Excess military equipment donation has always been an integral component of the Defense Department’s property disposition strategy. In fact, the history of military surplus in the U.S. essentially traces back to a time when a variety of organizations quickly sprang up to mete out items from the cramped storehouses of unused World War II equipment to help veteran-helmed farms and small business startups around the country.
A fast forward through the decades reveals that DOD responsibility for military excess and surplus property primarily vested in Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services. Nowadays, the organization’s 42-day Reutilization, Transfer, and Donation, or RTD, inventory cycle, grants military units first priority to examine and scoop up items other commands no longer require. If the department ultimately decides to relinquish an item, DLA then offers it to “special program” recipients for end uses like law enforcement and wildfire response. After that, items can be transferred to non-DOD federal agencies. The final tier of the RTD cycle is donation, which includes (non-special program) state, county, municipal, and qualifying non-profit entities authorized to requisition former defense inventory. In fiscal 2024, almost 130,000 former military items originally valued at about $152 million were donated to qualifying organizations through DLA.
The newest type of organization DLA recognizes for donation was added to the list via the Veterans Small Business Enhancement Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-416), which “amends the Small Business Act to direct the Small Business Administration (SBA) to give access to and manage the distribution of U.S-owned surplus property, pursuant to a memorandum of agreement between the SBA, the General Services Administration, and the head of the state agency for surplus properties, to small businesses owned and controlled by veterans. This includes access to foreign excess property returned to a state for handling as surplus property.”
Just as in the early days of military surplus, veterans and their small business endeavors have once again been included.
Property Disposal Specialist Cassie Gilbert is part of the DLA Disposition Services headquarters RTD team. She said the two categories of eligible surplus property donation recipients made eligible under the act are veteran-owned small businesses and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. Their access oversight and competition methods for federal contracts is managed through the Small Business Administration.
“The veteran owner business program has been around for some time and has seen many requisitions,” said RTD Branch Chief Josey Kidd, who noted that because the vet business permissions are regulated through GSA and the SASPs, the agency does not have a full picture of just how many veteran-owned small businesses are requesting surplus and excess items annually. Veterans who are interested in program details and specifics need to direct those queries to the SBA.
Thankfully, anecdotal stories of VOSBs receiving former military equipment do emerge from DLA’s property disposal field site network from time to time. A strong recent example involves a maritime services and salvage firm incorporated out of Okeechobee, Florida, in 2018, that successfully requisitioned two MK2 Bridge Erection Boats from DLA via GSA and Florida’s State Agency for Surplus Property in 2024.
Soldiers used the MK2 BEB – originally purchased by the Army at a cost of about $125,000 apiece in the mid-1980s – for over three decades before the replacement vessel began arriving at Army engineering battalions in 2018. The versatile boats were employed by the Army for everything from bridge construction to raft and diving operations, maritime projects, and inland water patrols. Those units now deploy a more maneuverable M30 BEB that requires a smaller crew.
Dave Kellerman spent 24 years in Army special operations before retiring in 2008 and starting a diving company in Florida. A decade later, he expanded his business focus, renaming it Favor Bold Aeromarine. Now, he maintains several working vessels and he keeps a list of on-call specialists to work on marine salvage, marine coordination and production support, and “specialty” services like vessel defense and sea survival training. Kellerman said he was perusing the contracting-focused website sam.gov in 2020 when a pop-up mentioned that VOSBs could request federal surplus thanks to the recent amendment.
This year, Kellerman said he’s partnering with another VOSB on an emergency response-specific joint venture, and the two former Army boats can serve a very specific role in unfriendly conditions.
“Water-related disaster and recovery work is extremely hard on boats and equipment,” Kellerman said. “We have the necessary boats to respond to marine-related disasters here in Florida and the Bahamas, but our primary boats are open water boats and they don’t do well in shallow debris-laden waters. By virtue of having water jet propulsion, the bridge boats can operate without fear of substantial damage in areas where harbors and rivers are blocked by floating and sunken debris. The water jets are also safer when dealing with workers and/or victims in the water. The value-added benefit is that the bridge boats were built out of heavy aluminum so they could (almost) be ‘soldier-proof.’”
He said the BEBs were in good shape for being 40 years old. Despite that, he estimates that it will take $30,000 in repairs and upgrades for each vessel to prepare them for the job. He used a surplus Coast Guard trailer for two 3,000-mile round trip drives to and from Columbus to retrieve the boats from the DLA property disposal site there. He praised Florida SASP personnel and DLA Disposition Services Property Disposal Specialist Eric Marshall for his assistance.
“[Eric] was fantastic to work with and he spent a good bit of time on the phone with me with helpful advice,” Kellerman said. “He also personally assisted in loading the boats upon my arrival at the facility.”
Kellerman said that for VOSBs, acquiring donation property “is absolutely worth it,” but he encourages other interested veterans to do their homework. There are lengthy guidelines laid out by the SBA in determining whether veteran-owned small businesses can participate, and additional rules are applied by the states and their surplus property agencies.
“Vets need to know a few things before they set out on joining the program,” Kellerman said. “It is not ‘free gear’ like many think. There are upfront costs, logistical/transport costs, and repair costs to consider. Each state agency has their own fee schedule, based on the property’s condition. … Be ready to mobilize fast when you get awarded property. Everything is on a predetermined schedule and there are specific timelines that have to be met along the way.”
Despite the state-assessed fees for participation, Kellerman said what his company gained was “100 percent” worth the fee and the work involved to requisition the boats.
“It gives us something we didn’t have or even think of before, because it wasn’t worth it to spend two hundred grand on something like that. But this? This ROI makes good sense to us,” Kellerman said. “I like helping people. I’m in a position now where I can provide more emergency assistance and services. And it’s pretty cool to be able to use stuff that’s over 40 years old and the government was giving it away.”