Event

MCAF Ground Logistics Awards Dinner

General James T. Conway, USMC, Commandant of the Marine Corps

June 10, 2010 - 6:00pm - 9:00pm

Hilton Mark Center, Alexandria VA

On Thursday, 10 June 2010, the Marine Corps Association Foundation (MCAF), in conjunction with Headquarters Marine Corps, Installations and Logistics Division (I&L) held the 6th Annual Ground Logistics Awards Dinner at the Hilton Mark Center, Alexandria, Virginia.

The dinner serves as an opportunity for social interaction and camaraderie for the Marine community in the greater Washington, D.C. area and allows Marines, supporters and friends of the Corps to stay connected and current with key issues affecting Marines. In particular, the dinner is the annual event focused on recognizing the professional achievements of the top performing logisticians in the Marine Corps.

Following a well-attended no-host reception adjacent to the banquet hall, music provided by the United States Naval Academy Band summoned the guests to dinner. After observing a colors ceremony provided by a color guard from the Marine Corps Combat Development Command at Quantico, MajGen Les Palm, President and CEO of MCAF welcomed the dinner guests, made administrative remarks and recognized the attending VIP’s, Awards Recipients and the MCAF sponsors whose generous contributions support MCAF’s professional events and Professional Awards Programs. Following an invocation by CAPT William A. Reed, USN, Deputy Chaplain of the Marine Corps, the guests settled down to an enjoyable meal.

With a tasty dessert concluded, Major Spooner from I&L stepped up to the lectern to serve as the awards presentation narrator and made some initial introductions. Alluding to the guest speaker, General James T. Conway, Commandant of the Marine Corps, he humorously quipped that his wife referred to the Commandant as “the tall and dreamy one…” which brought a laugh and set up a later witty come back from Gen Conway.

LtGen Frank Panter, Deputy Commandant for Installations and Logistics took the stage and made introductory comments about Gen Conway, the evening’s guest speaker. Describing the Commandant’s standing reputation and credibility, he asserted that he was viewed as a “Rock Star” and that Gen Conway absolutely understood the needs and contributions of the MAGTF and that he helped grow the structure, organization and stature of the logistics element of the MAGTF significantly and most effectively during his tenure as Commandant. Further, he pointed out that Gen Conway had made the logistics element equal with the other elements of the MAGTF and, commenting on the automated information systems brought on line had proved the value of always knowing where your stuff is during operations. In particular, LtGen Panter praised the Commandant’s decision to reactivate the Force Service Maintenance Analysis Office (FSMAO) which had lapsed during the Corps operational commitments to Iraq and Afghanistan and pointed out that the decision would have a tremendous positive effect on future readiness.

General Conway took the stage and fired back at Maj Spooner regarding the “Tall and dreamy” comment. He countered Maj Spooner’s wife’s comment and pointed out that the usual crowd reaction to his presence was “I don’t know who the tall guy is but the short black guy is Sgt Maj Kent.” Bringing a hearty laugh from the crowd, he continued with an anecdote about logisticians. He said that when he was a unit commander, his S-4 officer was seriously depressed and sought help from the unit Chaplain saying “Chaplain – EVERYONE hates me” to which the Chaplain replied “Not “True! Not everyone knows you yet.” In an additional humorous dig at logisticians, he joked about a MEF commander who got word that his G-4 logistics officer got kidnapped by the enemy and cut off his hand as proof of the kidnapping–to which the MEF Commander responded that he needed MORE proof!

Moving on to serious remarks, Gen Conway pointed out that the entire logistics field in the Marine Corps was growing in capability and significance and that for the first time in history, following expected U.S. Senate approval, the Corps would soon have a total of three 3-Star Generals in the logistics arena. Talking about current logistics operations, he said that our supply lines stretch across the globe and that they are working beautifully, that the Iraq retrograde worked flawlessly and that Corps wide, units were equipped with significantly greater amounts of equipment with a greater logistics requirement but that even with dramatically more requirements, units were doing very well sustaining and maintaining themselves.

Referring to growing budgetary concerns he said that the “Lean years are coming” and offered anecdotal comment about the surge of every 1,000 additional personnel in Afghanistan cost another BILLION dollars and that was a logistics situation that needed to be positively addressed to conserve scarce resources. In that light, he stated that one of his key concerns is selecting the right size of the Marine Corps and that after disengaging from the current war tempo, 220,000 would be too big but that the 170,000 strong force the Corps fielded at the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was way too small.

Stating that he was honored to be invited to the dinner, he ended his presentation with the comment that “It is not the critic who counts – It is the man in the arena…and our logisticians are definitely in the arena!”

The awards ceremony then began and the following awards were presented to the 2009 recipients:

GySgt Michael A Bandy of 2d Marine Expeditionary Brigade – Afghanistan, G4 Motor Transport was selected as the Enlisted Logistician of the Year for 2009. The award was sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton and MCAF.

Capt Richard J. Wagner, Combat Logistics Regiment 2, 2d Marine Expeditionary Brigade – Afghanistan was selected as the Officer Logistician of the Year for 2009. The award was sponsored by Raytheon and MCAF.

Mrs. Iris C. Perez, 1st Maintenance Battalion, Combat Logistics Regiment 15, 1st Marine Logistics Group was selected as the Civilian Marine Logistician of the Year Award for 2009. The award was sponsored by Battelle and MCAF.

The Logistics Unit of the Year for 2009 was Combat Logistics Battalion-3, 3d Marine Logistics Group. The award was sponsored by Deloitte Consulting and MCAF.

Following the awards presentations, Maj Gen Palm presented Gen Conway with a copy of the new novel about Marines in Vietnam, Matterhorn, as a memento of the occasion. LtGen Panter then took the stage and presented MajGen Palm with a plaque in honor of his 12 years at the helm of MCA – THE Professional Association for all Marines.

Provided below are videos and pictures of the event:

PART ONE