Ammo working group enhances communication.

During Cobra Gold 02, the cargo of the Cape Horn had to be unexpectedly discharged to the USNS Seay.

Disabled by an engine room fire, the Cape Horn was towed to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In a coordinated effort involving numerous organizations, the munitions and general cargo on the vessel was efficiently moved to the Seay.

In an unrelated action, 90 empty containers were found at the Naval Magazine Pearl Harbor, where they had been in storage since 1997. The containers were returned to the Defense Transportation System.

These actions are examples of the success of the Hawaii Ammunition Working Group, says Col. Peter Gitto, commander of MTMC's 599th Transportation Group, Wheeler Army Air Field, Hawaii.

"The sharing of new ideas results in innovative approaches, which enable dynamic end-to-end traffic management," said Gitto.

The working group, chaired by the 599th, is made up of representatives of the diverse military and civilian organizations responsible for the movement of more than 162,000 short tons of munitions every year in the U.S. Pacific Command. Members include civilian contractors and traffic managers and munitions handlers from all five major service commands in the Pacific.

The value of the meetings is they focus discussion on improving processes and procedures for ammunition movements, said Carlos Tibbetts, a veteran traffic management specialist at the 599th.

"The bottom line is the criticality of safety to transporters, handlers and the general public during the course of any ammunition or hazardous materials movements," said Tibbetts.

At a recent quarterly meeting, Gordon Lowe, Universal Service Contract 03 manager at the 599th, clarified munitions booking procedures specific to Hawaii. Lowe emphasized the need for all bookings, including ammunition, to go through the Navy's Fleet and Industrial Supply Center, Pearl Harbor.

A second participant, Navy civilian contractor Gary Hickenbottom, of BAE Systems, pointed out the challenges of incomplete, inaccurate and missing documentation on Cobra Gold 02 redeployment hazardous material cargo.

"Communication between the various commands and the different services is key to the overall improvement and safety of handling explosive and hazardous materials," said Hickenbottom, an ordnance logistics coordinator, at Naval Magazine Pearl Harbor.

The regularly scheduled meetings were touted by Lt. Cmdr. Marilou Potenza, of Fleet and Industrial Center.

"Since this working group has been meeting on a quarterly basis," said Potenza, "I feel we've made a lot of progress on procedural issues.

"The working group enables us to hear issues and challenges at the working level. We have the benefit of clarifying how the job should be done or talk about what we can do about a specific situation."

Terri Kojima
Command Affairs Officer
599th Transportation Group