Air University Review, March-April 1969
Major General George M. Johnson, Jr.
In this century American military men serving in Europe have become involved with some legendary ladies. There was Mademoiselle from Armentieres, beloved by the doughboys in World War I. A generation later it was a wistful Lili Marlene who captured the fancy of both Allied and Axis combat troops. Now in the stormy sixties, the Materiel Staff of the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) has created “MARCE,” which sounds like a candidate for the fabled feminine list.
As it happens, “MARCE” isn’t the name of a girl at all. Neither will it be found in any romantic song titles. It is the acronym for “Materiel Asset Redistribution Center, Europe.”
To tell the MARCE story properly a flashback to the spring of 1966, when USAFE was suddenly confronted with a situation not unlike that of a storekeeper who has just been told that he has lost his lease. In March of that year, President de Gaulle announced his desire that all NATO military forces be withdrawn from French soil. With the stroke of a pen, the Allied Command Europe, of which USAFE is a major air component, lost its French bases.
While this action jolted diplomats and military tacticians on both sides of the Iron Curtain into a great effort to divine its implications, logisticians at Headquarters USAFE in Wiesbaden, Germany, felt more like Mahomet facing the immovable mountain. For them, the De Gaulle decree added up to the closing of 9 air bases and over 75 smaller installations. Some 37,000 Air Force personnel and their families would have to be uprooted and more than a dozen tactical units relocated. At the same time, a ponderous 85,000 tons of supplies and equipment would have to be packed up and closet space found for them elsewhere.
The government of France requested that the NATO military force withdrawal be completed by 1 April 1967. The full energy of the USAFE staff was focused on the task, and “FRELOC,” which stands for fast relocation, was added to the Air Force acronym file.
For USAFE, the magnitude of the FRELOC operation could be compared to a situation in which a great chain of retail stores found itself not only being forced to vacate 80-odd of its branch outlets but also having to move some of the towns in which they were located.
Among the immediate consequences of the French edict would be some hardship on the Air Force personnel being moved and an urgent need to find beddown space for tactical units and their support elements, to insure continued accomplishment of the command’s vitally important missions. One of the most serious problems would be how to handle the millions of pounds of excess base-funded supplies no longer needed to operate the French bases for which they were procured. This towering stockpile of materiel represented a lot of money, a commodity hard to come by in these days of greyhound-lean military budgets.
During this same period a number of USAFE bases outside of France had several million dollars’ worth of supply requests backlogged for want of funds. USAFE found itself with too many eggs in one basket and not enough in another. If a rapid and economical method of matching these backlogged needs with French-base surpluses could be found, a big cut could be made in the cost to our government of the De Gaulle decision. Under any circumstance the sorting and redistributing of the massive quantity of materiel stored in France would be difficult. The relatively short time imposed by De Gaulle further complicated the job.
Manual methods of cataloging and redistributing excess materiel even in limited quantities and when processing time is not critical, have always been expensive and only moderately successful. The sheer size of the FRELOC task called for a faster and more efficient approach. Automation was the answer. And, conveniently housed about 150 yards from the DCS/Materiel offices on Lindsey Air Station in Wiesbaden was an IBM 1410 computer, part of USAFE’s command and control system. Arrangements were made to get some time and data bank space on the big black box. This done, Hq USAFE established the Computerized Excess Redistribution Center (CERC), the mother of MARCE.
During the preparatory phase the Directorate of Data Automation, DCS/Comptroller, at Hq USAFE developed the necessary computer programs. USAFE then instructed its French bases to report their excess serviceable supplies. At the same time all field units were directed to forward punch-card decks reflecting unfilled supply requisitions. All the data were then fed into the computer. The matching operation commenced in September 1966, using six hours of borrowed computer time nightly, five days a week.
It soon became apparent that this borrowed computer was incapable of adequately sustaining the CERC effort. Consequently steps were taken to obtain an IBM 1401 computer for the exclusive use of the redistribution center. It was obtained, contingent upon expansion of the CERC system to an interservice level, on 1 July 1967. Thus USAFE’s Computerized Excess Redistribution Center gave birth to MARCE.
An expert and enthusiastic USAFE Materiel staff swung into action and quickly accomplished the routine spade work, such as the writing of plans and technical manuals and the organization of a work force. The basic objectives of the MARCE system were spelled out:
a. To provide a centralized service for screening and redistribution of excess materiel in the European Theater
b. To maximize use of existing materiel assets of the military services in Europe.
c. To eliminate concurrent procurement and disposal of items for which a valid requirement exists.
d. To preclude trans-Atlantic transportation costs when similar items are available in the European Theater
e. To provide data for inventory managers to use as an aid in item management.
The MARCE system began operating on 12 July 1967. Its first redistribution order was for a vehicle part with a name that only an automobile mechanic could recognize or appreciate: “Rigid Cushion Segment Disc.” Price-$8.36. The part was surplus at Hahn Air Base in Germany, and it was shipped to Mildenhall Air Base in England, where it was needed.
MARCE made it mandatory for all routine supply requisitions to be processed through the computer bank at Hq USAFE before submission to stateside sources. In the case of high-priority requisitions, the bases were given the option of running them through the MARCE bank or submitting them stateside.
The MARCE system was geared to locate, package, and ship supplies and hardware with no price-tag restrictions. In other words, the goal is to process requirements for anything from paper clips to power plants, from clip boards to kitchen sinks, in 24 hours. It has shown that low-cost items can be redistributed economically.
Today a good merchandising operation must include a way to deliver the goods to the customer. Delivery service for MARCE orders is provided by organic or common-user transportation units when available, or by ordinary mail or parcel post.
The MARCE procedure is a simple one. The U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force units based in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East report their excess stocks to the computer facility at Hq USAFE. This information is cranked into the computer’s data bank for a 90-day period. Meanwhile requisitions submitted by any using agency in the system are passed through the bank for a match. If a desired item is listed as excess at any participating base, the requirement is thus satisfied. The computer uses an internally loaded geographical matrix to identify the source of supply closest to the requestor’s location. This reduces transportation costs to a minimum. Since nearly all the agencies and bases using the service are computer-equipped, the order-filling process is swift and automatic. To avoid wasting valuable space in the computer bank, items for which no requests are received in 90 days are removed and farmed out to other disposal agencies. The MARCE facility operates 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, on a 2-shift basis to insure 24-hour processing service on all orders received.
The success of the MARCE program has exceeded all expectations. In the first six months of its operation, from July through December 1967, over 104,000 line items valued at $2.7 million were redistributed; and in the first four months of 1968, 64,000 items worth $1.5 million.
Currently the MARCE computer is using 29 separate programs for daily, weekly, and monthly processing actions. Its bank now houses about 200,000 line items, varying in value from pennies to $6000. The network of U.S. activities using MARCE to clear excess stocks includes 1400 of the Army, 32 of the USAF, and 19 of the Navy.
In the first year of its operation, the value of the materiel handled by MARCE averaged about a half million dollars per month. A steady increase in volume occurred, and in May 1968 the one million dollar level was passed. The number of requisitions received also has climbed steadily. MARCE is now receiving and processing an average of 50,000 requests per month and is satisfying nearly 15 percent of them from its bank. To date, MARCE and its forerunner, CERC, have redistributed over 300,000 line items, valued at $9 million, in base-funded supplies.
The overhead costs associated with the MARCE system add up to a remarkably low 3.5 percent of the redistribution dollar. This total includes computer rental and personnel and supply costs. More impressive yet is the fact that the average value of the order delivered is $28, with a mean transportation cost of 59 cents.
While MARCE is becoming a familiar name among the military in the United States forces based in Europe, a related name is becoming known in the Far East. Early in 1968 USAFE experts journeyed to Okinawa to assist the U.S. Army 2d Logistics Command in setting up a similar system, to be called PACOM Utilization and Redistribution Agency (PURA). Thus the concept of computer-assisted redistribution of valuable serviceable materiel stocks marches on.
Hq United States Air Forces in Europe
Major General George Marvin Johnson, Jr. (M.A., George Washington University) is Commander, Oklahoma City Air Materiel Area, Tinker AFB. After completing flying training in 1942, he served in the European Theatre as troop-carrier squadron commander and participated in seven major campaigns. Other assignments have been as Commander, 8th Troop Carrier Squadron; as Chief, Equipment Division, Joint Air Transportation Board, Fort Bragg, North Carolina; at Yale University for Japanese language training followed by duty with the Military Assistance Advisory Group, Japan; in Hq USAF as Chief, Plans and Policy Division, Chief, Control Division, and Director of Military Assistance; and as Deputy Chief of Staff, Materiel. Hq U.S. Air Forces in Europe, from 1965 until his present assignment in July 1968. General Johnson is a graduate of Air Command and Staff and Air War College.
Disclaimer
The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.
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