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As we close out this mission, and hand over our operations to the 1174th, I can address some of the operations and accomplishments.

We have kicked off the first Commercial Operations plan for the 82nd Airborne Division Door-2-Door (D2D) redeployment. The commercial carriers submitted their individual plans on 12 October. We have analyzed the carrier proposals and will forward
the results to Clearance Authority tomorrow.

We continue to expand capacity at the Port of Umm Qasr, Iraq, making successful embarkations under the another commercial D2D redeployment program. We also were instrumental in the standing up of a Container Repair Facility at the Port of Umm Qasr.

We also have expanded the use of another smaller port in Kuwait, Shuwaikh. The unit at Shuwaikh is steadily moving to the point where they can discharge and clear close to 100 containers daily.

The Port of Shuaiba, our main port here in Kuwait, continues to operate at maximum efficiency with thousands of pieces of equipment moving through there every month. In Afghanistan, the commercial carriers are responding well to the influx of cargo received in Karachi and Qasim since the end of Ramadan. Last week, 947 conveyances were dispatched from the ports in Pakistan,
but only 160 were dispatched to locations in the South. A dramatic increase in the amount of cargo dispatched to locations in the South (to include high-priority Theater-Provided Equipment (TPE)) in the coming week is expected.

A total of 969 conveyances arrived at final destinations in Afghanistan over the past week, an increase of over 54% from the previous week (628 conveyances). The number of conveyances at 4,117, but this number has already been decreased to 3,002 as of 11 October. Of this cargo, 388 pieces are either unit or high-priority cargo. Theater Provided Equipment (TPE) / Prepare to Deploy Order (PTDO) equipment remains a high priority for the theater, and our efforts to coordinate the efficient movement of this cargo have been successful. To date, 2,001 out of 2,294 pieces of TPE / PTDO cargo have been dispositioned and 1,751 pieces have been delivered. Through 11 October, the carriers have delivered 519 pieces of Foreign Military Sales (FMS) cargo to the Afghanistan National Army (ANA) and Afghanistan National Police (ANP) depots. Continuing to call-forward FMS cargo in accordance with Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan's (CSTC-A) vehicle priorities.

For our rail movements, there are currently 10 trains pending clearance, one (1) train awaiting clearance, and three (3) trains en-route. One (1) additional train is en-route to Afghanistan. To date, 3,598 conveyances have been delivered to Afghanistan by our
commercial rail carriers.

Since we have been here, we have also done the following:

- Directly reduced $3.5M in estimated detention costs of containers through research and carrier notification throughout CENTCOM.
- Reduced the number of "lost containers" (as described by the accounting system - containers which have not been inventoried in the last 30 days) by half (20K vice 40K, 13% vice 25% of theater totals).
- Reduced the number of carrier-owned containers in theater by 25% (5,600 vice 7,100) after pending purchases. (The carriers charge us mucho $ for using them as long as we have them.)
- Increased overall CENTCOM container inventory percentages from 61% to 72%.
- Container costs throughout the CENTCOM were reduced by 46%.
Also created theater policies for both expansion in Afghanistan and drawdown in Iraq, and developed funding programs securing over $110M for container costs and purchases throughout the theater.

Overall, by my staff's estimates, we moved more than 2,305,610 squarefeet of equipment....20 Brigade Combat Teams and more than 200 separate, battalion or smaller units. We un-frustrated 1,251 pieces of aging cargo. The average time it took us to process cargo was 2.1 days, withalmost a 98% data accuracy.

I also passed my physical fitness test this morning at 3:30am.....10
points higher than last time. Not bad considering I had dysentery three
weeks ago.

A remarkable mission with outstanding results.

We officially give over the mission next Wednesday and leave in @ 9 days. I'll try to get out one last email before we get quarantined and sent up to the airbase.

Next task....figure out a way to keep my Soldiers from tearing up Fort Dix when they get there.

Sean