Gateway to the world.

John Marzullo works as a shipping executive in a small Louisiana city.

Marzullo, Executive Director of the Port of Alexandria on the Red River, is successful because his vision is global.

It has to be.

Barges move to and from Alexandria on river systems all across the middle girth of the country, and beyond--across the Gulf of Mexico to the nations of Central America.

In the last five years, barges calling at the Central Louisiana port have almost tripled--from 124 in 1996 to 308 in 2000. In the same period, cargo carried has gone from 106,000 tons to 289,000 tons.

Many of the port's cargoes are bulk agricultural products.

However, much of the rest is military cargo coordinated by the Military Traffic Management Command.

"I love it," said Marzullo. "The military is among our best customers."

Numerous Army Reserve Component units have been sending construction and support equipment through Alexandria for Hurricane Mitch relief operations in Central American countries since 1998.

The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) from Fort Campbell, Ky., has often used barges to ship their task forces headed for the nearby Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk.

"We feel as if we're an integral piece in the military transportation system," said Marzullo.

The military units are staged at nearby England AirPark and then travel to their Joint Readiness Training Centers ready to begin training.

The largest of these operations took place in May 2000, when hundreds of pieces of cargo were moved by the 76th Infantry Brigade, Indianapolis, to the Port of Alexandria for duty at the Joint Readiness Center--and then returned the same way.

"It was a great achievement," said Marzullo.

The Indiana Army National Guard thought so, as well.

The brigade's 1,173 pieces of cargo were picked up simultaneously from three port locations and loaded on 65 barges. The barges then traveled through three river systems--the Ohio, Mississippi and Red rivers--before reaching Alexandria.

The barges were waiting in Alexandria when National Guard soldiers arrived to unload them May 7-8.

"It's wonderful," said Brig. Gen. George Buskirk, Support Base Commander. "It could not have been smoother."

That is music to Marzullo's ears as he plans and anticipates more military moves in the future.

He has a 40-ton crane and 15,000-square-foot warehouse, among other assets to support the move.

Marzullo is flexible.

When the Indiana Guardsmen wanted to unload faster, Marzullo told them it was all right to take their bulldozers and build another ramp in the red clay riverbank.

In short order, that is exactly what the Guardsmen did.

"Multiply what is happening in Alexandria with the 1,800 other river terminals in the country, and you get a good idea of the magnitude of inland water traffic," said Richard Lolich, who works as Program Manager of the Office of Ports & Domestic Shipping in the U.S. Maritime Administration.

"The port of Alexandria is part of the Marine Transportation System," said Lolich, who observed the 76th Infantry Brigade move through Alexandria in May 2000.

The system includes 25,000 miles of inland, intracoastal and coastal waterways, which serve hundreds of ports and terminals across the country.

"These terminals are spread throughout 21 states and handle in excess of 1 billion metric tons of domestic freight every year," said Lolich.