ALOG NEWS

Lieutenant General C.V. Christianson

ARMY NAMES NEW G–4

Lieutenant General C.V. Christianson was promoted to his current rank and appointed Deputy Chief of Staff, G–4, U.S. Army, on 2 October. General Christianson succeeds Lieutenant General Charles S. Mahan, Jr., who retired from the Army.

General Christianson served as the Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, G–4, with duty as the Chief of Logistics, Coalition Forces Land Component Command, at Camp Doha, Kuwait, from August 2002 until July 2003, when he returned to Headquarters, U.S. Army. In September, he became the Acting Deputy Chief of Staff, G–4, where he remained until his current assignment. He has held many other duty assignments in a variety of locations in the United States and five other countries.

General Christianson has a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from North Dakota State University. He is a graduate of the Infantry Officer Basic Course, the Ordnance Officer Advanced Course, the Armed Forces Staff College, and the Army War College.

DOD POLICY MANDATES RFID USE BY 2005

In a key initiative designed to improve supply chain management, the Department of Defense (DOD) in October issued a new policy that will promote the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.

RFID technology is an application of automatic identification technology that quickly collects and reports item, location, time, and transaction data embedded in tags that are placed on containers, pallets, and packages. The data are collected by readers, or interrogators, equipped with antennas. RFID tags can be either active—the tag has its own power source (a battery) to transmit data—or passive—the tag is powered by energy transmitted by the interrogator.

Use of RFID technology will streamline DOD business processes, improve in-transit visibility of materiel, support the logistics requirements of combatant commanders, increase the efficiency of life-cycle asset management, and permit DOD to shift personnel from logistics to warfighting functions.

The new DOD policy will require suppliers to place passive RFID tags on the lowest possible part, case, or pallet packaging by January 2005. This tagging requirement will apply to all items except bulk commodities such as sand, gravel, and liquids. DOD components will need to create an initial capability to read tags at key sites in preparation for the January 2005 implementation date.

A DOD-level integrated product team will refine the policy, designate initial RFID projects for testing emerging RFID capabilities, and develop a long-term implementation strategy. An analysis of the initial projects will be completed by May 2004, with approval of the final policy and implementation strategy to follow in June. (See related stories beginning on pages 16 and 20.)

USTRANSCOM NAMED DEFENSE DISTRIBUTION PROCESS OWNER

The Department of Defense (DOD) announced in September the appointment of the Commander, U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), as the Defense Distribution Process Owner. This designation is a significant step forward in transformation and will help ensure the best support for combatant commanders and troops.

Consolidation of authority under one process owner should—

•Eliminate existing seams between current distribution processes.

•Standardize the policies, vision, and performance goals in DOD’s supply chain.

•Develop interoperable information technology solutions and enhance total asset visibility to distribution customers.

•Institutionalize sustainment planning in contingency processes.

•Streamline distribution accountability under a single combatant commander (by providing one accountable person for the other commanders to contact for their distribution needs).

According to Air Force General John W. Handy, USTRANSCOM Commander, a transformation of the Defense distribution system will strengthen the Nation’s warfighting capabilities and save money. “Looking at the commercial market, everyone realizes that managing suppliers and the entire supply chain is big business. But the DOD supply chain, with a multitude of ways to get to a theater of operations, is still a very complicated network, a spider web of activity. Ownership of this process will provide clarity to both the distribution and sustainment systems,” said Handy.

NEW NAME FOR MTMC REFLECTS WARFIGHTER SUPPORT ROLE

The Military Traffic Management Command has a new name—the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC).

SDDC officials believe the new name better reflects the command’s critical role in deploying the force and its emphasis on end-to-end distribution operations in support of warfighters.

“It’s more than just a name change,” said Major General Ann E. Dunwoody, Commanding General of SDDC. “Over time, we have literally outgrown our name. Our new name change to the Surface Deployment and Distribution Command better represents our number one priority and renewed focus—to support the warfighter through deployment, sustainment, and redeployment.”

The name change, which was effective on 1 January, follows closely the U.S. Transportation Command’s (USTRANSCOM’s) designation as the Department of Defense Joint Distribution Process Owner (see story that begins on page 1). SDDC will be a key enabler of a new and improved joint distribution system envisioned by USTRANSCOM.

“Traffic management will continue to be a key component of what we do, but it is only one of the tools in our arsenal,” said Dunwoody. “Our value to the warfighter resides in our ability to deliver capability and sustainment on time and ensure that we can provide timely, accurate in-transit visibility and total asset visibility of all surface equipment and supplies at all times.”

As a part of its expanded role, SDDC handles all surface movement requirements. “We work with Military Sealift Command to determine whether our existing ocean liner contracts meet the requirement or whether Military Sealift Command needs to charter or activate a vessel,” observed Dunwoody. “All that background activity in reaching the best solution set would be transparent to the customer who now has one entity to hold accountable.”

As a part of its expanding role, SDDC will provide a single face to the field for all surface movement requirements. “Rather than have customers send requirements to two USTRANSCOM component commands for surface lift, we worked hand-in-hand with our great partners at the Military Sealift Command to streamline the process and funnel all the requirements through SDDC,” said Dunwoody. Multicomponent and multifunctional groups that fully integrate Reserve component units into [SDDC] active-duty units are being developed with the support of Lieutenant General James R. Helmly, Chief, Army Reserve, she said.

STRYKERS HEAD FOR FIRST OPERATIONAL ASSIGNMENT

Last November, the Stryker combat vehicles assigned to the Army’s first Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT), the 3d Brigade, 2d Infantry Division, at Fort Lewis, Washington, headed for their first operational assignment—Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The 833d Transportation Battalion, Military Traffic Management Command (recently renamed the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command), and the Army Reserve’s 1192d Transportation Terminal Brigade began loading the Strykers on 9 October at the port of Tacoma, Washington. The equipment was loaded on board two Military Sealift Command vessels, the USNS Sisler and the USNS Shughart, both large, medium-speed, roll-on-roll-off vessels. In mid-October, the vessels departed for a port in the U.S.Central Command area of responsibility. SBCT soldiers followed in November by air.

The move is the biggest involving Fort Lewis troops since 1966 and the biggest movement of military cargoes at the port of Tacoma since Operation Desert Shield in 1990. The cargo moved included more than 1,300 vehicles that occupied approximately 400,000 square feet of cargo space. Approximately 300 of the vehicles were Strykers.

“This is an historic move,” said Lieutenant Colonel Darren Zimmer, SBCT commander. “This is the first use of the Stryker vehicles in an active combat environment. My unit is honored to have such a significant role in support of both a changing Army and Operation Iraqi Freedom.”

AMC CREATES THREE NEW ORGANIZATIONS

A 9 October ceremony marked the stand-up of the Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) (Provisional), the Chemical Materials Agency (Provisional), and the Guardian Brigade, all at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. The ceremony also signaled the stand-down of the Army Soldier and Biological Chemical Command (SBCCOM).

“We are celebrating the transformation of three organizations designed to keep our Army relevant,” said General Paul J. Kern, Commander of the Army Materiel Command (AMC).

RDECOM is a major subordinate command of AMC. Its primary mission is to develop and field technologies to sustain the Army as the premier land force in the world. RDECOM assumes control of the research, development, and engineering centers of other AMC major subordinate commands, the Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity, the Army Research Laboratory, the Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, and the Systems of System Integration. In addition, the Natick Soldier Center at the Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Massachusetts, now operates as an element of RDECOM.

The Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) is responsible for the demilitarization and storage functions formerly performed by SBCCOM and the Chemical Demilitarization Program. CMA was established as part of a reorganization directed by Secretary of the Army Thomas E. White that gave the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology overall responsibility for chemical demilitarization for the Army.

“The goal of this agency is to put itself out of business,” Kern said, referring to the destruction of the aging chemical stockpile underway at eight U.S. stockpile sites.

The Guardian Brigade is a full-spectrum, deployable, operational-level command created to manage the Army’s chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosive response assets. The new organization incorporates the missions and functions of the former Technical Escort Unit, which responded to Department of Defense and other Federal agency requests for immediate identification and mitigation of chemical and biological warfare material for 60 years.

“The creation of these three new organizations is part of the transformation of the Army,” said Kern. “If all of our transformation initiatives come together as smoothly as [these three], the Army’s future will be very bright.”

NEW MORTUARY FACILITY OPENS AT DOVER

The Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs opened at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, in October, replacing a 48-year-old facility. It is the only Department of Defense mortuary in the continental United States. The 70,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility cost $30 million to construct.

The new facility includes features designed to help employees relieve the stress of their difficult jobs, such as a reflecting pool in the foyer and a break area with computer labs. New computers at the facility tie into the Services Casualty System to obtain data on service members.

The Dover mortuary prepares the remains of fallen U.S. service members, Government officials, and their families stationed in Europe and Southwest Asia.

NATO RESPONSE FORCE ESTABLISHED

A ceremony held in Brunssum, The Netherlands, on 15 October marked the official stand-up of the new North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Response Force (NRF).

The NRF is a joint-service force that will be capable of deploying outside of NATO’s traditional area of operations within 5 days and sustaining itself for 30 days while combating international terrorism and other threats to security and stability.

British General Sir Jack Deverell, Commander of Allied Forces North, will oversee the first two NRF rotations. According to Deverell, the establishment of the NRF marks “a major step forward in creating the expeditionary capability [that is] essential in countering the globalization of new threats to peace and security.”

The NRF is expected to attain full operational capability in the fall of 2006 with approximately 21,000 air, land, and sea troops.

An Army sergeant from Detachment 1, 757th Transportation Battalion (Railway), and an Iraqi rail worker adjust a rail at the Port of Umm Qasr, Iraq. The battalion is an Army Reserve unit headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The detachment originally was deployed as an advance party for the full battalion. However, the rest of the battalion was not deployed, and the detachment was attached to a British unit, the 17th Port and Maritime Regiment. The two units fixed locomotives and repaired railroad tracks between the old and new ports at Umm Qasr, moved the first humanitarian aid shipment in Iraq, and restored operations on the main rail line from Umm Qasr to Basra.

HUMAN RESOURCES COMMAND NAMED

The merger of the Total Army Personnel Command (PERSCOM) and the Army Reserve Personnel Command (AR–PERSCOM) announced in the July–August issue of Army Logistician became official in October with the establishment of the Army Human Resources Command.

The command’s Web page at https://www.hrc.army.mil has links to active Army and Army Reserve promotion and school information lists, the My2xCitizen portal, Army Knowledge Online, the Assignment Satisfaction Key, and the Official Military Personnel File page.

ARMY TESTS PUMP TO MAKE WATER FROM EXHAUST

Soldiers soon may be able to recover drinking water from their vehicles’ exhaust. The Army is testing a system that will recover the water that is present in fuel by combining oxygen and hydrogen in vehicle exhaust to produce water.

The water recovery system consists of regenerative heat exchangers, evaporative coolers, filters, and pumps. To produce water, the vehicle exhaust passes through the heat exchangers and coolers that cool it to the condensation point. A purification process then makes the water drinkable. The system will produce about 1 gallon of water for every 2 gallons of fuel consumed by the vehicle. It will take about an hour to produce a gallon of water.

The system is designed to be set up on each side of the vehicle, with the condensation taking place on one side and the water treatment on the other. A sensor inside the vehicle will indicate when the water purification filters need replacing. The filters are expected to produce 150 gallons of water before they need replacing.

The system will cost approximately $25,000 per vehicle. The first units likely to have the system on their vehicles are those that need to stay self-sufficient, such as Special Forces units. A prototype of the system is being built for the Future Combat Systems.

Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona will be field-testing the system this year.