Newly Designated Surface Deployment and Distribution Command Evolves to Meet the Challenge

Logistics Spectrum, Jan-Mar 2004 by Baldwin, Charles P

Major General Ann Dunwoody has served in the U.S. Army since 1976. She currently serves as the commander of the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command. Her assignments include Commander, 1st Corps Support Command, XVIII Airborne Corps; Executive Officer to the Director, Defense Logistics Agency; and Commander, Division Support Command, 10th Mountain Division (Light). She is a graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and holds master of science degrees in national resource management and logistics management. Her decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit and the Defense Meritorious Medal. She has also been awarded the Master Parachutists and Parachute Rigger Badges.

Major General Ann Dunwoody, Commander of the newly redesignated Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) since 17 October 2002, has a unique perspective on the processes and effectiveness of the supply chain. As the Commander, 1st Corps Support Command, XVIII Airborne Corps, she led the deployed logistics element for Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). OEF resulted in the removal of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. While supporting that operation she witnessed many of the problems that had plagued logistics in Operation Desert Storm (ODS). The support base for OEF was in Uzbekistan, north of Afghanistan. Although her command had very good access to Internet and automated systems through satellite communications, the processes of supporting a deployed force and in-transit visibility (ITV) had not progressed substantially. The technological advancements in identifying and tracking cargo after ODS were not yet institutionalized in the distribution system, and visibility of incoming materiel was poor. The support structure was austere, and freight was delivered by military air, rail through Russia and from the port of Karachi, Pakistan, by truck. For example, push shipments of frozen food were received that could not be stored or prepared. Containers would arrive unexpectedly and without automated information concerning the contents. The use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags was not mandated, and interrogators to read them were not available at enough points along the supply chain. In short, Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) was set up for a repeat performance of ODS, but on a smaller scale. The prospect for ongoing military operations in the Southwest Asia area made these problems alarming, but also provided the time and impetus to make improvements for OIF.

When MG Dunwoody took command of the former Military Traffic Management Command (MTMC), she found the organization under-manned and too focused on peacetime operations to meet the growing requirements of OIF. Periodic personnel cuts reduced the available manpower and were shaping MTMC as a peacetime-only organization with the ability to administer transportation matters for the Department of Defense (DoD), but not operate the port facilities and support the units that would deploy in wartime. The manpower reductions were exacerbated by the requirement to maintain MTMC headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, while the focus of operations was in the Norfolk, Virginia area. Only through extreme resourcefulness and ingenuity was her organization able to generate the necessary capability to meet OIF transportation management requirements. MG Dunwoody believes that the solution to revitalize the organization and its capability to improve its fortunes was to foster better understanding of its mission and core competencies. The shift from a supply based logistics system to a distribution based logistics system makes SDDC a critical element of the DoD's functions of deploying forces and distributing materiel. Her message has been heard, as was demonstrated by U.S. Transportation Command's (TRANSCOM's) approval of the MTMC reorganization to SDDC and the mission refocus in a record 60 days.

MG Dunwoody touts the improvements made to the deployment and distribution system from her experiences in OEF to the present in the ongoing OIF. She characterizes the changes or transformation of the surface distribution system as technological, cultural or process in nature. Technology can improve the ITV of materiel being shipped, and provide the organization and supported units the agility to function anywhere along the chain. Cultural changes will focus the organization's talents and resources on the deployment capability aspect, instead of just traffic management. Processes must change to achieve an effective distribution system, going beyond the mission of just shipping materiel for customers. Although some fixes will be long-term in nature, others have been implemented quickly to improve tracking and performance without waiting for the end of the operation and the deliberate funding, development and fielding processes that can take years. She has changed the paradigm of the (former) MTMC mission, "fire and forget," meaning that they shipped freight, as offered, to its destination with the hope that it all worked out.