By
WO1 George Oh
AMONG its many roles, the Defence National Storage and Distribution
Centre (DNSDC) in Moorebank, Sydney, is tasked with direct supply
support to many ADF operations.
To
keep its finger on the pulse, DNSDC has a desk officer for each
operation – without taking anything away from other operations,
the most efficient co-ordination has to be Op Bel Isi for a number
of reasons.
DNSDC
only has one point of contact in Bougainville, the supply sergeant
(SupSgt), a sergeant or warrant officer drawn from the manning
of DNSDC.
The
current SupSgt is WO2 Jim Shadwell who is normally DNSDC’s
regional fleet manager for field and barracks stores. In Bougainville,
all stores requests are directed to the SupSgt and he or she relays
them to the DNSDC desk officer.
Conversely,
all stores sent to Bougainville are delivered to the SupSgt for
distribution.
The
desk officer works in the Operations Support Section of DNSDC
and is responsible for receiving Op Bel Isi’s demands and
getting approval for the issue or purchase, then monitoring the
acquisition until it commences its journey to Bougainville.
Underlying
this are numerous phone calls and e-mails to and from Bougainville
and liaison with DNSDC storemen and local purchase buyers –
just to ensure the stores arrive by the due date.
WO2
Shadwell's rotation on Op Bel Isi is due to end next month.
