New DLA warehouse set to open, add jobs Published Feb. 25, 2011 By Wayne Crenshaw 78 ABW/PA ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- The Defense Logistics Agency is a rapidly growing presence at Robins and today it is taking an especially big step forward. Navy Vice Admiral Alan S. Thompson, DLA director, is at Robins to cut the ribbon on a new $24.6 million consolidation and containerization point warehouse. The ceremony begins at 2 p.m. The building is the end result of a decision by the 2005 Base Realignment Closure Commission to make Robins one of the four Strategic Distribution Platforms in the massive DLA network. The focus of the new warehouse will be to containerize and ship supplies to Afghanistan and other foreign locations, said Robert King, DLA Distribution Warner Robins director. The opening of the building will bring about 60 new jobs to Robins. The DLA presence here started in 2007 with about 100 people who primarily dealt with supplies for the Robins flightline, but it has since grown to nearly 900 people shipping items to Marine, Army, Air Force and Navy installations throughout the Southeast, and around the world. DLA has approximately 3 million square feet of warehouse space at Robins, which is the equivalent of nearly 70 acres. The new building, at the corner of Robins Parkway and Martin Luther King Drive, adds another 167,575 square feet. King said there is no time to waste in getting the operation in full swing. He already has commitments to pack 36 air pallets per day and 140 40-foot shipping containers per month, starting Tuesday. "We are going to get in there and get to work right away," King said. The air pallets are designed to be dropped by parachute to combat troops in austere locations. The operation will mean approximately 25-30 additional big rigs per day coming onto the base, bringing in items from hundreds of manufacturers around the country. The items will be prepared for shipping here and then trucked to the port of Savannah, and aerial ports in Charleston, S.C., and Dover, Del., among other locations.