At the Summer Ports and Waterways Conference in Portland, Oregon, July 2003, the Transportation Research Board's Military Transportation Committee convened a group of military and commercial freight transportation experts to review the effects of deployment on U.S. transportation providers and their customers. Program participants reviewed lessons learned in the Desert Shield-Desert Storm operations, as well as actions and programs to improve the military-commercial partnerships and transportation efficiency in peacetime and in a time of national emergency. Panelists evaluated transportation performance in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. This article summarizes presentations that addressed Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) operations to deploy and sustain warfighting units, the experience of the trucking industry in support of military transportation, rail experience in supporting military transportation, the joint planning of sealift requirements during Operation Iraqi Freedom, the transition of commercial port facilities for operations in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Desert Shield-Desert Storm operations and improvements that have been implemented with the commercial carriers supporting military transportation.
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