At the presidential inauguration next week in Washington D.C., the Army’s honor guard will be decked out in full regalia–sparkling new uniforms for which the Defense Supply Center Philadelphia‘s Dress Clothing Division is responsible.
Over the past 18 months, teams at the supply center have been working with contractors to order some 3,550 men’s and women’s dress uniform item–coats, trousers, skirts, as well as 476 raincoats and 684 overcoats for the occasion.
Diana Stewart, a spokesperson for the Defense Supply Center, says the organization has been serving the U.S. military, in one form or another, for about 200 years. It began in Philadelphia as the Schuylkill Arsenal, a munitions supply and storage provider, and went on to make uniforms for Union Soldiers during the Civil War.
These days, the center works for the Department of Defense as an acquisition organization, supplying uniforms for every branch of the military, as well as food, clothing, medical supplies and construction materials for troops overseas.
“The section here in Philadelphia is troop support,” Stewart says. “Not so much equipment, but things that are for individual servicemen or women.”
She adds, “For the inauguration, we do a little bit more.”
One important responsibility is quality control. In some cases, the center’s teams will buy the fabrics and other materials and furnish them to the contractors, which are all U.S. companies. “We work very closely with contractors around the country that make these uniforms to make sure the quality is top notch,” she says.
Source: Diana Stewart, Defense Supply Center Philadelphia
Writer: John Davidson
To receive Keystone Edge free every week, click here.