U.S. Transportation Command seeks lessons learned from Santa Claus
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SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (USTCNS) --- For centuries, Santa Claus has delivered toys to good boys and girls around the world in the most efficient and effective transportation, distribution plan ever imagined. How Santa accomplishes this task year-after-year has become a subject of debate with many, and specifically within the top-secret planning cells of the U.S. Transportation Command.
“Much of what he (Santa) does is closely related to what we do here at USTRANSCOM,” said Army Lt. Col. Scott D. Ross, chief of media for the command responsible for moving all of the Department of Defense’s forces.
“We are both (Santa and USTRANSCOM) in the business of transportation and the delivery of goods,” said Ross. “Like Mr. Claus, our mission must be accomplished timely and accurately. We both work under strict deadlines, and our deliveries are extremely important to the people on the receiving end.”
The USTRANSCOM mission is to provide air, land, and sea transportation for the DOD, both in time of peace and time of war. In an average week the command executes over 1,900 air mobility missions, has over 25 ships underway, and over 10,000 ground shipments.
Everyone knows Santa’s mission, but nobody knows for sure the exact scope of his workload. Internet sources estimate Santa Claus has 31 hours to transport more than 320,000 tons to about 92 million homes.
A more detailed comparison of Santa’s workload to that of USTRANSCOM’s accomplishments in the global war against terrorism reveals daunting similarities – and highlights significant differences.
Kent Beck, Ph.D., in the Directorate of Operations and Logistics at USTRANSCOM has been recording data relating to the transport and delivery of troops and equipment in the global fight against terrorism. He says the airlift for Operation Enduring is the third largest in our nation’s history behind the Berlin Airlift and Operations Desert Shield and Desert Strom.
“It has taken us almost 40,000 sorties (a take off and landing) and approximately 200,000 flight hours to deliver about 340,000 tons,” said Beck. “We have been transporting equipment, supplies and troops since the attack on our country last year in September.”
Everyone in the command is proud of the Herculean efforts and accomplishments thus far, but recognizes the fact that Santa Claus transports relative equivalents with far fewer resources.
Planners inside USTRANSCOM call it a mystery.
James K. Matthews, Ph.D., director of USTRANSCOM’s Research Center, and the command’s historian said there is a major effort ongoing to crack the mystery. As a result, the command has established a task force to examine Santa’s transportation exploits and report their findings in the form of lessons learned. The goal is to be able to apply what Santa does to meeting the transportation requirements of the DOD.
“We do not expect to uncover all of Santa’s secrets,” said Matthews. “The goal is to gain some insight into improving our processes.”
Referring to the technique employed by the Claus organization to make and deliver toys,
Air Force Maj. Pamela Donovan, chief, Distribution Support Branch from the command’s Strategic Distribution Program Office said, “There is no better organization that embodies the full end-to-end concept of logistics”.
“We (USTRANSCOM) often meet with leaders and visionaries from the world of academia and from the commercial transportation industry,” Donovan said. “We don’t have the market cornered on best business practices -- we are always looking for ways to improve.”
Since the command has been unable to arrange a meeting with Santa Claus, USTRANSCOM is conducting extensive research and preparing to observe this year’s travels by Santa Claus.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command tracks Santa Claus annually, and USTRANSCOM is capitalizing on NORAD’s experience.
“We will combine NORAD’s extensive radar tracking tools along with our global network within the Defense Transportation System to try and keep tabs on Santa and his distribution schedule,” according to Ross. “We will not interfere in anyway (with Santa’s deliveries), we are only gathering information to learn from Mr. Claus.”
USTRANSCOM is a unified command providing global transportation management, employing an integrated transportation system across the range of military operations through its Transportation Component Commands: Air Mobility Command, Military Sealift Command, and Military Traffic Management Command, allowing America to project and sustain military forces whenever, wherever and for as long as they are needed.
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