedom in Afghani stan. Fromyour perspective, provide an update.GEN Dunwoody: As I watched GEN

Austin and Deputy Secretary of De-fense Carter furl the colors when weclosed our operations in Iraq, I wassurprised when my eyes filled withtears during the ceremony. I reflectedback with pride on the contributionsand sacrifice our service members,our civilian corps and our familiesmade over the past 10 years, both tosupport the war, and to complete theresponsible drawdown plan. This lastdecade has been tough. It’s touchedalmost every sustainer and every lo-gistics organization in the Army, butwe have much to be proud of. Handsdown, our greatest accomplishmentwas and is our ability to support ourjoint warfighters in Iraq and Afghani -stan, regardless of the many other de-mands placed on AMC. I think it’s important for folks to re-

member that our drawdown in Iraqwas one of the largest retrogrades inU.S. history. AMC supported that ef-fort while being engaged on twofronts—Iraq and Afghanistan, whilealso sustaining contingency opera-

tions in places like Haiti, Pakistan and Japan, and whilecompleting the largest BRAC in history. At the same time,we continued the reset of the Army’s and our joint part-ner’s equipment after a very hard decade at war to regen-erate combat power for future deployments. This meantoperating our Depots, Arsenals and Plants at three timesthe rate we ran them at the height of the Vietnam War. One of our key initiatives in support of the end of Iraq

operations was the establishment of our Responsible ResetTask Force (R2TF). It’s a forward-deployed, three-starAMC presence, commanded by the AMC Deputy Com-manding General. R2TF served as a large ‘catcher’s mitt’ inKuwait for all the equipment coming out of Iraq to ensure

March 2012 � ARMY 25

U.S. A

rmy Materiel C

ommand

we could not only track it, but returnit, repair it, dispose of it or redistrib-ute it. That’s a tough mission to ac-complish from a CONUS-based head-quarters. In fact, because we wereforward deployed, we were able tosupport efforts to ship equipment di-rectly from Iraq to Afghanistan. Morethan 50 percent of the equipmentneeded for the Afghan surge camefrom equipment coming out of Iraq—a tremendous cost avoidance. This de-ployable command post-R2TF is nowa model for the coming Afghan drawdown as we shift ourfocus to provide the same level of support for OperationEnduring Freedom.Management of equipment on this magnitude would

not have been possible in the past because the automationtools did not exist. Now, because of advancements in auto-mated systems and forward deployed logistics capabilities,we were able to see the equipment and as a result, wecould repair the equipment in theater, and we could shipthe equipment straight to Afghanistan instead of shippingfrom the United States. R2TF’s mission was fully inte-grated with our ARCENT and CENTCOM joint partners in

theater. In fact, one of the things I’m most proud of is howtoday’s AMC really does serve as an extension of theCENTCOM and ARCENT families and is a full member ofthat great, joint logistics team. There will be new challenges as we transition efforts in

Operation Enduring Freedom. For example, as we de-parted Iraq, we were fortunate to have Kuwait to act as ahub for our equipment retrograde effort. We won’t havethat in Afghanistan. For those who have not been there:Afghanistan is a land-locked country the size of Texas withless than two percent of the road network and 20,000-footmountains. Recovering and retrograding equipment will

be challenging. We’ll want to achievethe same kind of visibility, account-ability and velocity of equipment ret-rograde that we did in Iraq.

Q: Concerning the Iraq retrogradeoperation, currently, is there a back-log of equipment that you have towork through, or is it done?GEN Dunwoody: Unlike Desert Storm,

there are no “iron mountains” left inIraq. There are no piles of containers.If you’ve studied the famous “RedBall Express” from WWII, you under-stand that what we had to do in Iraqwas equally historic. Just to give you avisual, if you had put all the equip-ment in Iraq in a single convoy, itwould stretch over 2,000 miles. Thelast of that equipment will come outof the Kuwait staging area at the endof February or early March. Through-out the course of Operation Iraqi Free-dom/Operation New Dawn, we de-ployed, sustained and redeployed atotal of 314 brigade-equivalent units

An AMC technician at TobyhannaArmy Depot, Pa., tests an optics

system being repaired.

U.S. A

rmy Materiel C

ommand

U.S. A

rmy Materiel C

ommand

A soldier wearing adevelopmental hel-met is seated in-side the “sphereroom” (named forits spherical loud-speaker configura-

tion) at an AMCtest facility locatedat Aberdeen Prov-ing Ground, Md.

The sphere room isdesigned to createan auditory virtual

space, allowingcomplex testing of

the effects of soundon helmets and

other equipment.

26 ARMY � March 2012

and, to meet the President’s mandate, retrograded morethan 2.4 million pieces of equipment. The sheer size of theresponsible reset operation cannot be overstated: It wasequivalent to closing down a city two and a half times thesize of Annapolis, Md. The troop movement to Kuwait wasakin to evacuating the entire population of Quincy, Mass.,and moving it to Washington, D.C. If we stacked everycontainer that left Iraq, the stack would be 51 miles high—nine times the height of Mt. Everest. This was a truly ‘PhD-level’ logistics mission on a historic scale.

Q: How has AMC evolved since the start of combat op-erations to provide operational support?GEN Dunwoody: Institutional adaptation has been criti-

cal in AMC’s success. Over the last 10 years, we’ve reallyoperationalized AMC to link the industrial base to the op-erational force and to focus on supporting the Joint Forceand our Combatant Commanders. Since 9/11, we’ve builttremendous new capabilities for the joint warfight. For ex-ample, our Army Field Support Brigades, Army Contract-ing Brigades and Transportation Brigades are all nowaligned with each of the COCOMs in order to respond tothe needs of the Joint Warfighter across the logistics spec-trum. Although we are not a joint headquarters, the sup-port AMC provides to joint forces is significant. As GENOdierno has said, we can never stop asking ourselves, ‘Arewe joint enough?’ Today’s AMC is able to ‘think joint,’‘plan joint’ and ‘sustain joint.’ That kind of approach is amust for us as we move into a new decade. These new capabilities, along with R2TF, serve as AMC’s

face to the field—allowing us to better support our CO-COMs and the Army Service Component Commands, whileensuring that we get the equipment back into our depots inorder to generate combat power as quickly as possible.Now, at the same time we were adapting the operational

arm of AMC, we were working to adapt AMC’s generatingarm in order to better synchronize the distribution and re-distribution of equipment. I’m proud to say that back inMarch 2011 the Secretary of the Army designated AMC asthe Army’s Lead Materiel Integrator (LMI). The LMI ap-proach to materiel management is a transformationalmodel for the Army and will change how the Army equipsour warfighter. Because we’ve been at war, our focus hasbeen on getting the right equipment to our warfighters andgetting it to them fast. That’s absolutely the right ap-proach, but it’s also expensive and it can lead to inefficien-cies. So, for all the right reasons, we’ve developed multipleorganizations in the Army that manage materiel; we havemultiple piles of stuff being managed—theater sustain-ment stocks, theater-provided equipment, Army preposi-tioned stocks, left-behind equipment, prepositioned de-ployment training sets—and we have multiple informationsystems used to manage our equipment. With the designa-tion of LMI, we’ll leverage state-of-the-art automation toestablish one distribution manager, one source for manag-ing repair, and one authoritative database, all working to-gether to provide the kind of visibility we need—visibilityof every piece of equipment across the Army. LMI will al-low the Army to optimize supply against demand, basedon Department of Army’s priorities, policies and strategyto minimize friction and make distribution decisions inminutes or hours instead of weeks or months. Another area where we’ve made significant changes is

in contracting. The 2007 Gansler Commission report was agood wake-up call on the state of our contracting capabil-ity. That report, along with our field commanders, rein-forced the message that there was a difference between ac-quisition and contracting. We had let our contractingcapability erode, while at the same time contracting re-quirements skyrocketed in support of the war, and we

28 ARMY � March 2012

Mine resistant, ambush protected(MRAP) vehiclesare lined up for

shipment after be-ing withdrawn fromIraq. The Responsi-

ble Reset TaskForce spearheadedthe massive opera-

tion that broughtequipment from

Iraq, repairing or up-grading it and trans-porting it to where itwas most needed.

In-theater repair andtransportation ac-

counted for much ofthe equipment nec-essary for the U.S.

Army’s surge opera-tion in Afghanistan.

U.S. A

rmy Materiel C

ommand

found ourselves doing billions of dollars in contracting intheater. It was a skill set that we lost because of downsiz-ing trade-offs. When we deployed into Iraq, few wouldhave thought that we’d be there 10 years, or would haveimagined the scope and magnitude of the billions of dol-lars that we would do in contracting. We had to relearn thecontracting lesson and reestablish that core capability. Wecan’t afford to lose it again. We cannot underestimate con-tracting as a combat multiplier or “weapon system” on thebattlefield. Contracting allows us to support Iraqi andAfghanistan First programs, which hire the local popula-tion and give them jobs while infusing money into theireconomy. It is a powerful tool for nation-building andhelps enable combatant and field Commanders’ theater en-gagement and partnering strategies.In 2008, we stood up the Army Contracting Command, a

two-star-level command. Now we have contracting sup-port brigades that can deploy forward with trained andcertified contract managers who can give oversight to thecontracting business in theater. We’ve hired and trainedmore than 900 new acquisition professionals to meet grow-ing demand for contract operations. In addition, we’re im-plementing initiatives such as our Service Contract Re-form, a tool that will incorporate better buying power andoptimization of services contracts across our Army. We arethe only service that has a command and control capabilityassociated with our contracting capability. In Haiti, we hadour contracting team in place within 72 hours of the earth-quake there and ready to do contracting services. That’s atremendous capability. We have come a long way in a shorttime, but we still have work to do. Another organization adaptation

has been the realignment of SurfaceDeployment and Distribution Com-mand (SDDC) to AMC with opera-tional control to our joint partners atTRANSCOM. With SDDC assigned toAMC, it allows us to control and syn-chronize the movement of equipment,supplies and services.The benefit of all these initiatives is

that we have been able to connectwhat was historically the industrial,CONUS-based organization to the jointwarfighter—factory to foxhole, con-cept to combat. There’s still more todo. Our vision for AMC 2020 is to be aglobally networked, fully transparent

materiel command that serves as a single entry point forthe logistics needs of our Army. We want AMC 2020 tobring the full power of the national industrial base to ourforward deployed forces.

Q: Concerning Operation Enduring Freedom and theNATO mission in Afghanistan, because we are now rely-ing on the Northern Distribution Network, what are theadditional costs and burdens on the logistics system andwhat part does AMC play?GEN Dunwoody: SDDC, one of our major subordinate

commands, has a huge role, and keeps an eye on the PAKG-LOC (Pakistan ground logistics route) and NorthernDistribution Network. The PAK G-LOC is closed rightnow, and it’s somewhat astonishing in itself that it’s beenclosed for more than 60 days and has had minimal impacton our ability to sustain and maintain. The Northern Dis-tribution Network gives us options—a safety net.TRANSCOM and CENTCOM have several proof-of-prin-ciple projects, and pilots, under way right now to studyour abilities to use different, multi-modal routes. As youwell know, multi-modal is much more expensive. Everytime you handle—load, unload, load—equipment it ismuch more expensive.

Q: Meanwhile, as AMC was supporting two majorcombat operations, the AMC headquarters was beingmoved from Fort Belvoir, Va., to Redstone Arsenal, Ala.,under congressional base realignment and closure law(BRAC). What was entailed in that?

30 ARMY � March 2012

An AMC contract worker inspectsammunition at the Lake City Army

Ammunition Plant, Independence, Mo. Theplant is a government-owned, contractor-

operated facility, and it has producedmillions of rounds of ammunition to support

U.S. combat operations since 9/11. U.S. A

rmy Materiel C

ommand

An Abrams tank undergoes repair and refurbishment at an AMC facility.

GEN Dunwoody: What I’m mostproud of when it comes to BRAC ishow our workforce continued to sup-port the warfighter in both theatersand supported contingency opera-tions around the globe—all withoutmissing a beat. It was incredible: twocombat operations and contingencyoperations—Haiti, Pakistan, and Japan—all done at the same time of theBRAC move. Our BRAC mission—a seven-year

terrain walk—is complete, and we didit on time and in many cases ahead ofschedule. Not many people know thatthis last BRAC round was the largestin the history of the Army. In fact, atAMC, BRAC impacted one out ofevery six employees. Because AMC is mainly civilian, wewere asking many of our folks to move for the first time intheir lives. That’s a tough decision. We had to recognizethat and support our unique, talented workforce through-out the BRAC process. We also used BRAC as an opportunity to reorganize and

posture ourselves for the future. We moved into our newheadquarters building in June. In the building, we’ve de-signed and implemented a world-class operations centerthat equals any of our commercial logistics providers. Forthe first time in Army history we have an integrated opera-tions center providing near real-time visibility of the ma-teriel and services our warfighters need.BRAC allowed us to take advantage of synergies in our

organizations as we shifted our AMC centers of gravity tofour locations: Redstone Arsenal, Ala.; Aberdeen ProvingGround, Md; Warren, Mich.; and Rock Island Arsenal, Ill.For example, at Redstone Arsenal where our headquartersis located, we also have the U.S. Army Security AssistanceCommand, the Army Contracting Command, the Expedi-tionary Contracting Command, the Aviation and MissileCommand, and the Logistics Support Activity. Now thatBRAC’s complete we can focus on enhancing our collabo-ration, while leveraging our new state-of-the-art technolo-gies.Q: Regarding the recently announced new national

strategy, what capabilities do you have in AMC to meetthat strategy?GEN Dunwoody: I think the new strategy clearly reflects

a strong commitment across the Army and DoD—not onlyto confront the fiscal realities of a new era, but also toavoid the mistakes we’ve seen during past drawdowns,like the hollow Army we experienced after Vietnam. We’relooking at the second and third order effects of the deci-

sions we’re making today, to ensure that doesn’t happenagain. In fact, if we adapt for this new era in a bold and in-novative way, I’m confident we’re going to be a tremen-dously capable organization, and AMC will remain well-postured to support our joint forces as we implement ournew strategy.As I’ve told other folks, at AMC we’re taking an ‘Ends,

Ways and Means’ approach to getting after the budgetchallenges and meeting the requirements of this new strat-egy. What I mean by that is, we know that our ‘ends’—which I define as continuing to provide our joint warfight-ers the decisive edge through superior sustainment—won’t really change. But we know our ‘means’—our re-sources—won’t increase and will most likely diminish. Sothe only thing we can do is to change the ‘ways’ we do ourbusiness. Fortunately, we’ve been looking at a number ofways to fundamentally change the way we do businesswhile addressing opportunities to consolidate and opti-mize our capabilities. One thing we’ve done, along with our partners at the

[Office of] Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisi-tions, Logistics and Technology (ASAALT), was to identifyefficiencies and optimize how the Army does materiel de-velopment and sustainment. This was a Secretary of theArmy-directed review, and it has made us take a hard lookat ourselves. We know we can’t afford to do business as wehave in the past, and we know that we have to be goodstewards of the taxpayers’ dollars. ASAALT and AMChave identified more than 60 different recommendationsthat will enhance the full spectrum of our materiel efforts.This effort wasn’t just a budget ‘drill’ though. It was asmuch about becoming more effective as it was becomingmore efficient. We’ve also aligned our core competencies through ef-

32 ARMY � March 2012

U.S. A

rmy Materiel C

ommand

U.S. A

rmy Materiel C

ommand

March 2012 � ARMY 33

forts like the transfer of installation Directorates of Logis-tics from our garrison commanders to AMC, along with re-aligning responsibility for the maintenance of TRADOC’straining fleet to AMC. Instead of all of us doing our ownthing in different headquarters, we’re right-sizing theArmy’s maintenance and sustainment capability.Regarding a Pacific-Asia strategy, we already have flexi-

bility. When we built this deployable command post, itwas designed to go into Kuwait to help in Iraq. Now we’returning its focus on Afghanistan. It could, along with therest of our new operational and deployable capability, goto the Pacific just as well. It is a capability that we want toinstitutionalize in the Army. By operationalizing our com-mand and bringing AMC into the foxhole, our soldiers andcivilians have proven themselves and earned the credibil-ity and trust of our Joint Force commanders.

Q: You have fought the whole war—the operations inAfghanistan and Iraq—as a logistics general officer.What lessons learned would you share with your fellowlogisticians?GEN Dunwoody: It’s all about collaboration. Every per-

son counts in this business. And you’ve got to bring all theplayers together to make sure they understand the oppor-tunities and capabilities. When visitors come to this head-quarters, they are amazed at our new capabilities. Simi-larly, we have to make sure that we understand otherservice’s capabilities so we can optimize and complementeach other on the battlefield. Trust and communicationhelp us to better understand each other; they enable us toresolve differences and build confidence and respect.Trusting relationships create environments where creativeideas and problem solving can flourish. At AMC, our suc-cess is founded on increasing our effective relationships

among all of our key stakeholders—ASAALT, our CO-COMs, our sister services and with industry. Trust is reallya must for those of us in our business as we confront thechallenges of the years ahead.

Q: Is there anything else that you would like to add?GEN Dunwoody: First, I’m so proud of our AMC work-

force. Our success always comes down to our people. AtAMC we have an incredibly talented workforce made upof more than 69,000 people and 97 percent are civilians.Thousands of those folks have deployed since 9/11 andmany have skills and abilities that exist nowhere outsidethe Army. I really want AMC to be a champion for ourCivilian Corps. Second, I’m very proud of our logisticians—and they

should be proud of all they have accomplished. We have torealize that we have been an Army at war for 10 years, andwe have a decade of soldiers and officers and NCOs thatdidn’t come in with the same training or experience inproperty accountability that previous generations had. It’sunderstandable—we’ve been a busy Army—so now we fo-cus on back to basics. We now have the tools, the time andmost importantly the talented leaders to help us get backto the basics and fundamental principles in logistics andmaintenance.Finally, we all understand there are some challenging

times ahead as we confront an era of reduced resources,uncertainties and emerging threats. I am very honored andproud to have been given the opportunity to commandAMC, which sustains our Army, the strength of our nation,as we provide America’s warfighters with the decisiveedge. I truly believe if we can accomplish all we have overthe last decade, working together, we can overcome anyobstacles in our future. �

AMC employees atthe Red River ArmyDepot, Texas, over -haul a vehicle with -drawn from Iraqduring the respon -sible reset opera -tion to ready it forreissue.