Navy Supply Corps

Background

The Supply Corps of the United States Navy traces its beginnings to February 23, 1795 when the nation's first Purveyor of Public Supplies, Tench Francis, Jr., was appointed by President George Washington. The Supply Corps is one of the oldest staff corps in the U.S. Navy. Supply Corps officers are concerned with supply, logistics, combat support, readiness, contracting and fiscal issues. The official motto of the Supply Corps is "Ready for Sea" -- reflecting the Supply Corps' longstanding role in supporting the warfighter. Commissioned officers in the Supply Corps are schooled and experienced in a variety of disciplines such as supply management and expeditionary logistics, inventory control, disbursement, financial management, contracting, information systems, operations analysis, material and operational logistics, fuels management, food service and physical distribution. Supply Corps officers can be members of a ship or shore activity's supply department or can be billeted into supply units/commands -- such as Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Groups (NAVELSGs), Fleet Industrial Supply Centers (FISCs) or Navy Special Warfare (SPECWAR) Logistics Groups which support the U.S. Navy SEALs. While Supply Corps officers are not eligible for command at sea, which is the province of certain unrestricted line officers, they can command supply units. A Supply Corps officer is always the Commanding Officer of a Naval Cargo Handling Battalion -- groups charged with stevedoring and logistics whose constituent companies are led by both Supply Corps and Civil Engineer Corps officers. Supply Corps officers also serve in forward deployed land-based units -- such as the U.S. Navy Seabees -- working right alongside Civil Engineer Corps officers and in a joint capacity with U.S. Marines.

Navy Supply Corps School

New Supply Corps junior officers attend the Navy Supply Corps School (NSCS) in Athens, Georgia. NSCS was first opened as the Navy Supply Corps School of Application in 1921, located at the Navy Department in Washington, D.C. After just three years the school was closed, and for the next ten years supply officers learned their profession on the job, at sea from senior supply officers and through formal, but independent coursework. A more formal arrangement was achieved when the Naval Finance and Supply School was opened at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in September 1934, for instruction of regular Navy Supply Corps officers. The training of reserve officers did not become available until 1940, when the Supply Corps Naval Reserve Officers School was established in Washington, D.C. After ten months the two schools were merged, creating the Navy Supply Corps School, located at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During U.S. involvement in World War II, 13,000 officers graduated from NSCS at Harvard. In 1944, the Naval Supply Operational Training Center was established at the Naval Supply Depot in Bayonne, New Jersey. It was redesignated the Navy Supply Corps School in 1946, but within a few years it outgrew its facilities. Through the efforts of two Georgia politicians, U.S. Senator Richard B. Russell Jr. and U.S. Representative Carl Vinson, the school was moved to Athens, Georgia in 1954. NSCS occupies a fifty-eight-acre campus rich in educational heritage. The site had been used as a school since the 1860s, first for the University of Georgia's University High School, then as a Confederate military school, and at the end of the Civil War, a federal garrison. In 1866 the site housed a school for disabled young Confederate veterans, which existed with state support for two years. The Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission of 2005 decreed that NSCS will be re-located to Newport, Rhode Island in 2011.

Additional Information

Supply Corps Officers can earn one or more of four warfare insignias: the Naval Aviation Supply Officer (NASO) pin, the Surface Warfare Supply Corps Officer (SWSCO) pin, the Submarine Supply Officer pin and the Seabee Combat Warfare Specialist pin -- for supply officers assigned to a Navy Seabee unit. Supply Corps officers are sometimes called "SUPPOs", which is incorrect nomenclature except when referring to those officers who hold a department head billet. Aboard submarines the Supply Officer is known as the 'Chop'. While the term "Supply Officer" or SUPPO is a specific role which an officer may fill, there are also many other positions open to Supply Corps officers as this is an inherently multi-disciplinary career field. Enlisted ratings that comprise the Navy supply community are: SHs (Ship's Servicemen), who assist Supply Officers in managing shipboard retail and service activities; SKs (Storekeepers), who assist Supply Officers in managing inventories of parts and supplies; PSs (Personnel Specialists, a recent merger of the former Disbursing Clerk (DK) and Personnelman (PN) ratings), who assist with the disbursement of funds; CSs (Culinary Specialists, formerly known as Mess Management Specialists (MSs)), who manage and execute all food service operations; and PCs (Postal Clerks), who assist in the management of fleet postal activities). Supply Corps officers are nicknamed "pork chops" for the resemblance their distinctive oak leaf insignia is said to bear to that dish. If more than one Supply Corps officer is attached to a command, then the junior Supply Corps officer or officers are nicknamed "lamb chops." Statistically, members of the Supply Corps have been involved in more intra-military criminal acts of misappropriation than other branches of the U.S. Navy, due to the exposure Supply Corps members have to large amounts of cash, goods, and other untraceable assets. A well known case in the 1980s had a U.S. Navy Supply Corps officer disappearing from the USS Kitty Hawk with close to five million dollars while the vessel was on deployment. Navy Supply Corps officers have also been robbed and murdered for the cash in their custody. Since that time, strict security countermeasures have drastically reduced the number of misappropriation and embezzlement incidents in the U.S. Navy Supply Corps.

Supply Corps Leadership

As of April 2007, Rear Admiral Alan S. Thompson is the 44th Chief of the Supply Corps. Rear Admiral Mark D. Harnitchek is Director of Plans and Policy for US Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM). The commanding officer of the Navy Supply Corps School is Captain Brian D. Sheppard, in command since June 2004. RADM Thompson is the highest ranking Supply Corps Officer in the U.S. Navy.

Notable Supply Corps Officers

• Roy A. Anderson — CEO, Lockheed Corporation
• Eddie Carlson — CEO, United Airlines
• Benjamin Edwards — CEO, Edward Jones Financial Group
• A.G. Edwards — President, Chairman, CEO, A.G. Edwards
• Roger Enrico — CEO, Pepsico
• Andrew Giordano — Chairman, Joseph A Bank Clothiers
• Paul N. Howell — President and CEO, Howell Corporation
• A.G. Lafley — CEO, Procter & Gamble
• Bruce Laingen — U.S. Ambassador to Malta
• Melvin R. Laird — Secretary of Defense, 1969-1973
• Leonard Lauder — CEO, Estee Lauder
• Kenneth Lay — CEO, Enron
• Robert S. Levanthal — Dean of the University of Washington Business School/CEO of Western Union
• Keith Lippert — Director, Defense Logistics Agency, 2001-2006
• William Marriott — CEO, Marriott Hotels
• James J. Mulva — CEO, ConocoPhillips Oil Company
• Regis Philbin — Television personality
• David Robinson — 1990 NBA Rookie of the Year, 1995 NBA MVP, Two-time NBA Champion
• Roger Staubach — Dallas Cowboys Quarterback, two-time Super Bowl Champion, NFL Hall of Famer, Executive Chairman of the Staubach Company
• Ed Straw — COO, Estee Lauder
• John P. Durkin — Chief Financial Officer, Vodafone KK (2001-06), Nikko Cordial Financial Group (present)
• Toby Switzer — Chief Executive Officer and President, PWC Logistics Services KWC