55th Combat Camera Supply Room Wins Army-wide Annual Supply Excellence Award.

FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md., - It has long been said the “Infantry wins battles but it is the logistics that win wars," paraphrasing Army General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces on the Western Front during WWI. Thus, this past fiscal year the logisticians and supply personnel of the 55th Combat Camera demonstrated just how prepared they are to win wars. Likewise, this month, Sgt. Angelu Legaspi, Sgt. Zahra Fuentes and Spc. Cierra Ellis from the units supply room were selected by the 21st Signal Brigade's S4 office as the top supply room overall performers as part of the Army’s annual supply excellence awards competition. During the Initial Command Inspection (ICI) of the Command Supply Discipline Program (CSDP) the evaluations showed significant improvements from the previous year.

Throughout 2019, the Supply Section operated seamlessly as they improved internal processes and procedures from previous years. In 2019, Sgt. Legaspi successfully spearheaded a pilot program to make the Supply Section a Central Management Office for Organizational Clothing and Individual Equipment (OCIE) enhancing the equipping process for rapid deployment operations.

Sgt. Legaspi said the competition offered her the opportunity to learn many valuable lessons. ”I’ve learned a lot with this competition from being more organized to doing 200% of your best, but the biggest thing I learned is the teamwork from the chain of command to the lowest level to make sure that we succeed.”

On the most recent Command Supply Discipline Program evaluation, supply personnel received a 96.0 percent score over and above the 75.0 percent received the previous inspection. This improvement speaks highly of their daily efforts executing supply operations.

The competition was even more challenging this year due to the ongoing pandemic.

“COVID was the biggest challenge during the competition,” said Anthony L. Walters, Logistics Management Specialist for the 21st Signal Brigade. “There would be times where travel was restricted and the whole team couldn’t get together physically. Restriction of movement also prevented the whole team to work at times.”

The Supply Excellence Award (SEA) program objective is to enhance logistics readiness and supply effectiveness. The SEA is an Army-wide competition that provides a positive incentive for extraordinary supply operations, property accountability, and resource management, while enhancing awareness of the Army Command Supply Discipline Program (CSDP). It also provides a forum for recognition of performance, improvements, initiatives, and supply operations at the organizational and direct support levels.

“Preparation for the SEA competition enhances the unit supply specialist’s logistical knowledge, skills, and abilities and further improves moral and unit supply operations.” said Samuel Perry, from 7th Signal Command’s (Theater) Logistics Division Supply and Services.