United States Transportation Command

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (USTCNS) --- In Afghanistan and other dangerous places, harm's way has receded and combat readiness improved for U.S. troops now able to better track their orders of vital supplies.

That's because of recent efforts by United States Transportation Command to improve the "In-Transit Visibility" of people and cargo moving through the Defense Transportation System.

"Tracking makes planning easier," says Lori Jones, of USTRANSCOM.

Unfortunately, that hasn't always been the case, she says.

The whereabouts or "In-Transit Visibility" of people and cargo is frequently a mystery to the frontline warfighters who need that information the most, she said. Jones is chief of the In-Transit Visibility Branch at USTRANSCOM.

In-Transit Visibility is the military's long-sought goal to clearly track the identity, status and location of traveling personnel and cargo from origin to destination -- and to make that information available to warfighters throughout the chain of command.

That means now, with a few clicks of a mouse on a ruggedized laptop in Afghanistan, a supply sergeant can tell his commander that a crucial shipment of parts from the States has landed in Kabul and is scheduled to arrive by truck the next day.

"ITV is crucial for planning, in war or peace," Jones said. It's more of a reality now, she says, at close to 100 percent manifest level reliability for intra-theater. But until recently, it was a dream -- particularly in and around Afghanistan.

The need for a reliable tracking system became painfully apparent during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Thousands of containers arriving in-theater had to be opened, inspected, then sent on, just to find out what was in them, Jones explained. It cost time, effort and uncertainty.

As recently as December 2001, and Operation Enduring Freedom, troops in U.S. Central Command had difficulty tracking their resupply items such as food, water and ammunition they needed to get the job done.

"These locations are remote and austere," Jones pointed out. "There's no infrastructure. Units were filling out logistical paperwork, but it wasn't going anywhere into any kind of reporting system. People just couldn't tell where and when the things they needed would arrive."

The effort to support the warfighter and provide near-real time ITV began in earnest right after 9-11, Jones explained.

That's when USTRANSCOM's Air Force Brig. Gen. Gil Hawk headed up a "cell" or task force whose job was to resolve differences in tracking and reporting procedures throughout the different branches.

"They resolved fire wall and data exchange issues throughout all the different services. The team consisted of active duty military, reservists, government civilians, and civilian contractors," Jones said. "They worked 24/7."

By December, Hawk's group laid the groundwork for ensuring critical information exchanges were clearly passed to USTRANSCOM's Global Transportation Network. GTN links the Services and Defense Agencies logistics systems throughout DoD and the commercial carrier information into one integrated database. GTN is the DOD’s designated in-transit visibility system of record.

That done, the effort took on an operational flavor and focused energy to ensure CENTCOM locations had needed capability to report movements into and out of the theater, Jones said. Air Force Maj. Gen. William Welser III led the cell in putting reporting and tracking procedures in place for logisticians throughout the military -- with an emphasis on getting people in the remote and dangerous areas of USCENTCOM plugged into the system.

Air Mobility Command, part of USTRANSCOM and also based at Scott, sent special training teams into Afghanistan and environs. The teams installed equipment and trained aerial port personnel on how to use the latest technology.

They're the best," Jones says admiringly of the AMC training teams. She explained that within weeks the teams brought the ability to receipt and process critical movements into and within the theater supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Though that was a priority, Welser's group continued -- and continues today -- to train logisticians across the DoD, in order to get everyone more fully plugged in to GTN. Jones is part of that effort. She works with the Services and Joint Staff developing ever more accurate policies and procedures for tracking and reporting the movement of people and cargo throughout the Defense Transportation System.

She daily measures the percentage of In-Transit Visibility, both intra- and inter-theater.

"We use GTN to pull all the mission numbers for one day supporting Operation Enduring Freedom," she says. "We check to see if those flights have cargo and passengers reported. When there are discrepancies, we follow up by calling and verifying the status.”

Sometimes the gap might be because the mission is a training flight, and there are no passengers or cargo, Jones explained. It could be a communication glitch. Discipline and compliance with documentation procedures is the key to the system. As with any automated system: garbage in – garbage out. Training of personnel is vital so that they understand the key role they play ensuring that our senior leaders and soldiers across the board have the necessary information for decision-making.

"So we're constantly training, tracking and refining the system," she says. "All with the goal of 100 percent In-Transit Visibility across the board."

How close is USTRANSCOM to that goal?

"We've had several days in a row of 100 percent ITV," Jones reports, “On Aug. 22, we had the cargo and passengers reported on 53 of 53 intra-theater missions, and on 21 of 23 inter-theater missions (97 percent ITV). This is just a portion of the total spectrum.”

"We never expected this level of success so soon," Jones said. "Back in January we were hoping for a 60 percent ITV rate by summer." Jones has a simple explanation for the higher-than-expected success rate.

"Everyone is focusing a lot of energy on ensuring the cargo and passengers are reported in a timely manner to GTN," she says.

Units who want to know where their incoming people or packages are just have to log on to GTN, put in a Transportation Control Number, a National Stock Number, a point of origin, or any one of a number of identifiers to get information.

“That's why the initial reporting from the originating unit is so important," Jones commented. "GTN can give you information on anything in the system, but it can't report on things that were never inputted."

Though USTRANSCOM and the DoD have made a tremendous logistical improvement in ITV, they are still only about a third of the way to where they want to go.

"Total Asset Visibility is our ultimate goal," Jones says.

She explained that while GTN can report on items in transit, material in storage or in repair is a different story. Discussions and research are currently under way on TAV. USTRANSCOM is a "key stakeholder" and discussion partner with Joint Staff and other unified commands in Total Asset Visibility.

Meanwhile USTRANSCOM continues to shoot for improved ITV in its quest for ever stronger, faster strategic mobility for U.S. forces.

Because, as Jones puts it, "the difference between the click and the bang is logistics."

Improved In-Transit Visibility Makes The Difference Between 'Click' And 'Bang'

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