CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait - Personnel from throughout Third Army's area of responsibility gathered for the bi-annual container management conference at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait May 10-12. Troops from all service branches and civilians came from Iraq, Afghanistan, Bahrain, camps in Kuwait and the United States to discuss current operations, pool best practices in container management and set conditions for container management for operations throughout Third Army's area of responsibility.
"Container management is an important duty," said Brig. Gen. Jesse R. Cross, Third Army director of logistics and Central Command container management executive agent. "I want you to take the knowledge you gain here and put it to use back to your commands."
The containers discussed during the conference are the 20-foot metal boxes that circulate from the United States through countries in Third Army's area of responsibility and sometimes rest at forward bases. These containers are essential to military logistics operations as units use them to ship an array of gear.
The goal of the conference was to improve container management throughout Third Army's area of operations. To do this, leadership in attendance identified issues, developed courses of actions and requested guidance for the resolution of these issues. This conference will set conditions to properly execute the responsible transition in Iraq and to posture Afghanistan for future retrograde operations. These actions will help reduce carrier container detention costs and improve distribution in Third Army's area of responsibility.
The most recent container conference, held in November, made strides in management as leadership identified the requirements for responsible transition planning and container disposition. This allowed container managers to move forward with the transition moving materiel out of Iraq. Another byproduct of the conference was the development of a weekly newsletter providing tips and guidelines on container management while highlighting various container management organizations that provide support throughout Third Army's area of operations.
The first day of this conference presented operational overviews from all container management agencies, including Third Army, U.S. Army Central Command, the Surface Deployment and Distribution Command Global Container manager and the Army Inter-modal Deployment Platform Management Office. On the second day, teams split into working groups to discuss specific details of various missions. The conference wrapped up on day three when the working groups presented their final findings to Third Army and to U.S. CENTCOM to plan the way ahead.
"It's very important for container managers and supporting agencies to come together in one place to work through current and future operations," said Maj. Julie Stockelman, Third Army mobility surface branch chief and native of Seale, Ala. "The input provided by managers at each level is critical to addressing challenges and ensuring best practices are shared with container managers. This event gives us an overall picture of operations and what we can do to improve container management operations as a whole."
The container management conference is held at Camp Arifjan, with the next scheduled for later this year. The main topics of discussion will be managing, final phase of transition from Iraq, supporting Afghanistan through the Theater Consolidated Shipping Point and further reducing carrier container detention.
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