Supply mission a challenge for Scott-based unit

[unhappycamper]

Supply mission a challenge for Scott-based unit
By Jennifer A. Bowen - Belleville (Ill.) News Democrat via AP
Posted : Sunday Nov 8, 2009 17:03:33 EST

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. — Between pilfering, mountain passes closed by snow, overturned trucks and attacks by hostile tribes, getting equipment and supplies to troops in Afghanistan is a challenge.

For a year, Army Lt. Col. Greg Younger, command transportation integration officer for the Surface Deployment and Distribution Command at Scott Air Force Base, lived in Pakistan and helped orchestrate and simplify the movement of military goods from Port Karachi in southern Pakistan through that country into Afghanistan through a mountain pass in the northwestern part of the country.

The Surface Deployment and Distribution Command is the newest command at Scott Air Force Base. It has a work force of more than 4,600 military and civilian employees worldwide, and has contracts worth more than $1.8 billion annually with commercial surface moving companies that use trains, trucks, barges, pipelines and ships to move goods for the Department of Defense globally.

The Surface Deployment and Distribution Command at Scott oversees the movement of military goods between Pakistan and Afghanistan; here, commercial trucks wait to cross Torkham Border Crossing into Afghanistan.

“Ten to 20 percent of the cost of a war is getting there,” Younger said.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/11/ap_airforce_scott_logistics_pakistan_110809/