4 July 2013
For those of you that might wonder exactly what I do over
here, perhaps I should provide something of a snap shot. I begin writing this post on a 747 flying
back to Islamabad from Karachi. I was
there to attend a two day carrier meeting.
It was primarily to discuss the access issues for freight traveling
between the ports down at Karachi, and Afghanistan. While that is not in my swim, lane several of
the carriers I work with, bringing freight into Pakistan, were there and I
needed to meet them. The consulate in
Karachi is a bit like a voluntary jail.
The buildings are new and quite nice, lots of shiny marble, new
furnishings, strangely wavy glass windows (ballistic), etc. but most of the
grounds are covered in gravel. Lately
though they have replaced some of these with lawn, not out of a concern for aesthetics
but to reduce shrapnel if some dumb ass decides to drop a few mortar rounds on
the compound. That doesn’t seem to be
likely right now… but then again. To
enter or exit requires ID checks and several imposing gated zones. Access to the actual city is limited to a
narrow corridor between Jena International and the Consulate. Should one wish to see any of this narrow
slice of city it is necessary to arrange an up-armored vehicle from motor pool,
with a driver and bodyguard. We went out
to dinner last night using this arrangement.
The food was fantastic. The
traffic a mess, the city itself is dirty and unkempt. Karachi is home to a tad over 22,000,000
people. Large sections of the city have
been completely abandoned by the police to the criminal gangs, which helps
explain the murder rate of 8/day. Not
the safest place and nowhere I will likely return as a tourist.
Well, that got away from me a bit; I was going to explain my
duties. I was sent here to be the head
logistician for the Office of the Defense Representative Pakistan (ODRP),
Security Assistance Office (SAO). We have security assistance programs in many
countries. They facilitate the sale of
US produced defense supplies to these countries. This accomplishes several goals. It keeps US defense manufacturing lines open
without DOD spending funds on excess equipment.
More importantly it makes for closer ties and some degree of influence
with the military in these countries. We
help Pakistan acquire military equipment and they assist with policing the Indian
Ocean, fighting insurgents in the tribal lands and working to secure their
nebulous borders. If you recall the
military response to the invasion of the Swat Valley by the Taliban a few years
ago, this was possible because of the support we provide. OK, OK I know, that explains why I am here in
a very big picture sort of way, but still not what I do.
As the Chief of Logistics my primary duty is to coordinate
the movement of military supplies from the US to Pakistan. We have a consolidation site in the US that
became more of a warehouse when relations soured after the Salala incident. I have an NCO there to process receipts and pull
freight for shipments. I also have a
LtCol and SSgt to assist with the process on this end. We set the shipment schedule, the mode, and
the specific items to be shipped. Since
I have arrived we made 2 shipments by chartered 747. I hate those.
They waste funds that would be better spent purchasing more military hardware
for the PAK Mil. We also recently
received our first ocean shipment in over two years, 26 forty foot containers
(FEU’s). There are some significant challenges
with this process. The Government of Pakistan
requires a Non-Objection Certificate (NOC) for imported duty free freight. It is quite the cumbersome, bureaucratic
process to get these approved, even for items going to the PAK Mil! Pakistan has hundreds of years of
bureaucratic training from British Colonial rule. If you have ever watched the movie “Brazil”
it will provide insight into the Pakistani bureaucracy. If that were my only challenge it would be
sufficient but the method of prioritizing the freight we call forward was not well
thought either. It was prioritized based
on the preferences of the US Army, Navy and Air Force reps working with their PAK
Mil counterparts. This allowed some
freight to languish at the consolidation site to the point where shelf life is
now an issue. I am in the process of
reordering all the freight in FIFO order with exceptions made for shelf life
and justifiable reasons, like items needed for contracted training programs. We also have a contracted warehouse in Pakistan
that is used primarily as a cross dock.
Once shipments arrive this is where they are broken down for onward
movement to specific units. My SSgt
spends a significant amount of time there.
Now you would think that since that is logistics bit is a pretty complex
tasking it would account for all my time.
But wait, that ain’t all…
As the head loggie, I also own housing and vehicles. Most of us at ODRP are on temporary orders so
we share group houses out in town. These
are arranged through the Embassy. I have
the honor of housing assignments, coordinating maintenance issues and ownership
of the furnishings, or rather my MSG does.
She also manages our leased vehicle fleet. We share cars and rotate them regularly to
limit our visibility. It shouldn’t surprise
me but a significant portion of my time goes to the houses and vehicles. The last area under my dept is End Use
Monitoring. I have a Navy Chief over
that. When we provide military items to
a country it is not without strings. We
monitor items to ensure they are stored securely enough and that 3rd
party nationals don’t have unapproved access to them.
As part of the straight logistics portion of my
responsibilities I also make short side trips when we deliver cargo. I sign for the US Govt., meet the military
officers in charge of the unit taking custody, have tea and biscuits (the English
meaning there), and then head home. As
with more management positions most of my time is dedicated to providing
information. That has been something of
a challenge. With personnel rotating
every year, continuity is tenuous at best.
Add to that a lack of skills in Excel and Access for most active duty
military and it was quickly apparent I need to rebuild all our databases to
make data mining more effective and efficient.
It’s going to be a busy year for me.
Busy but fun. There is plenty to
do and my actions have a dramatic, immediate and visible impact. It will be interesting to look back next year
to see if I have been successful, or have fallen victim to “Brazil”.
Houses: over a dozen
Vehicles: several dozen
Cost of a 747 charter: about a half mil
Value of goods on a 747 charter: $40M to $70M
Goods in storage: over $300M
Personnel managing the process: 6
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