MTMC maintains busy work presence in tiny Qatar.

There is a furnace-like heat that clings to the air of the Middle East.

The sun hangs high in the sky in a dominant stance.

But in Qatar--surrounded on three sides by blue waters of the Persian Gulf--the seawaters provide a moderating relief.

In this tiny country, there is a massive Military Traffic Management Command workload. We have numerous ship-loading and discharge missions--all conducted in high-security postures. And we have lots of moving freight.

This activity is no surprise. The tiny country hosts two of America's superpower projection platforms: Central Air Force's Combat Equipment Group and Army Central Command's Preposition Site 5, the largest such site overseas.

Our most recent mission was Operation Green Spear II. This was our sixth port operation in seven months' time that was conducted in Threat Condition Charlie or Delta.

The mission was to discharge 281 pieces of equipment from the Greendale at the Port of Mesaieed. Most of the cargo went to Army Prepositioned Site 5 at Camp As Sayliyah; the remaining 30 pieces went to Harvest Falcon on Al Uidied Air Force Base

"Port operations are challenging enough when orchestrating timelines and tasking between the port authority, local customs, ship's agent, stevedore company and end user," said Sgt. 1st Class Ruby Drisdell, MTMC's NCOIC in Qatar.

"Now compound that with the additional coordination to meet the force protection requirements necessary to three different major commands."

We do it on every mission. It is no easy task.

Meanwhile, the import and export of Department of Defense freight is booming.

Defense freight almost tripled in first and second quarter fiscal year 2001 over the same period last year.

Essentially, we represent all of Transcom. We provide services to Qatar as if we were Military Traffic Management Command, Military Sealift Command, and Air Mobility Command, all rolled into one.

In addition to booking cargo, providing customs clearance and managing the ports at Qatar ocean terminals, we also provide those same services at the Qatar military air terminal for Department of Defense cargo.

"Since we have no installation transportation office or personal property office, we pick up some of the duties and responsibilities associated with those organizations as well," said Drisdell.

An unusual part of our operation in Qatar is our own MTMC-sponsored diving team. A standard force protection measure is to have EOD divers sweep the berth a ship will dock in to ensure it is clear of explosives.

This presents a unique challenge to MTMC operations in Qatar: A ship mission may not dock without this security measure; however, Navy divers in theater are fully engaged and cannot provide the service.

We came up with our own MTMC-unique solution. We formed a diving team of soldiers who have civilian, not military, diving certification.

Our team was certified by Qatari Air Force Capt. Mohammed Jetta. The Gulf War veteran is an ordnance disposal expert in the Qatari military. We received additional training and monitoring from the Army's explosive ordnance demolition team in Qatar, and Maj. Joshua Elliott, of the Army Central Command.

We practice like a regular military certified diving team. We rehearse, inspect our gear, review our underwater signals, study underwater ordnance recognition charts and map out our dive plan prior to our mission.

The main difference between us is that we would only identify ordnance in the water. Under no circumstances would we touch or in any way disturb suspected ordnance.

By Capt. John N. Kotzman
Commander
Qatar Detachment
831st Transportation Battalion