Occasionally a question arises as to whether the terms Life Cycle Logistics and GS-0346 Logistics Management Specialists are synonymous – or alternatively, whether all Life Cycle Logisticians are GS-0346 Logistics Management Specialists. As a public service, allow me to clarify the relationships, and perhaps share some useful additional information about our career field that you may or may not already be aware of.

·         GS-0346 is a US government civilian occupational series as defined by Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Encourage you to visit the OPM website  to learn more about this occupational series.

·         Within DoD, Life Cycle Logistics career field, which itself is part of the broader the defense acquisition workforce (DAW), is not synonymous with the GS-0346 occupational series. There are actually 14 separate civilian occupational series (including, but not limited to 0346) listed as "typical" in the Logistics Functional Integrated Product Team (LOG FIPT)-validated and Logistics Functional Leader-approved Life Cycle Logistics career field Position Category Description (PCD).  These include: 0340, 0343, 0346, 0801, 1101, 1515, 1670, 2001, 2003, 2010, 2032, 2101, and 2130 occupational series.

·         For uniformed military personnel, the Life Cycle Logistics PCD also identifies five Army Occupation Codes (AOC), one Navy Additional Qualification Designator (AQD) codes, two Air Force Specialty Codes (AFSC), and seven US Marine Corps Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) codes, and depending on the Service, includes both enlisted and officers.

·         The majority of the life cycle logistics workforce members are in fact civilians. As of the end of FY12, the Life Cycle Logistics Career Field had 16,423 civilians and 1,032 military personnel assigned across the Services and Defense Agencies.

·         The majority of civilian DoD life cycle logisticians are in fact assigned to GS-0346 positions. See slide #9 of the OUSD(AT&L) Human Capital Initiatives (HCI) briefing entitled "Life Cycle Logistics Functional Career Field Critical Acquisition Workforce Data End of FY 2012 (as of September 30, 2012)", which indicates as of the end of FY12 that 69% of the members of the Life Cycle Logistics career field are in fact GS-0346s.

·         The Defense Acquisition Workforce (also referred to as Defense AT&L Workforce) is governed by DoD Directive 5000.52 and DoD Instruction 5000.66.

·         In addition to the Life Cycle Logistics Certification & Core Plus Development Guide, the DoD Logistics Human Capital Strategy (HCS) also provides extensive information about the Life Cycle Logistics career field and how it integrates into the broader DoD logistics workforce, including the key career field competency areas.

·         The Fourth Estate Director, Acquisition Career Management (DACM) maintains an excellent website with information about the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) and defense acquisition workforce certification, along with contact information for each of the Service and Fourth Estate DACM offices.  In it, they remind workforce members that “the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) required the Department of Defense (DoD) to establish a process through which persons in the acquisition workforce would be recognized as having achieved professional status. Certification is the procedure through which a military service or DoD Component determines that an employee meets the education, training, and experience standards required for a career level in any acquisition, technology, and logistics career field.”