Scott Forster, RES ’00
After USAWC graduation, I briefly served with the Center for Strategic Leadership (CSL) and in the spring of 2001, was reassigned to the Pentagon and was there the morning of 9/11, returned to CSL in the fall of 2003, and retired from Active Duty in 2006. I then served as an Army Civilian in CSL until I moved in 2014 to Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) in New Cumberland, PA. At DLA Distribution, I work as the Worldwide Storage Analyst (Data Scientist) to review data monthly to guide leadership to take corrective actions on identified storage deficiencies. Late January 2020, I was selected to be DLA Distribution’s representative to DLA HQ’s “Agency Synchronization Operations Center” (ASOC). DLA is DoD’s Logistics Agency and we manage: the supply chains that buy the supplies (DLA Troop Support, DLA Land and Maritime, and DLA Aviation), the transportation links with commercial and military transport that deliver the supplies, and the warehouses that hold supplies until needed (DLA Distribution). DLA supplies fuel on a worldwide basis (DLA Energy) and disposes of no-longer-needed supplies and resells or recycles them (DLA Disposition). Since beginning ASOC duties in February, we have been singularly focused on providing the needed logistics for our national response to COVID-19. Within the ASOC, we have representatives from all major subordinate commands within DLA. As a member of the DLA ASOC, I have been involved with PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) — issuing what was on hand, working with suppliers to gain additional stock, scouring the world for other “non-traditional” suppliers, and building the air bridge to fly in millions of masks, gowns, goggles, test kits, medications, and even ventilators. Whenever you hear “DoD is supplying …” on the news, that means DLA has made a delivery. I never imagined as a member of the ASOC that I would be working these issues to deliver needed supplies to Americans as we fight COVID-19. As a data scientist who has been watching the daily COVID-19 data, I believe our country is about to turn the corner in our fight against this pandemic. Yes, I too, see a light at the end of the tunnel. COVID-19 will be beaten.
COL (Ret) Scott T. Forster
Resident Class of 2000
