Van Ovost: USTRANSCOM is postured to support safety, prosperity of Western Hemisphere

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (June 16, 2022) – U.S. Air Force Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost, commander, U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), visited U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) June 15 to participate in the command’s annual Senior Leader Logistics Symposium.

Van Ovost was the keynote speaker at the forum, which brought together senior U.S. military leaders and representatives from 14 partner nations to discuss improving logistics cooperation and interoperability for exercises, operations and disaster relief efforts in the Western Hemisphere.

“Success in any operation often hinges on the application of logistical capability to deliver critical supplies to their point of need,” said Van Ovost. “From our efforts to cooperate during disaster relief, counter drug, and humanitarian assistance missions through the landscape of strategic competition, professional logistics separates our success from failure.”

Van Ovost emphasized renewed commitment to uphold shared values as authoritarian regimes and criminal organizations around the world seek to erode the foundations of democracies.

“Countries like China and Russia employ coercive economic practices, malign cyber activities, they disregard international norms, and negatively impact the climate and ecology of participating nations,” she said. “But in forums like this, in the company of like-minded leaders, we reinforce those hard-earned relationships built over decades of operating together. Our support to one another acts as a force multiplier that non-aligned countries cannot match.”

Van Ovost noted U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has repeatedly said integrated deterrence is dependent on bringing all partner nations together and using all tools available to achieve the objective.

“In peace and crisis, logistics is the facilitating function that ensures all entities involved in an operation are postured to support each other nation’s objectives. As the Joint Deployment and Distribution Enterprise leader for the U.S. Department of Defense, USTRANSCOM oversees a vast array of routes and nodes that allows us to apply capacity wherever it is needed,” Van Ovost said.

She added USTRANSCOM’s responsibilities are global, and the command is postured to support the safety and prosperity of this region.

“TRANSCOM understands that our ability to rapidly project forces around the world is not just about our capacity, it is dependent on a deep bench of diplomatically aligned allies and partners,” said Van Ovost. “This robust network of support affords us the access, basing, and overflight that allows us to mobilize and deploy at a speed necessary to meet given requirements.”

She spoke to challenges in supporting last year’s historic evacuation of noncombatants from Afghanistan and the concurrent response to an earthquake in Haiti, and said USTRANSCOM applied lessons learned that allowed the speed of logistics forces to create strategic effects.

“We must now apply that same methodology to identify how we can improve our response to natural disasters or other events that require deeper collaboration with our regional partners,” Van Ovost said. 

As the symposium concluded, she and U.S. Army Gen. Laura J. Richardson, commander, USSOUTHCOM, signed a charter for developing a Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Logistics Handbook for the Western Hemisphere. 

“The signing of today’s charter is a recognition of our commitment to improve coordination and procedures that best leverage our respective strengths to minimize suffering and loss of life,” Van Ovost said.

During the visit, Van Ovost joined in a roundtable orientation with Richardson and SOUTHCOM senior leaders, and Van Ovost and Richardson participated in a senior leader panel discussion on the importance of integrating women into national and international defense, security, and peacekeeping missions.  

Van Ovost said the inclusion of women across the spectrum of conflict strengthens partnerships and increases effectiveness and national security capabilities. In multiple contested areas around the globe, Cultural Support Teams found they were able to gain more comprehensive intelligence of the operational environment and build more trust in the local community, due to women’s unique roles and influence within their communities.

“All operations depend on logistics, but when we have women involved, we'll change the world,” said Van Ovost.

USTRANSCOM exists as a warfighting combatant command to project and sustain military power at a time and place of the nation’s choosing. Powered by dedicated men and women, TRANSCOM underwrites the lethality of the Joint Force, advances American interests around the globe, and provides our nation's leaders with strategic flexibility to select from multiple options, while creating multiple dilemmas for our adversaries.

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