Services need to share logistics information.

• Author: Kennedy, Harold

The lack of accurate information about supply requirements, shipments and deliveries has hurt military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Learning how to fix those information gaps is one of the most important lessons of the war, according to Vice Adm. Gordon S. Holder, director of logistics, J4, for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"If we could get that right, we would save lots of money and do things a lot faster," he told National Defense.

As logistics director, Holder does not run the organizations that provide equipment and supplies to U.S. troops. Instead, he advises the joint chief's on such matters, and that is turning out to be a much bigger job than he first thought.

His job over the past three years, has been anything but boring, as he seeks to help guide some of the most complex movements of U.S. troops and materiel ever attempted.

At the moment, U.S. military services are just completing the rotation of an estimated 240,000 troops--and more than a million tons of cargo--into and out of the U.S. Central Command.

Making the transfers happen smoothly has required the close cooperation of all of the services, Holder said. Recognizing the joint nature of the mission, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in September 2003 named the U.S. Transportation Command--which provides air, land and sea mobility for all of the services--to be the "distribution process owner" for the entire department. In this assignment, TRANSCOM was expected to:

* Eliminate existing seams between traditional distribution processes and standardize policies and performance goals in the military supply chain.

* Encourage all the services to use information technology that can work together, keeping better track of people and goods as they move from the United States across the globe.

* Institutionalize sustainment planning into contingency processes.

* Streamline distribution accountability under a single combatant commander, providing one accountable person for war fighters to contact with their supply needs.

Previously, no single command or agency has ever been responsible for making the defense distribution system work. Supplies are procured and stored by a myriad of organizations within the department, while TRANSCOM provides strategic mobility.

The result is a fragmented distribution system, with many parts of the chain acting independently, Holder said. "The good news is that, in a crisis, everybody wants to do the right thing," he said. "The bad news is, when the...