United States Transportation Command

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (USTCNS) --- U.S. Transportation Command continues to play a significant role in the war on terrorism, a senior leader said here recently.

Air Force Maj. Gen. William Welser III, director of operations and logistics at USTRANSCOM, discussed the command's ongoing role in providing support to the warfighting commanders in chief (CINCs) as part of the war on terrorism.

"As directed by the Secretary of Defense, we will support any one of the CINCs that is given the responsibility to conduct an operation in an area," said Welser, in addition to supporting other ongoing missions.

When given a request to provide transportation assets in support of a mission, USTRANSCOM provides the coordination necessary to provide the most rapid and efficient mode of transport. Modes of transport can include aircraft, ship, truck, or train, or a combination of some or all.

"Once we determine that mode we give it to one of our components who will then schedule that mission and move that piece of equipment," said Welser.

USTRANSCOM's components include Air Mobility Command, Military Sealift Command, and Military Traffic Management Command.

The recent mission in support of operations in Afghanistan is only the most recent example of USTRANSCOM's involvement in major operations.

"We were at Kosovo a year and a half ago, we were in Bosnia before that, we did the operations in Haiti a few years ago, we (operated in) Africa with Rwanda and Burundi…so its pretty standard for our command to be involved in these kinds of operations," said Welser.

The command will continue to coordinate other contingencies that may arise worldwide.

"If you have an earthquake in South America we respond to that as well as to the (operation) in Afghanistan…any where in the world," he said.

For airlift support, recent retirement of some aircraft of USTRANSCOM's Air Force Component, AMC (headquartered at Scott Air Force Base), has presented challenges.

"We've started to retire some of our aircraft. The C-141 for example, we had 250 plus in our inventory, we are only replacing those with about 134 C-17s, that's a dramatic reduction when the expectation is to be able to respond," said Welser.

According to Welser, the key to successfully providing support is to employ a set of clear priorities.

"When a contingency like this (in Afghanistan) happens we have a priority system that tells us where to apply the resources we do have so that we can make sure that, that CINC that's fighting the war gets those things he needs," he said.

Sealift capacity, provided by USTRANSCOM's Navy component, MSC, headquartered in Washington, D.C. has seen a recent upswing.

"Our sealift capacity has improved," said Welser. "We have built some large ships that are now committed to our mission…and when I need to put my hands on a ship I can get to them very rapidly. In this particular operation, we've used several ships. Everyday we look at how can we use ships to be more efficient…a couple examples (are) we've moved munitions on ships and…wheat on ships…(and)…some of our rations on ships."

Ship hauling capacity is a significant consideration. To date, USTRANSCOM has moved or scheduled 43,153 tons by sealift in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

"When you have a ship that is basically equivalent to more than 90 C-5s, it makes a lot of sense to try to use a ship whenever you possibly can" said Welser. "A C-5 can haul (the equivalent of) nine Greyhound buses. So when you have nine Greyhound buses times 90 that's a lot of buses you can put on a ship…"

USTRANSCOM's Army component, MTMC, headquartered in Alexandria, Va. links transportation assets at seaports to overland assets. MTMC provides worldwide single port management, transportation and traffic management services as well as deployment planning and engineering.

USTRANSCOM provides coordination for movement between modes. In many cases, multiple modes of transport are required for a single type of cargo.

For example when USTRANSCOM, "moved the rations that were air-dropped in Afghanistan…those started out at places in the United States they were moved by truck to the east coast where they were put on a commercial airplane, flown over to Germany, where they were picked up by a C-17 and air-dropped into Afghanistan, that's shows our end-to-end distribution system that we have in this command," Welser said. USTRANSCOM moved more than 2.5 million daily rations by this method.

USTRANSCOM will continue to find more efficient and effective means to provide humanitarian as well combat support.

As operations in Afghanistan continue to mature, "we're beginning to look at how to move humanitarian supplies more efficiently, they will go by truck or train in the United States, to a seaport…be sent to a European port where it will be picked up by train, and moved down-range where it will then be distributed by truck or aircraft to the people inside the country of Afghanistan."

Welser said the humanitarian operations would continue to coincide with the combat operations. To date USTRANSCOM assets have flown 3389 missions carrying 89,989 tons of humanitarian and combat operations cargo for Operation Enduring Freedom.

"We have a two-fold mission, we're still working to defeat Al-Qaeda and terrorism in general, but at the same time a very large effort, coalition effort, is being put forth to put resources on the ground that can distribute food and provide shelter for the Afghan people."

USTRANSCOM is one of the nine U.S. military unified commands and is headquartered at Scott AFB, Ill. USTRANSCOM provides Air, Land and Sea transportation for the Department of Defense in peace and in war and is supported by Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard personnel.

USTRANSCOM plays vital role in war on terrorism

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