Reforms are working!(READERS' FORUM) (Letter to the editor)

• Author: Phillips, Jon

Your January 2008 article ("In the Army, Why Can't Soldiers Be Customers?") hit the nail on the head. As ammo producers we struggle with who is really the customer. We never want a defective unit to get in the hands of our soldiers because they are laying it on the line for us but often times we are dealing with four or five government agencies and branches of the service trying to get decisions that make sense. I can walk around our building and ask six or seven people who our customer is and get several answers.

Believe it or not, it is getting better. The streamlining of the procurement cycle is beginning to have promise but the single biggest thing that will...