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USTRANSOM components move 10,000,000 tons

  • Published
  • By Bob Fehringer
  • U.S. Transportation Command Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  The U.S. Transportation Command reached a massive milestone.

The command and its components, Air Mobility Command, Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command and Military Sealift Command, have moved more than 10 million tons of cargo in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraq Freedom between October 2001 and January 2008.

"We ship everything from unit cargo to sustainment supplies, everything that sustains the warfighter, certain kinds of rations, petroleum products, repair parts, as well as emergency items, new tents and new equipment," said Army Lt. Col. Matt Shatzkin, USTRANSCOM's distribution branch chief for Central Command. "And most significantly, new items that aren't even in the system that we want to get to the warfighter so they have the best tools at their disposal, new add-on armor, new weapon systems, new counter (improvised explosive device) systems, those types of things."

Ten million tons is the equivalent weight of 125 Washington Monuments. If the cargo was loaded on 55-foot-long tractor trailers, the resulting convoy would stretch approximately from Tacoma, Wash. to Miami, Fla.

"On a typical day you'll have unit cargo, which is associated with deployment and redeployment," said Air Force Col. Jeffrey Mintzlaff, acting deputy director of USTRANSCOM's Operations and Plans directorate. "It could range anywhere from uniforms to communications equipment, to counter IED equipment, anything a unit would have when they deploy,

"Unit cargo is sensitive equipment that a unit wants to fly," Colonel Shatzkin continued, "so it is there when they arrive, communications equipment, items that are critical for the unit, you need it when you step in and conduct command and control."

The monumental feat was achieved in addition to USTRANSCOM's daily missions, which include regular Department of Defense distribution requirements and relief operations for natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, the Indonesian Tsunami in 2006 and the Pakistan earthquake in 2005.

During a typical week, USTRANSCOM, located on Scott Air Force Base, conducts more than 1,900 air missions, with 25 ships underway and 10,000 ground shipments operating in 75 percent of the world's countries.

"I would like to highlight the incredible effort from everyone, all services, what we call 'the enterprise' (working toward a common goal) at both ends of the distribution chain, which goes all the way from the Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine at the unit level," Colonel Shatzkin said. "All the way through the (combatant command) we support, in this case CENTCOM, through our components here at TRANSCOM and really all the way back to our national partners, Defense Logistics Agency and Army Materiel Command."

With its people, trucks, trains, aircraft, ships, information systems and infrastructure, USTRANSCOM provides the President, Secretary of Defense and combatant commander with the most responsive strategic mobility capability the world has ever seen.

"We have this dialogue daily about the requirements and how we're going to move this and that," Colonel Shatzkin continued. "It's just through the incredible teamwork that we moved 10 million tons over this span of time. We've almost gotten so good at it, I think we take it for granted. It's really due to that constant dialogue and teamwork that we were able to accomplish such a feat.

"I think it's a wonderful example of people having interdependence and being committed to supporting the warfighter," Colonel Shatzkin added.

USTRANSCOM, through its component commands, currently controls a fleet of military assets valued in excess of $52 billion, including: 87 ships; 1,269 aircraft; 2,150 railcars and assorted equipment, and $1.4 billion in infrastructure, as well as access through our commercial partners to more than 1,300 aircraft and 330 vessels in the Civil Reserve Air Fleet and Voluntary Intermodal Sealift Agreement, respectively.

USTRANSCOM's total wartime capability consists of a diverse force: 51,853 active duty, 88,089 reserve and Guard, and 16,606 civilian personnel. Similarly, USTRANSCOM relies on its commercial partners to meet 88 percent of continental United States land transport, 50 percent of global air movement and 64 percent of global sealift.