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Canadian captain gets results for Sealift

WASHINGTON, D.C. (USTCNS) --- In July 1998 Capt. Christa Faehndrich, Canadian Liaison Officer, came to MSC headquarters thanks to the Integrated Line of Communications or ILOC Agreement between the U.S. Department of Defense and the Canadian Department of National Defense.

This agreement places military officers of each country into logistics positions within the defense system of the other country in order to familiarize the officers with the logistics procedures and policies of its neighbor.

"This is important in an era of ever-increasing interoperability on both the joint and combined operations side," said Faehndrich. "There has been a Canadian transportation officer at MSC for many years."

Canada, whose forces are considerably smaller than the U.S. military - about 60,000 personnel in total - does not have an equivalent to MSC.

"Our sealift needs are very small compared to those of the U.S. Department of Defense, so sealift planning is performed at our National Defense Headquarters in Ottawa," said Faehndrich. "We have dedicated movements specialists within the J4 logistics organization who coordinate deployment, sustainment and redeployment moves for the Canadian forces."

Faehndrich has been with the Canadian armed forces for 24 years. She began as an army reservist and then enlisted in the Air Force.

"I started with the forces as a means of earning money while I was going to the university and enjoyed it, so I became active duty after I graduated," said Faehndrich.

She currently works with the Sealift Program coordinating all operations in and out of the Middle East - a part of the world she knows well since she came to MSC after a year-long peacekeeping mission there.

Sealift operations in and out of the Middle East and Southwest Asia area support Army Central Command, which is responsible for this area of operation. CENTCOM missions in the area often call for large amounts of equipment to be deployed into and re-deployed out of the theater of operations for various exercises and scenarios.

"This need, as well as that of sustainment, can be fulfilled effectively through timely and appropriate sealift," said Faehndrich.

Exercise Bright Star 00 is a good example. This large multinational exercise in Egypt took place over the past summer and fall. Four MSC and MSC-chartered ships sealifted several hundred thousand square feet of DoD cargo in support of U.S. troops taking part in the exercise.

MSC ships successfully re-deployed the equipment back to the continental United States and ports in Southwest Asia. Central Command was pleased with the sealift support it received from MSC.

"Although the initial planning was done at this headquarters, the actual day-to-day monitoring and resolution of sealift problems was done by our area commands - MSCLANT, MSCEUR, and MSCCENT," said Faehndrich.

"Our folks in the field put in long hours and hard effort to ensure the success of this mission, and as a result, we received very positive recognition for our support to the warfighters. This exercise was important to me personally because it allowed me to carry out sealift planning on a large scale, and the fact that it went well was very satisfying. I am here at MSC to learn how to plan sealift, and I certainly learned a lot from Bright Star 00!"

Faehndrich's busy day begins early. She usually arrives in the office at 6:00 a.m. to start working on the cargo portion of the daily brief for PM5 - an update on PM5 ships moving cargo all over the world.

After the brief, she reviews emails and telephone messages and continues sealift planning for the CENTCOM area of operations. Sometimes she works on Army European Command lifts when the EUCOM point of contact is not in the office.

"My day is spent in coordination with Military Traffic Management Command, U.S. Transportation Command, the customer and our folks in the field for any lifts that are in the process of being loaded or discharged or are on the horizon," said Faehndrich. "Some days are busier than others, but there are always some issues to work."

Since Faehndrich's post here is sponsored by Canada's J4 Logistics organization in Ottawa, Canada, she will be moving to a position designated by them in the summer of 2001 or 2002.

"I hope to be involved in sealift planning for the Canadian Forces," said Faehndrich. "I like working with the people at MSC, both here at headquarters and out in the field. My background is in air transportation, but I find I am enjoying the opportunity to learn about sealift planning. MSC is the perfect place for a transportation officer to take advantage of this. I am impressed by the effort and professionalism displayed, and I am looking forward to continuing my learning process while also providing the required support for the MSC mission." (FROM MILITARY SEALIFT COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).

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