AFLCMC Director of Logistics credits diverse background for new role

  • Published
  • By Stacey Geiger
  • 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- Seizing every opportunity has been the key to success in Cynthia Abbott’s Air Force career of 37 years and counting. As the new Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s director of logistics at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Abbott plans to make people and processes a priority.

 

Abbott serves as the center senior functional for logistics, overseeing all activities for life cycle logistics and product support management.  She provides program and resource support to program executive officers, approximately 400 programs, and is responsible for more than 3,800 life cycle logisticians.

“AFLCMC logistics are located across nine major locations and they all work on multiple programs,” Abbott said. “My job is to organize, train and equip. People need to be in the right positions, they need to be trained, and we need to make sure we have standardized processes across our centers so we can be more efficient and effective in what we are doing in supporting the Air Force.”

 

Abbott contributes her professional growth as a result from having a positive attitude, willingness to be flexible and being open to learning. She began her Air Force career at Kelly AFB, Texas, as a GS-2 clerk typist working in a distribution area typing shipping tickets. Abbott embraced every job opportunity she was afforded and carried a variety of positions. She worked in supply management and manpower and personnel for many years until she was promoted into logistics. When the base closed due to base realignment and closure, she joined the C-5 program at Robins AFB, Georgia. To diversify her work experience, Abbott chose to participate in career broadening in program management. Abbott then went to Wright-Patterson AFB as the logistics chief of Sensors for the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and Foreign Military Sales Division. 

 

Abbott credits her diverse background for preparing her for her current position.

“Working different jobs and positions really prepared me to make much better decisions because you see things from a different point of view,” she said. “Having those career broadening experiences really prepared me. Moving into the different environments and understanding how the Air Force makes decisions has better prepared me for this job.”

Abbott’s day-to-day focus is communicating the AFLCMC goals and objectives with the logistical workforce and working with division leadership to develop standardized training and processes.

“We have an important mission and we are in a challenging environment right now,” Abbott said. “We have a lot of good people working in AFLCMC logistics. We have a lot on our plates, resources are getting tight, and we do not have the funding or people that we used to have so we have to take a really good look at what the key priorities are to support our mission and how to prioritize our workload. As for me, I am here to help remove those roadblocks by establishing good processes and training plans that will make our people ‘loggie’ strong.”