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Interview with Ann E. Dunwoody

Gen. Ann Dunwoody takes over her service’s Materiel Command (AMC) amid its efforts to repair, upgrade and replace huge amounts of weapons, vehicles and gear used in Iraq and Afghanistan. She says she plans to build on wartime advances in the way the service tracks, stores and manages its equipment.

Dunwoody joined the U.S. Army as a Quartermaster Officer in 1975 and later served in the Gulf War. She has worked at the Combined Arms Support Command, Fort Lee, Va., and been the Army’s deputy chief of staff for logistics, G4.

On Nov. 14, Ann Dunwoody was promoted to full general, the U.S. military’s first female four-star, and took command of AMC.

Q. What will you do as commander of AMC?

A. It is a breathtaking organization with a huge mission. I really want to leverage and build upon what Gen. [Benjamin] Griffin has done in this command. He has done a phenomenal job transforming this previously institutional/industrial kind of command and built the operational piece of it with our Army field support brigades and standing up an Army contracting command. The operational link is linked all the way to the foxhole, thanks to what he has done.

Q. How will you advance the logistics program?

A. One of the lagging modernization areas after Desert Storm was log [logistics] modernization. We said, after the iron mountains [Gulf War equipment buildup], we would never let that happen again. We said that we would start to get RFID [Radio-Frequency Identification] and start to see our stuff. Then, we never really made the investment. So even up to the point of Operation Enduring Freedom 1, we still hadn’t made the progress in log automation as we had made in intel systems, maneuver systems and command-and-control systems, which are now real-time. We were still working with legacy systems.

We did a crusade to help generate the energy, interest and resources to bring the log operation up to date with the rest of the battlefield operations. We just reached milestone B with the Global Combat Support System Army, which is our operational arm for the tactical log operations. Together with RFID, the Automated Identification Technology will feed these systems so that we will get end-to-end asset visibility from cradle to grave.

Q. How will you improve the process of resetting war-damaged equipment?

A. We’re starting to build on what Gen. Griffin has done with the fielding of LMP [Logistics Modernization Program] and reset. We have a much better programmed approach to reset. We have a very sophisticated process to reset brigade teams. Gen. Griffin’s initiative to get small, deployable teams out to installations to help them reset their small arms has helped tremendously instead of just bringing stuff back in to the depots.

Q. How does reset fit into the overall picture of Army readiness and deployment?

A. The chief’s [Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey] four imperatives, which I believe AMC is nicely nested with, are to sustain our soldiers and our families; reset our Army; and transform our Army, which includes bringing on Future Combat Systems; and preparing for the next contingency and the current fight. This ultimately will help increase dwell time and help reduce deployment time.

Reset is among those four tenets. We have not waited for the war to be over to start resetting our equipment. We have been doing it repeatedly and getting our equipment back into the fight and modernizing our equipment as we do this. This is big business. It is about $17 billion a year.

Q. How is RFID progressing?

A. There are several ways to do this, passive and non-passive. We can put RFID tags on our equipment so we can track them through a network of systems. The architecture will take pings when that equipment is passing through the sensors and readers. Then they feed information to a central database so we can track equipment. We are starting to build unique identification codes into the equipment, so now it is not a bolt-on. When we reset something, we will build that tag. Automated Identification Technology is the readers that we have to read the ID tags on the equipment. We are working with the Defense Logistics Agency.

We have created a lot of efficiency; we are stocking forward the large items to reduce cost so that we are not flying them around. We are working with TransCom [Transportation Command]. If you think about it, when we went to war, the focus was on the deployment timeline of 30 days. The redeployment timeline was about six months.

Now when you are talking about a very busy Army like we have, and you are talking about dwell time, that is about one year. You can’t afford to wait six months for all your stuff to get back or come back to the depots. Working with TransCom, we have reduced the redeployment time of the equipment to about 60 days. It was a culture shift to treat redeployment with the same sense of urgency that we treat deployment. With Desert Storm, there was no sense of urgency to get stuff back into the fight. Now, they are turning units fast. The AMC has the best, most dedicated work force. If you go out to the depots, you will see they are doing it with such a sense of purpose because they know that what they are doing is saving lives.

Q. What will happen to large equipment in Iraq when large numbers of U.S. forces leave?

A. We’ve done a lot of analysis on equipment. We are looking at what we could sell and what could stay. Most of what we are looking at now is what do we need, depending upon the equipment in both theaters. We have a lot of systems.

MRAP [Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles] is not a program of record, hence there is no funding for the sustainment of MRAPs. We have a lot of stuff that we fielded so quickly because it saved lives. We are doing a lot with system-of-systems integration. Instead of sending them their platform, like a Bradley or a tank where they have to put all the stuff back, we are doing that for them. All the radios, antennas, systems within that platform are assembled by AMC at certain depots and installations. All the equipment that was tagged over in theater for the depot now goes directly to the depot. In the past, it would go back to home station first. A lot of inventory is now done in theater. This has pushed a lot of logistics stuff to be accomplished in theater so that when soldiers get back, the quality of family time is not disrupted.

Q. How will the reset process change?

A. The other paradigm shift for us is that once equipment gets to the depot, it loses its unit identity. In the past, when I grew up, I deployed with equipment, I trained with it and I came home with it. Now the units go fall in on equipment, and it goes back to the depot. We have other equipment that is going to come back to them sooner. Again, you have much greater flexibility. We also have a pilot program for C4ISR, where stuff comes into AMC and is fixed by subject-matter experts before it goes back to the platform.

Q. Is it possible that up to 20,000 more troops could be deployed to Afghanistan next year? What about vehicles to go with them?

A. I will say that I think they are revisiting the Afghan strategy right now; Gen. [David] Petraeus and his CentCom [Central Command] commanders are looking at this.

I think the most critical shortages are with trucks. We’re growing, and our formations are growing faster than we can keep up with the sourcing. Given the two different terrains, Iraq and Afghanistan, the same vehicle doesn’t fit in both environments. I know the Army has gone to industry and said, “here is what we need.” We are working with industry to see how fast they can deliver a different kind of technology. I think everyone is always ready for something that will give our soldiers better force protection.

Q. What is it like to be the U.S. military’s first female four-star general?

A. It is very humbling. I am very grateful to the generations of women who have gone before me and opened the doors through their determination and commitment. I keep telling people I have been so fortunate that I have worked for and with people who have given me opportunities throughout my career. You can be motivated and talented, but if people don’t give you those opportunities, you may or may not be able to reach the potential that you have.

I tell people that whether you are in for two years or 20 years or 30 years, the experience of being part of a values-based institution will make you a better person. I come from a long line of military people. There are four generations of West Pointers in my family, so I said, “I’ll try it.” So I went down to Fort McClellan as a college junior for six weeks of training. It was kind of exciting. Truly, I thought this would be a two-year detour en route to my teaching profession, but I was also excited that someone was going to pay me to jump out of airplanes. Here we are, 33 years later.