Small Team With Big Job Recognized at DLA Annual Awards

COLUMBUS, Ohio (February 5, 2020)—The Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support’s Construction and Equipment supply chain COVID-19 Strike Team was presented with the Small Team of the Year award during DLA’s virtual annual award ceremony January 28.
The team was recognized for managing massive end-to-end national support efforts that brought relief to overwhelmed hospitals and nursing homes across the United States, as well as for resupplying the nation’s Strategic National Stockpile of personal protective equipment.

The team, which worked seven days a week for multiple months at a time, focused on three major efforts. The first was securing an approximately $400 million contract for 60 Battelle Critical Care Decontamination Systems which were used to decontaminate over 1.6 million N95 face-piece respirators for frontline medical workers last year.
John Finchen, C&E liaison specialist, said they received the Battelle request from the department of Health and Human Services early Palm Sunday and immediately went to work, making calls within the hour to set up decontamination systems across the U.S.
“We started calling the Battelle corporation, state and local agencies, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, anybody to get a name,” Finchen said. “Finding the right point of contact at the state and local level was key for the delivery, storage and disposal of materials that were essential for the operations of these systems.”
The team also supported the Operation Nursing Home personal protective equipment resupply effort to procure, receive, kit, redistribute and verify receipt of over 92,200,000 items worth more than $134 million to 14,947 nursing homes.

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