Changes continue in our lives ...

In its three years of existence, there have been many ceremonies at the Deployment Support Command.

Of course, there was its activation on Oct. 2, 1998. In the years that followed, there were changes of commands and ceremonies. I have been privileged to attend many of them.

Flags and flourishes and, often, moist eyes with the emotion of transition ...

So it was Nov. 7 with the flag retirement of the Deployment Support Command. The unit that had supported so many contingencies, exercises and humanitarian operations quietly faded from existence.

Minds were vivid with memories of the work accomplished ... millions of measurement tons of cargo moved, Reserve soldiers trained and container and railroad cars managed.

All this, in around-the-calendar conditions, in the heat, and the cold, and the dark of night ...

My reflections were rich indeed.

But the goal of history is to visualize what is evolving in the constantly changing landscape of our lives and the lives of our organizations and institutions. It is always up ahead. It is always changing. We use history to help chart and define that moving and blurred landscape out front.

More changes? Of course ...

"It's a big deal," said Maj. Gen. Kenneth L. Privratsky, "but it's not the last time this organization will evolve."

As the organization goes on and on, so will the evolution. Our organizations change, and we change too, in the moving environment in which we live together.

So this marked the latest change in MTMC. There were other changes before that ... in Bayonne and in Oakland. Other changes before that ... at the Baltimore port and the Iskendrun port ... and our Brooklyn activity ...

And so we close the MTMC chapter of the Deployment Support Command. The merger of some Bayonne and Oakland work and functions was really the culmination of studies and plans done beginning in the late 1980s which recommended the creation of a single headquarters.

The Gulf War caused the postponement of the decision for a few years. However, the command's extensive use of civilian port operations such as Savannah, Ga., during the Gulf War, however, made some in Congress and the Department of Defense question the need for military terminals.

Department of Defense drawdowns and automation then brought the issue to the forefront in the following decade.

While MTMC's overall importance would increase with the need for power projection, its terminals' workloads declined with the end of the Cold War. A legacy of the closures was some 216 personnel who volunteered for transfer to Fort Eustis and formed the nucleus of the Deployment Support Command.

Before the pages are turned, let us remember that in its three-year history, the Deployment Support Command took responsibility for the deployment of troops and equipment for numerous Department of Defense exercises, operations and contingencies.

The command's soldiers and civilians provided support for the rotation of units for Bosnia and Kosovo, humanitarian relief efforts in Central and South America after hurricanes George and Mitch, and countless training exercises.

We will not forget ...