Alexandria, Va. (USTCNS) --– The Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command will host its Eastern Regional Training Workshop from May 22-26, 2006 at the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, Va.

A similar workshop for Department of Defense installations and activities in the Western United States was held February 6-9 in San Antonio with registration at full capacity. The workshops were reinstituted after a four- year hiatus to showcase SDDC’s expanded distribution and deployment mission as well as identify trends impacting on the movement of all DoD commodities, from beans to bullets.

The workshop theme is “Synchronizing the Game Plan” and is geared for functional level personnel –active duty, Reserve Component, National Guard and DoD civilians -- to include installation transportation officers as well as contractors who work for DoD, to increase their knowledge of the end-to-end distribution and deployment processes within the defense transportation system as well as to address current issues within the transportation community.

The dual-track training will provide attendees a unique and valuable opportunity to maintain functionality in their daily freight operations focusing on routine shipping practices as well as address challenges encountered by the active and Reserve Components as they deploy. The workshop will also allow functional users of DoD automated systems a forum to identify current issues and generate possible solutions to better current processes and obtain feedback on their experiences with them.

“Our goal is to address the needs of transportation personnel,” said Brad Bernard, workshop manager for SDDC G3 Operations Support. “This workshop is a dual-track forum focusing on both distribution and deployment. The open exchange of ideas and experiences will enhance all of our ability to serve the warfighter.”

Various deployment and distribution functional experts will provide insight and training on a multitude of topical issues and systems. Training sessions emphasizing day-to-day transportation issues such as carrier selection and performance as well as baseline unit move challenges will be highlighted.

The Williamsburg workshop’s target audience is the over 400 DoD installations and activities in the Eastern United States

Anyone interested in attending the May workshop should check the SDDC web site on the internet at www.sddc.army.mil (click on link – Upcoming Events) for future updates to include registration information and procedures.