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U.S. Transportation Command tackles historic logistics feat - force rotations in and out of Southwest Asia

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill., (Jan. 27, USTCNS) --- The U.S. Transportation Command's basic mission is moving our nation's military might wherever and whenever required. The current task is to redeploy the forces that defeated the Iraqi military and liberated that country and replace them with fresh troops. At the same time, forces must be redeployed from the Afghanistan area of operations and replaced.

The rotation of forces for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom started a couple weeks ago with the redeployment of the 101st Airborne Division to Ft. Campbell, Ky. By early summer, USTRANSCOM will complete the movement of more than 300,000 troops and 1 million tons of cargo.

Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the force rotation "a logistics feat that will rival any in history."

Since the disastrous September attack more than two years ago, USTRANSCOM has steadfastly directed worldwide mobility requirements in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Members of every military service, both active and Reserve components, civilians, contractors and commercial partners have conducted more than 27,000 airlift missions and 290 sealift missions transporting almost 1.2 million troops and 3 million tons of equipment and supplies.

Even though the accomplishments - representing 27 months of transporting forces mainly in one direction, mostly to one area of operations in a given time period are Herculean. The current force rotation is even more complex.

"We must manage the throughput of troops and commodities more closely than ever," said Air Force Col. David Hudson, chief of USTRANSCOM's Operations Division. "We are focused on getting the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines back home while ensuring that we use every possible resource to deliver replacement troops and equipment. We have established robust, collaborative relations with theater commanders, force providers, and civilian partners in order to execute this historic rotation."

Dozens of aerial and seaports will be used for embarkation and debarkation forcing a greater emphasis on collaboration and synchronization. The resources are available, according to Hudson. "The challenge is maximizing each transportation system's capability and synchronizing the throughput capacity of ports with the reception, staging and onward movement of forces - at both ends".

Warfighting commands submit their requirements and USTRANSCOM directs multimodal transportation support executed by its component commands: Air Mobility Command (Scott AFB, Ill.), Military Sealift Command (Washington D.C.) and the Surface Deployment Distribution Command (Alexandria, Va.).

Office of Public Affairs - transcom-pa@mail.mil
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