As the US military withdraws from Iraq, the 1st Sustainment Command held a Kuwait inter-service conference on optimising container movement to drive down costs as the withdrawal drives up logistics activities,
    In from Washington, Col Dale Critzer, with the Joint Staff, Distribution Division, pointed out that the number of forward operating bases in Iraq had dropped from 400 to 90.
    "We have been successful up until this point," he said adding that now container managers are working under pressure to clear out the battlefield. "Now, there is an end-state that has to be met."
    Proud of what had been accomplished, S/Sgt John Warthan, operations NCO for global container management for the Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, said: "Six, seven years ago, detention [charges] were up over US$20 million a month, now it's down to $2 million because of people's awareness in container management. So it's not just a matter of moving stuff from A to B in a box. It's a matter of making sure that box gets to where it goes, gets emptied and gets back."
    But Brig Gen John O'Connor, Third Army director of logistics and Central Command container management executive agent, said that while improvements reflect progress, he wanted more. "I'm challenging you to go back and drive detention down through the $1 million mark. We can do this. You have got to make it a personal endeavour," he told them.

Source: Shipping Gazette