Navy Supply Corps (United States)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| U.S Navy Supply Corps | |
|---|---|
 Supply Corps staff officer insignia |
|
| Active | 23 February 1795 - present |
| Country | United States of America |
| Allegiance |  U.S.A. |
| Branch | U.S. Navy (Active & Reserve Component) |
| Type | Staff Corps |
| Role | Sustain U.S. Navy and U.S. Military Operations worldwide |
| Size | ~3565 Supply Officers |
| Nickname | SUPPOs, Chops, Pork Chops |
| Motto | "Ready for Sea" "Ready, Resourceful, Responsive" |
| Anniversaries | 23 February |
| Engagements | Every U.S. engagement since the 1798 Undeclared Naval War with France - present |
| Commanders | |
| Current commander |
RADM Michael J. Lyden, SC, USN Chief of Supply Corps |
The Supply Corps of the United States Navy traces its beginnings to February 23, 1795 when the nation's first Purveyor of Public Supplies, Tench Francis, Jr., was appointed by President George Washington. The Supply Corps is one of the oldest staff corps in the U.S. Navy. Supply Corps officers are concerned with supply, logistics, combat support, readiness, contracting and fiscal issues. The official motto of the Supply Corps is "Ready for Sea" - reflecting the Supply Corps' longstanding role in sustaining warfighting.
Commissioned officers in the Supply Corps are schooled and experienced in a variety of disciplines such as supply management and expeditionary logistics, inventory control, disbursement, financial management, contracting, information systems, operations analysis, material and operational logistics, fuels management, food service and physical distribution.
Supply Corps officers can be members of a ship or shore activity's supply department or can be billeted into supply units/commands - such as the Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group (NAVELSG), Fleet Industrial Supply Centers (FISCs) or Navy Special Warfare (SPECWAR) Logistics Groups which support the United States Navy SEALs. While Supply Corps officers are not eligible for command at sea, which is the province of certain unrestricted line officers, they can command supply units. A Supply Corps officer is always the Commanding Officer of a Naval Cargo Handling Battalion - groups charged with stevedoring and logistics whose constituent companies are led by both Supply Corps and Civil Engineer Corps officers. Supply Corps officers also serve in forward deployed land-based units - such as the Seabees - working right alongside Civil Engineer Corps officers and in a joint capacity with Marine Corps.
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[edit] Navy Supply Corps School
New Supply Corps junior officers attend the Navy Supply Corps School (NSCS) in Athens, Georgia.
NSCS was first opened as the Navy Supply Corps School of Application in 1921, located at the Navy Department in Washington, D.C. After just three years the school was closed, and for the next ten years supply officers learned their profession on the job, at sea from senior supply officers and through formal, but independent coursework.
A more formal arrangement was achieved when the Naval Finance and Supply School was opened at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in September 1934, for instruction of regular Navy Supply Corps officers. The training of reserve officers did not become available until 1940, when the Supply Corps Naval Reserve Officers School was established in Washington, D.C. After ten months the two schools were merged, creating the Navy Supply Corps School, located at the Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
During U.S. involvement in World War II, 13,000 officers graduated from NSCS at Harvard. In 1944, the Naval Supply Operational Training Center was established at the Naval Supply Depot in Bayonne, New Jersey. It was redesignated the Navy Supply Corps School in 1946, but within a few years it outgrew its facilities. Through the efforts of two Georgia politicians, U.S. Senator Richard B. Russell Jr. and U.S. Representative Carl Vinson, the school was moved to Athens, Georgia in 1954.
The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure round determined that NSCS will be relocated to Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island in 2011.
[edit] Professional Qualifications
Supply Corps officers can earn one or more of four community warfare insignias:
- The Surface Warfare Supply Corps Officer (SWSCO) pin for supply officers serving onboard a ship
- The Submarine Supply Officer pin for supply officers serving on Independent Duty as the SUPPO on a sub
- The Naval Aviation Supply Officer (NASO) pin for supply officers serving in the S-6 division onboard a Carrier/Amphib or at a Naval Air Station (NAS) Aviation Supply Detachment (ASD)
- The Seabee Combat Warfare Officer pin for supply officers assigned to a Navy Construction Battalion NCB/NMCB units.
Officers must complete a personal qualification standard (PQS) program, demonstrate an extensive practical and applied knowledge of the specialty, and successfully stand before an oral examination board of senior officers to earn each warfare pin.[citation needed]
Earning a warfare qualification is often a prerequisite for promotion to senior officer ranks of Commander (O-5) and higher. A Supply Corps officer's future career promotion and assignment prospects can be negatively impacted if he/she served at an operational unit or onboard a ship, but failed to earn a warfare pin.
[edit] Additional Information
Supply Corps officers are sometimes called "Suppo". Other nicknames include "Pork Chop" (due to the shape of the Supply Corps staff insignia) and, for junior Supply Corps Officers, "Lamp Chop"! Aboard submarines, the Supply Officer is may be called "The Chop", a shortened version of "Pork Chop". While "Supply Officer" is a specific billet which an officer may fill, there are also many other positions open to Supply Corps officers as this is an inherently multi-disciplinary career field.
Enlisted ratings that comprise the Navy supply community are: SHs (Ship's Servicemen), who assist Supply Officers in managing shipboard retail and service activities; SKs (Storekeepers), who assist Supply Officers in managing inventories of parts and supplies; PSs (Personnel Specialists, a recent merger of the former Disbursing Clerk (DK) and Personnelman (PN) ratings), who assist with the disbursement of funds; CSs (Culinary Specialists, formerly known as Mess Management Specialists (MSs)), who manage and execute all food service operations; and PCs (Postal Clerks), who assist in the management of fleet postal activities).
The Navy Supply Corps Museum is located at the Supply Corps School in the historic Carnegie Library Building in Athens, Georgia.
[edit] Navy Supply Corps Leadership
Rear Admiral Mike Lyden is currently the highest-ranking Supply Corps Officer in the U.S. Navy.
As of November 2008, Lyden is the 45th Chief of the Supply Corps. Mark D. Harnitchek is Director of Plans and Policy for the United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM). The commanding officer of the Navy Supply Corps School is Captain John D. Titus, in command since August 29, 2008.
Three stars is the highest rank a Supply Corps officer in the U.S. Navy can reach. Vice Admirals Eugene A. Grinstead, Edward M. Straw, Keith W. Lippert, Justin D. McCarthy, and Alan Thompson are the only five Supply Corps Officers to reach this rank.
[edit] Notable U.S. Navy Supply Corps Officers
- Roy A. Anderson — CEO, Lockheed Corporation[citation needed]
- Eddie Carlson — CEO, United Airlines[citation needed]
- Benjamin Edwards — CEO, A.G. Edwards, Inc.[citation needed]
- A.G. Edwards — Former President, Chairman, CEO, A.G. Edwards, Inc.
- Roger Enrico — CEO, Pepsico[citation needed]
- Andrew Giordano — Chairman, JoS. A. Bank Clothiers[citation needed]
- Paul N. Howell — President and CEO, Howell Corporation[citation needed]
- A.G. Lafley — CEO, Procter & Gamble
- Bruce Laingen — U.S. Ambassador to Malta
- Melvin R. Laird — Secretary of Defense, 1969-1973
- Leonard Lauder — CEO, Estée Lauder
- Kenneth Lay — CEO, Enron
- Robert S. Levanthal — Dean of the University of Washington Business School/CEO of Western Union[citation needed]
- Keith Lippert — Director, Defense Logistics Agency, 2001-2006[citation needed]
- Bill Marriott — CEO, Marriott Hotels
- James J. Mulva — CEO, ConocoPhillips Oil Company[citation needed]
- Regis Philbin — Television personality
- Roger Staubach — Dallas Cowboys Quarterback, two-time Super Bowl Champion, NFL Hall of Famer, Exec. Chairman, The Staubach Company
- Ed Straw — COO, Estée Lauder[citation needed]
- John P. Durkin — CFO, Vodafone KK (2001-06), Nikko Cordial Financial Group (present)[citation needed]
- Toby Switzer — CEO and President, PWC Logistics Services KWC[citation needed]
[edit] Famous Quotes about Logisticians and Supply Officers
"You will not find it difficult to prove that battles, campaigns, and even wars have been won or lost primarily because of logistics."
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. Army
"I don't know what the hell this 'logistics' is that Marshall is always talking about, but I want some of it."
Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, U.S. Navy
"The essence of flexibility is in the mind of the commander; the substance of flexibility is in logistics."
Rear Admiral Henry E. Eccles, U.S. Navy
"Logistics...in the broadest sense, the three big M's of warfare: material, movement, and maintenance. If international politics is 'the art of the possible,' and war is its instrument, logistics is the art of defining and extending the possible. It provides the substance that physically permits an army to live and move and have its being."
James A. Huston, Author of The Sinews of War: Army Logistics 1775-1953
"Logistics: the practical art of moving armies"
Antoine-Henri Jomini, French Army General and Military Theorist
"My logisticians are a humorless lot...they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay."
Alexander the Great
[edit] References and External Links
- U.S. Naval Supply Systems Command - Mechanicsburg, PA - official site.
- U.S. Navy Supply Corps School - Athens, Georgia- official site.
- U.S. Naval War College - Newport, Rhode Island - official site.
- WWW Virtual Library: Logistics
- Naval Logistics Library - official site.
