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TACKLE GAPS IN TRANSPORTATION CORPS MISSION
By MG Fred E. Elam, USA (Ret.)
This article originally appeared in ARMY magazine, Vol. 66, No. 9, September 2016. Copyright 2016 by the Association of the US Army and reprinted by permission of ARMY magazine.
The article below represents the thoughts of numerous discussions and debates by the informal “Stammtisch” group—former Transportation Corps Leaders who meet monthly in the Washington, DC area. Their concerns are focused on the atrophy of the strategic deployment capability of the US Army and its associated support of the joint community for future national military requirements. It is meant to be a thought provoking piece. We welcome your thoughts on this subject and look forward to adding your perspectives to the discussion. –COL Jim Veditz, USA (Ret.), Senior VP of Operations, NDTA
From the earliest westward expansion of our nation to global deployments in World War II to more recent combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, expeditionary missions have always been part of the US Army’s DNA.
But how the Army organizes, trains and prepares for such missions is becoming more complicated. Today’s rapidly evolving national security threats demand that expeditionary Army forces from all components, ranging from teams to divisions to corps headquarters, must be ready to strategically deploy anywhere in the world with little or no notice, with or without unit equipment, and alone or together with allied forces, as well as provide DOD-wide support through the US Army Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC).
What’s more, the closure of some overseas bases raises the likelihood that these forces will have to deploy from stateside installations over much greater distances.
At the Association of the US Army’s most recent Global Force Symposium and Exposition, LTG Patrick J. Donahue, Deputy Commander of the US Army Forces Command (FORSCOM), put it bluntly: “The way we’ve been deploying is not useful for the world we live in now. We’ve gotten rusty.” The “expert bench” at all levels has been seriously weakened and diminished. This has significant long-term implications for the US Army and the US Army Transportation Corps, along with its many functional experts throughout the force structure who must plan for and execute the growing multitude of complex deployment scenarios in coordination with the Air Force, Navy, combatant and joint commands, and the many civilian organizations that provide departure and arrival airfield, surface port of embarkation and debarkation, and rail and highway convoy support operations.
To meet the strategic deployment challenges of the 21st century, the Army must identify and address the gaps in doctrine, organizational structures, training, education and functional as
signments essential to the mission of the Transportation Corps. Here are five things we can do: • Centralize the transportation focus. There’s a lack of centralized functional focus within this multifaceted arena, a problem that only grows as budgets shrink. The chief of transportation should reorganize the current Deployment Process Modernization Office, and establish an Army Center of Strategic Deployment Excellence reporting directly to the chief of transportation to be responsible for developing concepts, doctrine, organizations, training, education and equipment required to meet new deployment requirements. All deployable Army units and assigned personnel must be trained and exercised on their individual and collective reception, staging, onward movement, integration and redeployment (RSOI&R) mission responsibilities.
To develop the future logistics leaders who will be needed to project and sustain an expeditionary force, the US Army Transportation School should assume the lead role in overseeing assessments and educational and career assignments for all officers, warrant officers, soldiers and Department of the Army civilians. These are the key individuals whose functional specialties involve strategic deployment and working with the US Army Human Resources Command to properly code specific positions to MOS 88 series so they reflect the skills required to manage assignments to ensure that sufficient bench expertise is achieved and sustained.
Given RSOI&R’s functional importance to the Army’s mission, serious thought should be given to realigning the SDDC back to a direct-reporting Army command, with the 7th Transportation Brigade realigning back to a direct-reporting FORSCOM unit. This would give the Army and FORSCOM direct oversight/ direction of these two mission-essential organizations. • Formalize and standardize strategic deployment expertise. The US Army Training and Doctrine Command, and the Transportation School led by the chief of transportation, should take concrete steps to restore deployment and RSOI&R skill sets that have atrophied over the past 15 years.
Through training and associated doctrinal development, tasks associated with unloading, organization, staging, and moving to final destinations and redeployment must be essential elements of transporta
tion training, along with knowledge of available infrastructure and coordination protocols in destination countries.
Since deploying Army forces are quite likely to encounter anti-access and area denial environments, such capabilities as joint logistics over the shore also are essential and must be incorporated into Transportation Corps officer, warrant officer, NCO, civilian and unit training. • Get all transportation personnel schooled on automated logistics systems. Army transporters must know, and be able to use, automated transportation systems as a force multiplier. Specifically, Army transporters must know the capabilities of the automated Joint Operations Planning and Execution System, and also must be trained in the use of the various outputs from the automated Joint Flow Analysis System for Transportation.
Similarly, Transportation Corps officers, soldiers and civilians must be fluent in how to fully exploit the capabilities of the Global Freight Management system. The Transportation Coordinators’ Automation Information System and Cargo Movement Operations System are two additional automation systems in which transporters must have expertise. The ability to accurately plan for and coordinate the shipment of supplies and equipment for deploying units is vital to ensuring efficient use of scarce organic, joint and civilian transportation resources. The US Transportation Command hosts joint flow and deployment conferences for appropriate war planners. Army officers with deep transportation functional expertise should attend these conferences to include personnel assigned to a renamed Army Center of Strategic Deployment Excellence. • Reprise maneuver branch for transportation officers. During the past four fiscal years, no transportation branch lieutenants have been detailed for a maneuver branch two-year assignment. This situation arose because the number of Transportation Corps accessions were not adequate to support the program. Why? The number of yearly accessions is based on captain authorizations. The failure of the Transportation Corps as a “donor” branch to support the maneuver branch detail can be traced to one of two factors: Either the Transportation Corps branch has done a poor job of recruiting at West Point, ROTC and Officer Candidate School, or the captain authorizations need to be increased.
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Maneuver branch assignments give Transportation Corps officers a unique opportunity to understand the strategic deployment challenges of deploying infantry, armor and artillery units. Recent policy changes allowing female officers to serve in the combat arms set the stage to once again have all Transportation Corps officers serve maneuver branch assignments. • Share ideas. Finally, Army transporters at all levels, across all components, should be encouraged to share ideas and thoughts on these issues at every opportunity, using all available media, to help ensure the Army develops and maintains a robust 21st-century strategic deployment capability. DTJ
MG Fred E. Elam, USA (Ret.) served over 33 years and commanded at all levels, including as the chief of transportation and the first commander of the Transportation Corps Regiment. He had two combat tours in Vietnam. He is a graduate of the Command and General Staff College and the Naval War College. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas and an MBA from Michigan State University.
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