The big retrograde The big retrograde
BY STEVE GEARY, EDITOR AT LARGE
DEFENSE LOGISTICS
AT THE START OF THE COLD WAR IN 1948, THE SOVIET UNION BLOCKED
access to rail, road, and canal traffic to the sectors of Berlin controlled by the Allies.
In response, the air forces of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, and South Africa began delivering supplies to the city by air. After nearly a year
and 200,000 flights, the Soviets gave up. The Berlin airlift had worked. It remains one of
the most notable achievements of U.S. policy in that period—a triumph made possible
by an enormous and well-coordinated logistics operation.
Now, at the end of a very different war, the U.S. and its allies are undertaking an
even greater logistics effort. After more than a decade of moving goods and people into
Afghanistan, the military has only a few months to move things out to meet a year-end
deadline set by the president. When the operation is complete, it will have been the single
largest logistics effort, military or otherwise, in history. According to Alan Estevez, the
most senior logistics official at the Pentagon, “Afghanistan is a logistician’s nightmare.”
But in an interview with Bloomberg, he also expressed excitement about the challenge,
calling it a dream.
As for the scope of the endeavor, last April, The Economist estimated the military had
to move out “as many as 28,000 vehicles and 40,000 shipping containers of equipment.
In military jargon, the whole action is ‘the retrograde.’ Shifting that much kit, with an
estimated value of $30 billion, is daunting enough. The retrograde itself will cost as much
as $6 billion and involve about 29,000 personnel, for the American part alone …”
specialreport
The Pentagon is in the
midst of the largest
reverse logistics
operation in history—
the return of enormous
amounts of military
equipment and goods
from Afghanistan.
