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Sometimes material shortfalls are caused by lack of logistic support. The part you need is available in the military supply system; it just happens to be two continents removed from where you actually need it. Or - I always loved this one - the part is obsolete and no longer carried in the system. Never mind that your ship's Air Defense radar is as blind as the proverbial bat without it, or your Armored Personnel Carrier needs it to function; that part is no longer supported.
There are a lot of reasons for shortfalls in parts and supplies, but they all have one thing in common: no matter what causes the shortage, it's the service member's job to take up the slack. It is the service member's job to accomplish the mission, whether he has the tools to succeed, or not.
It's trained in from the first day you put on the uniform, and the lesson is reinforced at every opportunity. 'Failure is not an option!' 'Don't come to me with problems! Come to me with solutions!' 'Make it happen!' (Almost invariable followed by: 'Exercise some leadership and initiative.') And my personal favorite - 'I don't care how you do it, just do it!'
As crazy as it sounds, it works. Service members will nearly always figure out a way to take up the slack.
I once saw a pair of very junior Sailors spend several hundred dollars of their own money to get some parts powder coated at an auto body shop. The Corrosion Control Shop on base couldn't get to the job before our ship was scheduled to deploy, and the parts had to be powder coated. So, two young men whose salaries were at or near poverty level, paid out of their own pockets to get the job done. The Navy's annual operating budget is around a hundred billion dollars, but it was up to two Sailors - who could not afford the expense - to take up the slack between what was needed and what was available.
I've seen Airmen repair complex electronic modules that are supposed to require factory-specialized industrial tools and engineering-level expertise. I've seen Marines horse trade for supplies with skill that would make a Used Car Salesman envious. Given even the bare bones of an opportunity, Soldiers and Sailors will figure out a way to overcome critical shortages.
A surprisingly large number of shortfalls can be overcome by ingenuity, or wheeling and dealing, or a dip into one's own pocket. But sometimes all of these methods fall short. Sometimes a military unit simply cannot make, barter, or buy what it needs to accomplish its mission. That leaves two possibilities:
#1 Allow the mission to fail. Bad idea. Very rarely does a military mission occur in a vacuum. If your unit does not accomplish its mission, other units will be effected. Military objectives may fail, and Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen may well pay with their lives.
#2 Figure out a way to take up the slack, even if it means breaking some rules. This is always officially discouraged. No senior military leader will ever admit that he or she condones such activity. But the magic words hang in the air like an unspoken mantra. I don't care how you do it, just do it! I don't care how you do it, just do it! I don't care how...
Like thousands of others before them, the men and women of the 656th Transportation Company took those words to heart. They arrived in Kuwait without enough trucks to accomplish their mission. Combat troops in Iraq needed fuel, and it was the job of the 656th to get it to them. But the 656th didn't have enough trucks.
