DESERT SHIELD-STORM INTERVIEW

File: 102896_jun96_decls6_0029.txt
Page: 0029
Total Pages: 64

Subject: DESERT SHIELD-STORM INTERVIEW                                   

Box ID: BX001608

Unit: 101ST ID    

Parent Organization: XVIII CORPS 

Folder Title: DSS 101ST ABN DIV INTERVIEW CDR 101ST SG - C                                                    

Folder SEQ  #:         83

Document Number:          2








            DSIT-AE-103: COL Roy E. Beauchamp


            h&ve-got to have the supporting structure, which is already
            in existence doctrinally in the Army, to make it function.
                And that requires an understanding and training on the
            relationship that exists between the Army and the Air Force
            for strategic mobility; the Army and the Navy, for strategic
            sea lift; the deployed theater and the wholesale support
            base at CONUS. The depots in the United States, not only in
            the Army but also in the Defense Logistics Agency. All of
            those systems and all of those pieces had to fit together
            and come together in providing a strategic distribution
            system that moves materiel from the CONUS support base to
            the soldiers in the battlefield in the very shortest
            possible time. Because we've structured the Army now so
            that I can't carry everything that I need. I can't stock
            All the repair parts, for example, that I need to sustain me
            for a 45- or a 60-day period. We have a system in place
            that's intended to be able to provide those repair parts to
            me in a short period of time, in three weeks or so. Three
            or four weeks.
                All that has to be put together and once it gets into
            the theater, there has to be a mechanism in place in the
            theater to move it from that strategic distribution system,
            that strategic distribution stream, into the theater stream
            and into the corps stream very quickly. If the system
            constipates anyplace, then the soldier at the receiving end
            at that time suffers. That may be an infantry soldier. It
            may be an artillery soldier. It may be an armor soldier.
            It may be a logistics soldier who needs that repair part, or
            those medical supplies, or Class II and IV, whatever the
           case may be, or Class III Package to support him. We need
            to some work on that end.

            MAJ HONEC: on the Class IX shortages, to go back to that,
            do you think that the shortages we experienced in the short
            term was because the industrial base wasn't called upon to
            provide those in the very beginning, and so we didn't have
            them in the system?

            COL BEAUCHAMP: I don't have a good perspective on that. I
            think they were in the system. I feel fairly confident,
            though again, I'm speculating on that point.

            14AJ HONEC: Yes, sir.

            COL BEAUCHAMP: Most  of what we needed was in the system.
            When you start looking at our reserves, theater reserves and
            the war reserve stockage and so forth, I think the principal
            problem was distribution. That's my own view of the
            situation. I'm not looking for perfection in this regard.
            I'm not looking for 100 percent satisfaction of everything
            we need. But I'm looking.for a system that provides and

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Document 64 f:/Week-22/BX001608/DSS 101ST ABN DIV INTERVIEW CDR 101ST SG - C/desert shield-storm interview:10019616504029
Control Fields 17
File Room = jun96_declassified
File Cabinet = Week-22
Box ID = BX001608
Unit = 101ST ID
Parent Organization = XVIII CORPS
Folder Title = DSS 101ST ABN DIV INTERVIEW CDR 101ST SG - C
Folder Seq # = 83
Subject = DESERT SHIELD-STORM INTERVIEW
Document Seq # = 2
Document Date =
Scan Date =
Queued for Declassification = 01-JAN-1980
Short Term Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Long Term Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Permanent Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Non-Health Related Document = 01-JAN-1980
Declassified = 01-OCT-1996