US Transportation Command is changing how it moves personnel, supplies, and weapons around the world, per the 2003 mandate handed down by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who designated TRANSCOM the department’s “distribution process owner.” According to TRANSCOM’s top enlisted man, Air Force Command Chief Master Sergeant Kenneth McQuiston, who spoke to a group of senior enlisted personnel at the Pentagon last week, the command is not trying to take control of supply management but does want to maintain visibility over where items are within the chain. “Wal-Mart’s shelves are never empty,” McQuiston said, noting that command officials recently met with the company’s executives, who, he said, “know where all their stuff is at all times.”
Iran and its proxy groups across the Middle East remain a threat to American troops in the region despite being weakened by conflicts on multiple fronts over the past few years, the nominee to run U.S. Central Command said June 24.