Logistics specialist
The logistics specialist (LS) is a
History
The original storekeeper rating was substantiated in 1916[2] and the conversion to logistics specialist was not simply a name change, as this evolution encompassed federal laws and punitive regulations of handling, sorting, and securing the mail.
Job description
Logistics specialists are primarily tasked with maintaining military supply stores. Their responsibilities generally include open purchasing and procurement, shipping and receiving, inventory management, and issue of equipment, repair parts, tools, consumable items (paper, pens, toilet paper, batteries, etc.), hazardous materials or anything else obtained through the naval supply system combined with former postal clerk duties as custodian of postal effects and monitoring designated mail orderlies.
Logistics specialists manage inventories and issuance of repair parts (aircraft and ships) and of general supplies and specialized supplies (e.g., personal flight gear for naval aircrews or specialized combat equipment for Navy
They open-purchase, inventory, screen, procure, receive, store and issue material and replace repair selected components. They utilize financial accounting and database systems to perform inventory and financial management functions. Additionally, they sort and distribute all official and personal mail, manage money order and stamp inventories, and maintain financial and inventory reports.[3]
Function
Logistics specialists typically fall under the command or supervision of commissioned officers of the
Logistics specialists can be found serving virtually any naval platform, in diverse theaters, including combat zones on forward operating bases like Iraq or Afghanistan in place of supply soldiers for the Army as an ad hoc individual augmentee. For this reason, they can be found with virtually every warfare pin qualification offered by the Navy with only a few exceptions. Of the warfare qualifications commonly held, included are: aviation warfare, surface warfare, Seabee combat warfare, expeditionary warfare, and submarine warfare (or "dolphins").
Logistics specialists also provide major support to the North Atlantic Alliance, Spanish Navy, US Coast Guard ships and the Military Sealift Command with their Fleet Logistics Center Sigonella–Site in Rota, Spain for ships and aircraft supplies (including fuel) as their first stop east bound to the Mediterranean from the Atlantic region including all military mail going to US military personnel in and around European nations.[4]
Training
Logistic specialists are primarily trained at Naval Technical Training Center in Meridian, Mississippi. Undesignated or non-rated sailors may also 'strike' (moonlight train/study through on-the-job-training and online-courses and take the exam) for logistics specialists without attending NTTC Meridian's Storekeeper "A" School. The Coast Guard retains the name and rate of Storekeeper, and has not adopted the name Logistics Specialist. Coast Guard Storekeepers are trained in Petaluma, California.
See also
- List of United States Navy ratings
- Ship's Serviceman
References
- ^ Thorpe, Devin, MC3 (November 19, 2008). "Storekeeper, Postal Clerk Ratings to Merge into Logistic Specialist Rating". Bureau of Naval Personnel. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Compilation of Enlisted Ratings and Apprenticeships, U.S. Navy, 1775 to 1969,". Naval History and Heritage Command. December 1969. p. -S-. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
- ^ Powers, Rod (June 25, 2019). "Navy Enlisted Job: Logistics Support (LS)". The Balance. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
- ^ Gerber, Christopher Lt. (January 23, 2019). "A Year in Review: NAVSUP Fleet Logistics Center Sigonella–Site Rota, Spain". Navy Supply Corps Newsletter. Retrieved July 29, 2019.