AEDC Logistics supports Franklin County High School

  • Published
  • By Raquel March
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, TENN. --  Government sequestration affects more organizations than most people realize. The Franklin County High School (FCHS) National Defense Cadet Corps (NDCC), formally the FCHS Air Force Junior ROTC, was in need of camouflage uniforms to support their Raider Team due to the government sequestration when the Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) Logistics Division offered the school mobility gear.

The AEDC Logistics Division was able to donate more than 400 obsolete mobility gear items to the Franklin County High School NDCC at no cost to either party.

As the Logistics Division conducted a materials inventory, they discovered mobility gear that was no longer useful to the mission. The mobility gear the high school received included desert coats, desert hats, parkas, trousers as well as other items.

"These particular items were obsolete and no longer in use," said Tracy Carter, an AEDC support agreements manager in the Test Support Division Logistics Office. "It's a pretty common practice to reach out to the local military community to see if there is a need prior to submitting a formal request to DRMO [Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office] for disposal [of obsolete items]. An organization who needs the gear will receive it at no cost and we clear out warehouse space. I'm glad we could assist."

Obsolete government items are disposed through a process involving the completion of paperwork as well as the logistics of transporting and delivering the items through the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Disposition Services, formerly known as the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service. The process can be costly.

Retired Chief Master Sgt. Everett Smith, the FCHS aerospace science instructor, expressed that the timeliness of the donation could not have been better.

"The donation helped fill an urgent need to support our Raider Team," Smith said. "At the end of [the] last school [year] we received notification that the U.S. Air Force was deactivating our unit due to sequestration and not meeting minimum student enrollment. We started the process of transferring all of our equipment to other units. Dr. Rebecca Sharber requested for our unit not [to] be deactivated, along with U. S. Representative Scott DesJarlais and Senator Corker."

After the requests were submitted this summer, the U.S. Air Force proposed that the high school AFJROTC become a National Defense Cadet Corps and the Franklin County Board of Education voted to proceed with the proposal.

Smith said, "We did not have camouflage uniforms to support the Raider Team because we transferred them prior to the end of [the] school [year]. Additional donated [AEDC] equipment will be used to enhance fitness training."

Smith expressed that any assistance with uniforms or equipment that could be given to the high school's NDCC by other military organizations would be appreciated. Smith may be contacted by phone at (931) 967-2821.

The DLA Disposition Services controls the disposal, reutilization or donation logistics of property for all branches of the military services. Disposal items may be donated to different organizations that have a military connection.

For information on the services provided by DLA see www.dispositionservices.dla.mil/index.shtml.