What does an LRO do?

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Gretchen Kurlander
  • 512th LRF commander
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  Since I just became a Logistics Readiness Officer, I thought I'd ask myself, "What am I supposed to do now?" I thought you might enjoy the answer. This is my first assignment as an LRO, and I am astonished by how much I need to learn.
 
The core competencies for an LRO are distribution, materiel management and contingency operations. This list is very broad. The LRO at an operational base is responsible for deployment planning, processing and deployment, bed-down and redeployment activities. This job alone requires a detailed understanding of several secure and nonsecure computer data tracking systems used throughout the Air Force and the Department of Defense.
 
The LRO is responsible for managing these processes and for training the wing to execute them. LROs are also charged with managing the supply activities to include environmental compliance, inventory management, war readiness materiel, and understanding the associated computer management tools.
 
The next critical function for an LRO is managing the inventory and distribution of all types of fuel and cryogenic materiel received and used by the base. This task involves understanding the distribution, testing, monitoring, inventory control and environmental compliance requirements for these critical resources. 

The fourth major responsibility an LRO has is vehicle management. This job involves contract management of the fleet of cars and trucks and the maintenance and management of the Air Force owned special purpose vehicles such as forklifts, de-icers and K-loaders. 

The final critical job performed by an LRO is managing the aerial port. This involves receiving, tracking and distributing every piece of cargo that transits a base. Understanding the world-wide computer tracking systems provides the opportunity to track any item in transit. 

LROs are being deployed at a rapid rate since their skills are critical to moving people and materiel all over the world. There are LROs deployed with every major contingent and many Air Force LROs are being asked to deploy in support of the Army since most of the computer systems used to manage the movement of people and materiel are DoD-wide. 

Because of the huge amount of training required to become a good LRO, there are never enough LROs out there to fill the slots available around the globe. As you can see, I will be busy for the foreseeable future. I am also packing my mobility bags.