Marines First to Use New Web-based Combat Support System

Chris Lien, a consulting specialist with the Oracle Corporation, teaches Marines from 3rd Marine Logistics Group Jan. 17 at Camp Kinser's Surfside club about the new logistics system that will streamline the management of unit requests for supplies and services. The Global Combat Support System-Marine Corps will be a worldwide computer system that will allow units to order and track supplies and services with the click of a mouse. Photographer: Cpl. Eric Arndt, III Marine Expeditionary Force Public Affairs.

Focus On Defense:

CAMP KINSER, Japan, Jan. 25, 2008 -- III Marine Expeditionary Force units in Okinawa are scheduled to be the first to implement a new Corps-wide logistics system within the next 12-18 months.

A team of logistics specialists from Marine Corps Systems Command and civilians with the Oracle Corporation recently spent two weeks visiting units and key personnel to discuss the Global Combat Support System-Marine Corps.

“III MEF has been identified as the best initial rollout facility because of their location,” said Lt. Col. Jim Stone, the senior Marine advisor for the new system. “They’re away from the United States, and they’re almost always in a deployed status. If there is anything that could go wrong with our system … this is where it’s going to occur.”

The system is designed to become a world-wide computer network system that will allow units to order and track supplies and services with the click of a mouse, much like online shopping at Web-sites, such as Yahoo.com or Amazon.com, according to Stone.

The system is intended to improve current logistic systems by speeding up the processing of supply requests and improving the ability to track the location of individual pieces of gear, according to Cpl. John Owen, a supply administration and operations clerk with Combat Logistics Regiment 35.

“Right now, we key punch things, typing them into our system one by one,” said Owen. “That’s not efficient at all. You can make a simple mistake and accidentally change one item into something else.”

Over the past 40 years, the Marine Corps has used several different systems to manage logistics, according to Stone. The systems currently used are not up to today’s industry standards.

The GCSS-MC has been in development for the past two years.

It is based off of a program created by the Oracle Corporation, which is modifying the program to meet the Marine Corps’ needs. The program is an industry standard worldwide application that’s used by many civilian companies, according to Stone.

“With those two years of work, we’ve come up with a lot of assumptions as to how this system should be fielded in the Marine Corps,” Stone said. “(The Marines of III MEF) are the experts in the operations here, and we need to have their valuable input to make sure our assumptions are correct and up to III MEF standards.”

Input and solutions from III MEF Marines who tackle the system’s initial challenges will be used to improve upon and ease implementation within I and II MEF.

(Story by Cpl. David Rogers.)

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