Blog Posts from September, 2012

Arriving in Tirana, Albania, I was not fully prepared for the various sights and sounds I experienced. My timing could not have been better: I arrived just as Albania was celebrating the 100^th anniversary of their independence from the Ottoman Empire.

The LOGEX 13 Final Coordination Conference and associated workshop was held in Tirana, at the Albanian Military Training Doctrine Center. Lt. Col. Ndrieim Sallaku, the Albanian J4 Deputy Director, opened the workshop by saying that LOGEX events like this are very important to the Albanian military officers. He added these events are so important that the military budget took a twenty percent budget cut and LOGEX was the only program that did not get affected by the cuts.  It is important to note that Albania became a NATO member and now self-funds their participation in LOGEX.   

The objective of the workshop was to better familiarize logistics staff officers with NATO logistics planning and implementation procedures. Other benefits include increased cooperation and coordination among logistics staff officers for future combined operations and assessment of logistics support requirements.  Participants also practice NATO reporting procedures and become familiar with NATO logistics communication systems such as LOGFAS. By the end of the conference Albania will develop a detailed deployment plan (DDP) -- equivalent to the time phased force deployment data (TPFDD) – to use during LOGEX 13 in Bosnia in February 2013.  

During the week participants were introduced to topics such as NATO/National Security Element (NSE) guidelines, the NATO Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF), deployed contracting, acquisition and cross servicing agreements (ACSA), NATO Contracting, and NATO Support Agency (NSPA) (formerly known as NAMSA).  They also participated in five breakout sessions to develop and build their national DDP which will feed into Bosnia’s DDP to create the exercise DDP.

The Final Planning Conference and workshop were both extremely successful due to the participants’ hard work, the amazing support of the host nation and the team effort by Joint Staff J7 and the Allied Command Transformation (ACT) personnel that put these workshops and conferences togther.

US Air Force Major Todd J. Morin
J4-JLOC Strategy & Engagements
International Program Manager