Home » Archives » "General: Logistics performance in Iraq good, but needs work"

General: Logistics performance in Iraq good, but needs work

Jul-31-2004 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

There's a brief mention of the Stryker Brigade in this article.

[Link to Full Article]
By Jeremy Kirk, Stars and Stripes

YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — U.S. troops took 48 weeks to move combat equipment and supplies 756 miles from Normandy, France, to Berlin, Germany, during World War II.

But just four weeks elapsed early last year when fighting forces moved the 828 miles from Kuwait into northern Iraq, said Col. James E. Rentz, former commander of the 4th Infantry Division’s division command, now in the office of the Army’s deputy chief of staff for logistics.

While the situations differed tactically and militarily, both demanded quick movement of millions of gallons of fuel, water and spare parts needed for front-line forces.

Logistics “is all about one thing … making life better for soldiers at the tip of the spear,” said Rentz, speaking Thursday at a three-day logistics conference focusing on South Korea, readiness and lessons learned from Iraq. [...]

Tracing where supplies were in the chain worked well until supplies hit the port and were taken into Iraq, Rentz said. At that point, leaders didn’t know exactly where certain supplies were.

The supply net also was complicated by communication troubles. The 4th ID followed the 3rd Infantry Division, and all communication assets were delegated to units already in Iraq. In the beginning, the 4th ID was limited using those systems for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon, Rentz said.

Line-of-site communication systems failed because of long distances and desert sand dunes, he said. Now units in Iraq, along with the 3rd ID and Stryker units, have been funded for satellite communications equipment, Rentz said.

Those systems also should be augmented with ones that allow for instant inventories of equipment — known in logistics jargon as “in-transit visibility” and “total asset visibility,” he said.


Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by a site administrator before your comment will appear. We appreciate your patience.)

Advertisements