USTRANSCOM meets challenge of Afghanistan deployments
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Mountainous, landlocked, challenging... all words that can be used to describe the landscape of Afghanistan. That country, just slightly smaller than the state of Texas, poses special consideration for the deployment and the resupply of American forces serving there.
The number of U.S. forces serving in Afghanistan will grow by 17,000 this summer, and the mission of moving the forces and resupplying them falls into the hands of the Illinois-based U.S. Transportation Command.
It may be difficult for those not associated with the military, to conceive of the vastness of such moves. For example, moving the entire 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT), Fort Lewis, Wash., into the U.S. Central Command area of operations - especially when a change in their deployment added a wrench to the works.
Army Maj. Kirk Harvey, SBCT logistics officer, said his unit based in Fort Lewis, Wash., received notice in January when they were training at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif., that its deployment had changed. They would deploy 45 days earlier than planned, with Afghanistan instead of Iraq as the destination
"The brigade deployed more than 3,500 soldiers and 800 pieces of equipment to and from the National Training Center between January and March," said Harvey. "It has taken a concerted effort from the chain of command, brigade staff and unit movement personnel to load out the SBCT."
And that was before actually deploying to Afghanistan, which is now under way. The soldiers travel by commercial air to meet up with their equipment, which will move by sea and air.
Moving the SBCT requires the transport of 565 shipping containers, 76 trucks and 59 trailers to transport the 328 Stryker vehicles and test equipment, spare parts and other items needed to keep the 3,500-member-unit functioning.
For even a greater perspective, the USTRANSCOM team, including its components and commercial partners, brings all modes of transportation, military and commercial into play to simultaneously move the equivalent of six brigades at any given time.
And each week, there is an aircraft taking off and landing every 90 seconds around the globe, carrying 38,000 passengers, 28 million pounds of cargo, delivering 38 mine resistance ambush protected vehicles, providing 35 million pounds of fuel and supporting 280 patient moves.
By surface, 35 ships are loading, under way or offloading at any given time. The weekly average includes moving 151 million pounds of unit cargo, 175 MRAPs, 232 million pounds of fuel and conduction 8,100 household goods moves.
Col. Gregory Schwartz, a division chief in USTRANSCOM's Deployment and Distribution Operations Center, has worked with many unit moves to Afghanistan.
"We help each unit figure out how to package their equipment and their people to arrive in theater when they need to get there in order to execute their mission," Schwartz said. "We help them put the packaging together so that they can move from their home station to where their deployment location is and arrive ready to fight with the stuff they need and the right people they need."
This is all accomplished through USTRANSCOM's three service components..
The Navy's Military Sealift Command provides sealift transportation services to deploy, sustain and redeploy U.S. forces around the globe. MSC provides sealift with a fleet of government-owned and chartered U.S.-flagged ships.
The Army's Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command provides command and control and distribution operations for cargo at the port of departure and when it reaches its destination by ship, train or plane. SDDC provides ocean terminal, commercial ocean liner service and traffic management services. The command is responsible for surface transportation and is the interface between DOD shippers and the commercial transportation carrier industry.
Air Mobility Command provides strategic and tactical airlift, air refueling, and aeromedical evacuation services. In addition, AMC works with the commercial air carriers through the Civil Reserve Air Fleet and other programs to move of DOD passengers and cargo.
"When you talk (about) Afghanistan, I think what people don't understand is that it's probably one of the hardest logistical challenges that this country has undertaken in decades," Schwartz said. "It's a landlocked country with no infrastructure, and we are putting a significantly sized force there, with all their equipment. And we're keeping all those folks fed, watered bedded down and making sure they have all their ammo and everything else they need to do their job"
Schwartz pointed out that Afghanistan has few airfields, lacks a big international airport, has no rail system and a limited road system. "So, putting a force in and then supplying that force over long periods of time is a logistical feat that we have not attempted in a very long time."
The highest ranking officer in the military, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, well understands the logistical challenges of Afghanistan. In a recent interview with the Military Times publications, he talked about how USTRANSCOM has provided the nation the options it needs and the planning it took to get there.
Adm. Michael Mullen compared rotating forces into Afghanistan to going through the eye of a needle, and described the execution as going "exceptionally well"
"I'm comfortable that we're in pretty good shape," the Chairman said. "And a lot of good people have done a lot of good work to get us here." He singled out the men and women of USTRANSCOM, who, he said, "are in many ways the unsung heroes of these wars," because they have "fed the fights extraordinarily well."
Office of Public Affairs - transcom-pa@mail.mil
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