DESERT SHIELD-STORM INTERVIEW

File: 102896_jun96_decls6_0059.txt
Page: 0059
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


           I-think everybody has to understand how critical that is,
           and everybody has to understand how it's supposed to work,
           and everybody has to work hard to make it work the way it's
           supposed to function. It's a very complex system. I'm not
           saying it's simple. But the matter of getting status back
           to me, for example, when I requisition something from the
           wholesale system is very important. How I reconcile what I
           have open.
                And here again it comes into play ... the critical
           importance of the functional centers in the COSCOM and the
           materiel management center, which is really the conduit
           through which all of my communications right now, under the
           current system, has to go back to the wholesale system.
           They tell me what I have requisitioned, whether it is good.
           It gets through the wholesale system. They tell me what the
           status is. They send me my status when it's been shipped
           ... vital links in my operations on a day-to-day basis.

           MAJ HONEC: Sure.


           COL BEAUCHAMP: Of course, in the breakdown of the systems
           you begin to see things like scrounging, where you're
           placing tremendous demands on the systems but those demands
           aren't being recorded. Our whole logistics system is based
           on establishing a record of what's been demanded so you'll
           know what to buy in the future. From the organizational
           level right on up to the wholesale level.

           MAJ HONEC: Yes, sir.

           COL BEAUCHAMP: So when you start going outside that system
           to buy things and you don't record those demands, it has
           enormous implications throughout the system and for long-
           term sustainment in the field.
               Theft, for example. one of the saddest things of this
nt in my view was that if you ... if you had a
           vehicle break down. And it happened to us. It happened to
           other units. You had to leave a breakdown and you had to
           park it beside the road. If you didn't leave a guard with
           it, you could come back two hours later and find it stripped
           from bumper to bumper. And it was not local nationals that
           was doing that. It was soldiers doing that. And soldiers
           doing that because they couldn't get what they needed
           through the supply system or they didn't have the confidence
           they could get it through the supply system. And the
           confidence that will support you is as important in my view
           as the support itself. If you have a soldier who is not
           confident, for example, that he can get medical support in
           case he gets he gets wounded in battle, then he is going to
           be a little more reticent about going into battle. Perhaps.
           He's going to be little more anxious about that prospect.

                                        56

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