Maria Surita

I am currently a Master Sergeant with the Ohio Army National Guard, assigned as the Operations Non-Commissioned Officer in charge of the Distribution Section in the Support Operations Platoon. I am also working as the Production Controller for the Field Maintenance Shop #13 in Springfield, Ohio.

My experiences with the military have spanned for over twenty years and I have consistently worked within the logistical and maintenance field. My unit was deployed to Iraq for a twelve month rotation in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom 06-07. Throughout this assignment, I had direct oversight of equipment valued over 500 million dollars. Other duties have entailed the review, preparation and submission of reports for the director of logistics at National Guard Bureau. During the deployment to Iraq, I was the Senior Logistics Manager with direct responsibility for over 2300 Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines.

Presently, I have oversight for all maintenance job orders and parts requisitions of five separate National Guard units. It is required to monitor the trends of equipment failures and to analyze these problems to present improved, more workable solutions to reduce unnecessary repairs and man-hours as well as saving funds. These duties also entail the management of annual funds for over 1 million dollars that is dedicated for replacement parts and vehicle services.