USTRANSCOM’s Security Cooperation Outreach Program Matures
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. – The U.S. Transportation Command Security Cooperation Outreach Program supports one of the organization’s combatant command responsibilities, which is to conduct security cooperation activities in support of the regional combatant commanders' strategies.
The Outreach Program was created in late 2008, designed to provide much needed international contact (engagement) for the intense U.S. efforts at that time to open and expand the nascent Northern Distribution Network (NDN) supporting dramatically increased distribution operations in Afghanistan. USTRANSCOM commander at the time, Gen. Duncan McNabb’s, guidance was succinct: “Bring them over here and show them what we do.”
“For five years the NDN Outreach Program invited NDN partner nations, from Central and South Asia, the Caucuses, and Eastern Europe, to the United States to view USTRANSCOM’s operations and command and control at Scott Air Force Base, Ill.,” said Joe Lepanto, USTRANSCOM’S International Agreements Manager.
“They also tour military and commercial aerial and sea ports operations at Charleston, SC, intermodal rail-to-road operations at Harrisburg, Pa., and the Defense Distribution Center Susquehanna in New Cumberland, Pa.,” Lepanto added.
As the NDN matured, so did the Outreach Program. The 2013 Security Cooperation Outreach Program is geared towards en route partners in Asia-Pacific, Africa, and South America.
The current Outreach Program invites up to five military members or defense civilians from an en route partner nation, usually from mid-grade ranks, to view operations and receive briefings at USTRANSCOM, Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC), and Air Mobility Command’s Tanker Airlift Control Center, as well as 375th Air Mobility Wing, all at Scott Air Force Base.
Language interpreters are often used during the visit to insure full comprehension for both our foreign visitors and briefers.
The goals of the program are to support vital international access for U.S. forces worldwide, to help expand our en route partner nations’ professional apertures, to promote the concept of being valued partners with the United States in a global network, and to explain USTRANSCOM’s roles and capabilities, while reducing suspicion, and building enduring mutual respect among logistics professionals
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