Current and former Defense Logistics Agency employees bid farewell Jan. 29 to a leader best known for getting things done and making those involved feel good about it.
“You’ve been a rock-steady influence here at DLA, and I can tell you that all that we are is due in very large measure to you,” DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek told former DLA Chief of Staff Fred Baillie in a retirement ceremony at the McNamara Headquarters Complex.
Baillie retired with 38 years of service to DLA, having served in a variety of positions relating to distribution, disposal processes and overall supply-chain management before heading the DLA Accountability Office from 2007 to 2010, when he was named DLA chief of staff.
Harnitchek said Baillie’s leadership helped make the word “combat” in DLA’s role as an official combat support agency mean something. And soon after Hurricane Sandy devastated portions of the Mid-Atlantic and northeastern United States, Baillie helped boost DLA’s humanitarian relief efforts by working with officials in New York and New Jersey to pinpoint local gas stations in need of help.
“The mission was, ‘Go out and find gas stations to put gas in,’ and Fred did that,” Harnitchek said.
The director also described Baillie’s ability to keep those around him calm in times of stress. As the agency’s nspector general, for example, Baillie was responsible for mediating the IG audit section’s intent to help field offices meet their IG requirements despite employees’ hard feelings about the audits.
“There was lots of emotion, lots of energy, but Fred played the honest broker and let everybody feel good about what it is they wanted to say and just stay focused on the mission and got it all done,” he said.
DLA Land and Maritime Deputy Commander Jim McClaugherty praised Baillie for a legacy of cooperation with no private agendas and for treating others with dignity.
His work consolidating the military services’ warehouses with DLA’s in the early 1990s also drew compliments from DLA Disposition Services Director Twila Gonzalas, who said Baillie never lost his cool and managed multiple stakeholders extraordinarily well.
Baillie said the hard jobs he took are the ones he remembers most, “probably because I learned the most from them. I accomplished the most for DLA and DoD and even had some fun.”
His willingness to accept difficult jobs and his ability to balance speed and accuracy are among the skills Baillie credited for his success. He was also inspired to listen more and talk less after reading “Cowboy Ethics” by James P. Owen many years ago, he said.
“Listening is how I connect to others, as they realize I really am listening to them and what they’re saying, not just waiting for them to stop talking so I can start,” he said.
It is a trait Harnitchek said he greatly admires in Baillie.
“There are times I wish I was more like you in terms of leadership style, when I get a little abrasive with folks or a little too demanding or ask a question and not let them answer,” he said. “You never stop learning, and Fred, I’ve learned a lot from you over the years. You’ve been a great shipmate.”