SAN FRANCISCO, California – John Kulick, regional logistics planner with South Pacific Division, was awarded the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Logistician of the Year Award during an award ceremony in Washington, DC, on November 13.
The award recognizes the logistician whose stellar performance enhances not only the USACE Logistics community of practice through their dedication and ability but also leave their respective district or division better than they found it.
With a retirement on the horizon in May, Kulick views the accolade as the cherry on top of his decades-long career in logistics.
“I was surprised and to conclude a very long career in logistics - it's kind of like a capstone event to 44 years,” said Kulick. “This is the first time (I’ve received) a nomination and award of this size.”
Kevin Elfers, SPD’s logistics office chief, isn’t surprised by the award and considers John, who has been with USACE 15 years, to be the backbone of his logistics team.
“John's 44 years of Army service, in and out of uniform, and as a supervisor and staff officer has benefited my managerial direction of logistics in this region,” said Elfers. “I use John as a sounding board for solutions I seek to address personnel shortfalls in delivering our logistics program throughout the region. John's recommendations to attack problems are most often sound and sage advice.”
Elfers adds during the first review by the USACE Logistics Agency, they commended the high bar that SPD set for their future work at other Divisions and Districts and recognized John for the electronic filing work that has been accomplished in the SPD region.
While Kulick is seasoned in the logistics arena, he does play favorites when it comes to his preferred area of the field – disaster response.
“I’ve really been invigorated by my deployments to areas impacted by natural disasters, said Kulick. “It’s gratifying to create order out of chaos using decades of past logistics experiences. I simply enjoy analyzing a problem that can be solved logistically.”
“I recall a deployment to the Virgin Islands where we had temporary power generation teams of contractors working without their equipment which was accidentally offloaded and stored in Puerto Rico for two weeks,” he explained. “To get it out of Puerto Rico and onto Virgins Islands, we had FEMA lease a roll-on/roll-off barge dedicated to the Corps of Engineers and had their “frustrated” equipment on Island in less than 72 hours.”
“When solutions are needed during natural disaster events,” said Elfers, “John is one of my first responders who is requested to deploy to solve logistics problems at disaster event sites where USACE is engaged and challenged by movement of equipment or sustainment of personnel.”
By supporting logistics in countries like the Soviet Union, Germany, Afghanistan, and Iraq and numerous hurricane and earthquake evacuations in Puerto Rico and Florida, Kulick has developed keen instincts that support SPD logistics.
“He has an innate ability to analyze business process doctrine and develop courses of action that achieve results across the functional areas of supply transportation, facility, maintenance, and emergency management functional disciplines,” Elfers adds.
“In a nutshell, logistics is a lifeline and I just love the different aspects of having to use your experience and skills to come up with a solution,” explains Kulick.
Wrapping up his federal service career with USACE has been rewarding for Kulick.
“Our South Pacific Division leadership and staff are seasoned professionals, who like me, grew their skills from years of service to the nation,” adds Kulick. “They know from ‘foxhole” to ‘boardroom’ and allow others to work their initiatives to deliver programs, be it tactical movements of equipment or strategic movements of important people. ‘Mission First, People Always’ when executing a plan - seems to sum it up.”