[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 8366-8367]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    PAYING TRIBUTE TO MAJOR GENERAL KEVIN A. LEONARD'S 33 YEARS OF 
                    UNIFORMED SERVICE TO OUR NATION

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. C. W. BILL YOUNG

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 5, 2012

  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to 
Major General Kevin A. Leonard for his extraordinary dedication to duty 
and service to the United States of America. Major General Leonard will 
retire from the United States Army in May 2012 after serving his 
country with integrity, dedication and visionary leadership for over 33 
years. While his accomplishments are numerous, these deserve special 
notice. Major General Kevin A. Leonard has distinguished himself 
through exceptionally meritorious service to the United States Army 
from May 1979 to May 2012, concluding 33 years of exemplary service 
culminating in his assignment as Commanding General, Military Surface 
Deployment and Distribution Command, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. 
Major General Leonard is a genuine selfless servant leader who 
consistently demonstrated outstanding leadership, professionalism, 
dedication, and a genuine heart-felt concern for the welfare of 
Soldiers, Civilians, and their Families. His efforts, sacrifices, and 
selfless service have made significant and enduring contributions to 
the development, training, and leadership of the United States Army and 
the Armed Forces of the United States.
  Major General Leonard has performed with expert distinction in all of 
his assignments throughout a remarkable career. He has led and molded 
Soldiers while serving in a myriad of significant positions of ever-
increasing responsibility to include the following: Infantry Rifle and 
Scout Platoon Leader in Germany during the Cold War; Company Commander 
at both Fort Sill, Oklahoma and Fort Riley, Kansas; every key 
development position at battalion level to include Battalion Commander 
in the 1st Infantry Division; Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, 
United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC), Fort Bragg, 
North Carolina; Commander Special Operations Support Command 
(Airborne), in both Afghanistan and Iraq; Chief Sustainment Division 
and Executive Assistant (EA) to the Director, Joint Staff, The Joint 
Staff, Washington, D.C.; Deputy Commander, United States Army Field 
Support Command with duty as Commanding General, Army Materiel Command 
Forward-Southwest Asia/C-4, Coalition Land Forces, Camp Arifjan, 
Kuwait; Commanding General 1st Corps Support Command (Airborne)/1st 
Sustainment Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina and Camp Arifjan 
Kuwait; Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics and Operations, United 
States Army Materiel Command, Fort Belvoir, Virginia; and finally, 
Commanding General Military Surface Deployment and Distribution 
Command.
  Major General Leonard's phenomenal success leading SDDC and several 
other organizations is attributable to the core traits and values he 
has demonstrated throughout his service in the United States Army. He 
is a committed and resolute leader who has consistently built 
incredibly agile, innovative, and mission oriented teams. His formula 
for success is simple: he knows, trusts, and empowers his subordinates 
to execute his intent; he has always founded his leadership on the 
credo ``Mission First, Soldiers Always, and Self Last''; and he has led 
by example with his professional competence and unfaltering confidence 
in his team. He believed each of his organizations could achieve the 
highest standards possible and without fail, they did. Through his 
energy, optimism, and emphasis on collaboration, he has created teams 
of nimble and innovative problem solvers that have fundamentally 
improved organizational efficacy while making enduring contributions to 
the nation's defense and welfare. His principle message and command 
philosophy is perfectly epitomized by his maxim: ``One Mind focused on 
the mission; One Heart willing to serve; One Purpose to keep soldiers 
alive''. At all levels of command in peace and war, Major General Kevin 
Leonard has demonstrated himself to be an exceptionally adept leader 
and logistician, a sincerely caring commander, and a consummate 
Soldier.
  Major General Leonard exemplary service culminated with his 
assignment as Commanding General, Military Surface Deployment and 
Distribution Command, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. This organization 
is a jointly staffed Army Service Component Command (ASCC) of United 
States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) and a Major Subordinate 
Command (MSC) of United States Army Materiel Command (AMC). As 
Commander of Surface Deployment and Distribution Command he was 
responsible for all SDDC operations and for directly leading a 
headquarters and five subordinate commands composed of over 4,825 
active and reserve military personnel and civilians. Major General 
Leonard's contributions to SDDC are significant and enduring. His 
leadership has cultivated an SDDC team that is readily postured to 
respond to any contingency ranging from abrupt closures of the Pakistan 
Ground Lines of Communication (PAKGLOC) to humanitarian disasters 
across the globe.
  During Major General Leonard's tenure SDDC successfully executed 235 
unit cargo deployments in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, Operation 
NEW DAWN, and Operation ENDURING FREEDOM as well as the movement of 101 
million square feet of cargo. Under his direction, SDDC successfully 
coordinated the drawdown of ocean shipping containers in Iraq from over 
43,000 containers in June 2011 to fewer than 20,000 containers in 
November 2011 thereby resulting in a $6.4 million dollar reduction in 
container detention costs. He also effectively employed SDDC Individual 
Mobilization Augmentees (IMA) to serve as the command's liaison 
officers (LNO)

[[Page 8367]]

in Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan. He deployed 
forces to effectively posture and support the rapid reverse surge and 
departure of all U.S. forces from Iraq; the largest drawdown of forces 
since Vietnam. Major General Leonard demonstrated exceptional dexterity 
while overseeing the execution of over-the-shore logistics operations 
into earthquake ravaged Japan during Operation TOMODACHI while 
simultaneously and seamlessly supporting operations in the CENTCOM area 
of responsibility (AOR). Additionally, the Defense Transportation 
Tracking System (DTTS) directorate received the 2010 St. Louis Federal 
Executive Board's ``Team Excellence'' award for their expert response 
to over 200 incidents and emergencies involving the commercial carrier 
movement of arms, ammunition, and explosives (AA&E) and other sensitive 
materials on behalf of the DoD. Overall, DTTS personnel effectively 
tracked over 70,000 high security risk shipments during the past year. 
Regarding household goods (HHG) movements, SDDC successfully oversaw 
the movement of well over 500,000 HHG shipments and 80,000 personally 
owned vehicle shipments in fiscal year 2011 alone. Through 
collaboration with the US Department of Defense (DoD), the United 
States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), and DoD's commercial moving 
partners, MG Leonard oversaw the final development and successful 
implementation of the Defense Personal Property System (DPS) an 
internet-based system to manage DoD household goods moves. Major 
General Leonard proved himself to be an able consensus builder as well. 
His Strategic Planning initiatives integrated the priorities and plans 
of two four star headquarters achieving significant synergies leading 
to better and more efficient distribution operations.
  SDDC accomplished these achievements and far too many more to mention 
during Major General Leonard's 19 months of command. Because of Major 
General Leonard's superb leadership, SDDC has indeed become the 
recognized and trusted leader in delivering innovative end-to-end 
deployment and distribution excellence across the full range of 
military operations.
  Major General Leonard's exemplary leadership and selfless devotion to 
duty has touched fully three generations of Soldiers, Department of the 
Army Civilians, and their Families. His integrity and credibility are 
unsurpassed, and his expertise is unquestioned. Major General Leonard's 
33 years of service to our Army and the Nation can only be 
characterized as honorable and distinguished.
  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of a grateful nation, I join my colleagues 
today in saying thank you to Major General Kevin A. Leonard for his 
extraordinary dedication to duty and service to his country throughout 
his distinguished career in the United States Army and we wish him, his 
wife Pam, his daughters Melissa and Jessica, and son Kris, all the best 
in his well-deserved retirement.

                          ____________________