Military traffic command consolidates headquarters offices

The Military Traffic Management Command began the latest phase of its reorganization plan last week when the organization's Fort Eustis, Va., location officially assumed a more central role in the agency's operations. Fort Eustis, which previously served as the agency's deployment support command, has become its operations center. The move consolidates the agency's headquarters offices in Alexandria, Va., and Fort Eustis into one organizational unit and is the latest step in a four-year plan to make the agency more efficient, agency spokesman John Randt said. MTMC is responsible for managing all military deployments and runs operations at 24 ports around the world. "We service $2.2 billion in contracts every year for the [Defense Department]. When trucks, trains, barges, ocean carriers or ships move, we're the ones that plan, organize, orchestrate and synchronize it. We are in a self-directed fashion saying we want to be more efficient, we want to be more effective," Randt explained. The headquarters operations staff, now split between Alexandria, Va., and Fort Eustis, will eventually relocate to Fort Eustis, and about 250 civilian and military personnel positions will be eliminated, Randt said. During the transition, employees will compete for jobs that are now performed in both locations. Employees affected by the reorganization will be eligible for training to qualify for other jobs within MTMC. Randt said no employee would be adversely affected by the downsizing before June 30, 2003. The consolidation has been accelerated because of the Sept. 11 attacks, said Army Brig. Gen. Barbara Doornink, deputy commander and director of operations at Fort Eustis. "It has propelled us at a rate of speed we could not have imagined," she said. "It is a challenge that we cannot afford not to meet." The Army officially approved MTMC's reorganization in June, according to Randt. Shortly after, MTMC consolidated supply, finance and personnel positions at its Alexandria headquarters, trimming about 200 jobs.