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SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- For more than three decades, U. S Transportation Command has been deploying U.S. Joint Force and vital logistics across the globe, and the command will commemorate its 33rd birthday on Oct. 1, 2020.
The need for a single manager for joint deployment and distribution, which the Department of Defense considered for many years, became a reality when the command was established Oct. 1, 1987. Planning and development continued for another year, when USTRANSCOM became a fully operational unified command.
“This past year, USTRANSCOM provided superior service to the warfighter despite COVID-19, continuing to prove the command is dedicated to enabling the global mission,” said Maj. Gen. Deborah Kotulich. USTRANSCOM chief of staff. “But, this isn’t the first time USTRANSCOM has had to overcome challenges to complete its mission, adding new milestones to the history books.”
One of the first joint deployment and distribution missions took place in October 1993, when USTRANSCOM was tasked to rapidly move additional troops and heavy equipment into Somalia. The Somali Civil War was destroying agriculture, which led to starvation in large parts of the country.
The international community began to send food supplies, but vast amounts were hijacked by local clan leaders to exchange for weapons. The warring factions agreed to a United Nations humanitarian operation, but as the war intensified, they began to target U.N. personnel. The U.N. agreed to a deployment of U.S. combat troops to protect aid workers.
The mission to Somalia wouldn't be the last global mission USTRANSCOM supported. The DOD learned much from the deployment to the Persian Gulf, and among those lessons was that USTRANSCOM and its component commands needed to operate in peacetime as they would in wartime.
On Feb. 14, 1992, the Secretary of Defense gave USTRANSCOM a new mission to provide air, land, and sea transportation for the department, both in time of peace and time of war. Under it, the service secretaries assigned the components to the USTRANSCOM commander in peace and war. In addition, the military departments assigned to him, under his combatant command, all transportation assets except those that were Service-unique or theater-assigned. The charter also made the USTRANSCOM commander DOD's single-manager for transportation, other than Service-unique and theater-assigned assets.
This new authority was exercised during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. USTRANSCOM found itself busy with providing aid and deploying troops to the Middle East in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Responding to the build-up of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, the USTRANSCOM commander, with approval of the SECDEF, activated the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, which allowed the U.S. military to transport troops and equipment by commercial aircraft. This was the second time in history the CRAF was activated and became a benchmark for the future of USTRANSCOM.
As a result, following the Operation Iraqi Freedom deployment, the SECDEF designated USTRANSCOM as the Distribution Process Owner to direct and supervise execution of the strategic distribution system. This role was to improve the overall efficiency and interoperability of distribution-related activities: deployment, sustainment, and redeployment support during both peace and war. This capability served very useful during the draw-down in Afghanistan.
In 2013, the International Security Assistance Force handed over responsibility for security to Afghan forces, and USTRANSCOM was engaged in the effort to redeploy a significant portion of U.S. personnel and equipment from Afghanistan. Equipment was primarily moved on the Northern Distribution Network, created in 2009 as an alternate way to move supplies into Afghanistan instead of depending on a single route through Pakistan. It is one of the longest lines of military supply routes ever created and still used today. During this effort, the 100,000th container was moved on the NDN.
USTRANSCOM has evolved into one of the most impactful combatant commands through history and it continues to make a global impact every day.
To read more about USTRANSCOM history, visit: https://ww2.ustranscom.mil/about/summary.cfm
| Date Taken: | 09.30.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 09.30.2020 14:33 |
| Story ID: | 379894 |
| Location: | SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, IL, US |
| Web Views: | 109 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, USTRANSCOM celebrates 33 years of excellence, by Stephenie Wade, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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