Taking Lakeshore apart Furniture stands ready to be returned to FEMA or Memphis, along with thousands of boxes of documents and records. Nothing moves in or out without the Logistics team and "rush" is always today's battle rhythm.  LA-RFO Photo by George Marcec. Back to Features

Logistics work is moving, serene, chaos
By Dave Harris, public affairs specialist, Louisiana Recovery Field Office


NEW ORLEANS, LA …Tami Robison, Logistics mission manager at the Army Corps of Engineers’ Louisiana Recovery Field Office, knows chaos. She knows logistical nightmares.

She knows what it is like not to sleep at night or to wake up haunted by urgent actions – so many things she must complete the very next day – no room for delay or excuses without impacting not only her location, but remote sites.

No choice but to keep a notebook on her bed stand. When needed crucial tasks woke her up – as they did often – she’d write them down. The list became her “to-do list” the next day. 

The term “logistical nightmare” isn’t just a pipedream. Folks have given it a time-honored place in the language of the chaos involved in getting massive supplies, equipment and lots of people to some place near or far from one spot or hundreds of locations all over the globe. 

At the LA-RFO, chaotic logistics involved arriving in a devastated state and trying to find scarce, habitable lodging; food; water; ice; debris disposal sites; sanitary facilities and office space. 

But talk to Tami today, and she’s the picture of serenity. 

“Right now work is flowing smoothly and it’s so quiet,” she said. “I have good workers - excellent people who know their jobs and what their responsibilities are, and that causes me not to worry. I wasn’t here when the real chaos began. When I arrived on Aug. 10, 2006, this operation was already put together.” 

In her previous assignment, Tami was in Iraq suffering the sleepless nights, the bed-stand notes and the urgent to-do lists. “Now that was a logistical nightmare,” she said. 

That, along with such trauma as her taking on fire on a helicopter taking of out of Tikrit, makes the energetic moves and consolidations of offices, equipment and people here relatively tranquil. 

“When the hurricanes hit, I was in Iraq,” she said. “I saw the disaster on TV and wished I could have been home to help. I’ve helped out on disasters the majority of my career and I’m driven by the love of helping others and seeing the end result. When the disaster has been cleaned up I can sit back, smile and think I was a part of that.” 

That is true both of her time here and in Iraq, she added. 

Today Tami is focused on “staying one step ahead of the game instead of putting out the fires as you go along. I’m always looking for ways of improving how we’re doing business,” such as the recent consolidation of groups at the area offices, including relocating the load-ticket reconciliation group from Clearview to the downtown office. 

Tami said it’s tough to get people down here – and not because folks are reluctant to volunteer.

“It’s hard to find folks who supervisors will allow them to deploy for 60 to 90 days at a time.” 

As if she didn’t get enough of being shot at in a helicopter or on another occasion when the “thuds” she heard in her quarters were not mortar rounds but the security team pounding on her door warning her of incoming rounds – Tami wants to go back to Iraq when the Corps mission is finished in Louisiana. 

Why does she want to return? 

“My plan was to leave after my first six months there,” she replied. “But the Commander suggested that I travel to some of the sites where we were rebuilding schools, hospitals and facilities. My trip took four days and upon my return, I signed up for another year.  What we are doing there is important to the people who live there and improving their lives that I wanted to be a part of it.” Tami served in Iraq from February 2005 until July 2006. 

She has talked to her co-workers and they have said that they’d never go to Iraq. “But after sharing stories and showing them pictures of the great things we are doing over there, many of them have changed their minds. I tell everyone, ‘Always have open mind to anything you do.’ I would be a good recruiter! 

“That’s why it is so important to get our people out in the field on occasion to see a house demolished and view the Corps progress. It’s a reality check as to why you are here.” 

Tami said she understands and can relate to what her predecessors must have experienced during the tense times after Katrina’s landfall.  

“It’s a tough and exciting time to be the first one on the ground, making sure adequate life support is being set up, lodging, rental cars, supplies, equipment – now, that’s a logistic nightmare – when you first arrive and don’t have anywhere to sleep or stay and you have to figure out where to pick up a car and where you’re going to work from. I would like to see the AAR – after-action report - after this disaster.” 

Meanwhile, in her quest for improvements, she sees to it that her teammate, Erin Evans, surveys employees to track hotel and car-rental rates. “If the room rate is not within the allowable per diem, Erin goes back and talks to the hotel so that the Government is not paying more then its share.” 

“Logistics’ drawdown plan is to go make sure all of FEMA’s property is accounted for and if there are any excess supplies and furniture sitting around that we return it back to FEMA, take it to Memphis District or return it to the office supply for a credit,” she said. 

“I’m cleaning house and trying to make it easier for the next group to close the door and shut off the lights.”