DC Velocity - September 2011

inbound

Come sail away

Have you ever contemplated leaving the pressures of work and daily life behind and escaping to a peaceful, quiet place? Three years ago, Italian filmmaker Lorenzo Fonda did just that—by sailing across the ocean on a container ship.

In 2008, Fonda traveled from Los Angeles to Shanghai on the M.V. Portland Senator, a 4,545-TEU container ship chartered by Hanjin Shipping. He brought along a video camera and later produced a 10-minute film titled “ 10 Things I Have Learned About the Sea.” It’s worth making the time to watch the video and consider Fonda’s piquant observations about the ocean. The views of endless expanses of waves and water in all kinds of weather, set to a New Age soundtrack, are soothing. You can feel the ship’s slow, almost hypnotic progress across the Pacific. And the scenes of the ship’s nighttime departure from Los Angeles and sunrise arrival at Shanghai are both beautiful and mysterious.

To watch the film, go to www.cerberoleso.it/videos/personal/ten-things-i-have-learned-about-the-sea. We recommend pouring yourself a cup of herbal tea, turning off your e-mail, and viewing the film full-screen to get the full therapeutic effect. ;

Picking and packing
for a good cause
U.S. Army salutes heroic logisticians

PHOTO COURTES Y OF THE U. S. ARM Y

If you work in the private sector, you might not think the words “courageous” and “logisticians” belong in the same sentence. But if you’re in military logistics, then you undoubtedly see the connection.

The top brass at the Pentagon see it, too. That’s why in July, the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army unveiled a memorial at the military headquarters that honors logisticians who have been awarded the Medal of Honor since World War II. The medal, which recognizes unusual courage and heroism, has been awarded to six logisticians since that war.

The stories of the six logisticians are remarkable indeed. Just one example: During the Korean War, Lt. Col. John U.D. Page of the 52d Transportation Truck Battalion chose to stay and assist an isolated signal station even though his assignment had ended. In just two weeks in the winter of 1950, Page rescued his driver by breaking up an ambush; created a tactical unit using soldiers trapped with a Marine unit; exposed himself to enemy fire so casualties could be evacuated; and twice manned a machine gun on the rear deck of a tank and drove the enemy back. Turning down a second opportunity to reach safety, Page returned to assist a departing convoy. When he charged the enemy ahead of the convoy, he was mortally wounded during hand-to-hand combat.

“I feel very deeply about the heroics that these logisticians demonstrated,”
said Lt. Gen. Mitchell H. Stevenson, the deputy chief of staff, G- 4, in his
address at the unveiling of the memorial. “I think it is important that we tell
their story of service and sacrifice.”
To read all six stories, go to www.army.mil/article/61504. ;

Although concerned citizens and corporations often step up to donate supplies and labor to help those in need, their efforts may be for naught without a place to store the supplies and pack up the donations.

That’s not a problem in the Rock Hill, S.C., area. Thanks to a heads-up from Hänel Storage Systems, we recently learned that the warehouse operated by the Rock Hill school district’s Applied Technology Center is helping to solve that problem for a local food distribution initiative. That initiative, called “Back the Pack,” was launched by a teacher who recognized that many students who received subsidized meals were going hungry on weekends. The program sends more than 500 bags per week of nonperishable food items home with students on Fridays. Students at the Applied Technology Center and other volunteers store, pick, and pack food for the program at the warehouse, which is part of the center’s Transportation, Distribution & Logistics training program.

The center’s warehouse is supported by the trade group the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA), and many of its members (including Hänel) have donated equipment such as shelving and storage bins, warehouse management software, and training services to the facility. The equipment and software are used to introduce students to the field of warehousing and material handling.

To learn more about the program and see volunteers at work in the center’s warehouse, watch the video on MSNBC’s website at http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26 184891/vp/42587983#42587983. ;