 My name is Colonel Carmela Scott Skellerin. I am a senior fellow assigned to New America. This past year, my research topic was Army Logistics in the Pacific. I looked at logistics in the Pacific through three lens. That's contested logistic, tyranny of logistics and modernization on equipment in the Pacific. Just looking at these three aspects logistics in the Pacific. I just believe that the Army as well as the other services can get a lot of things accomplished as we look at the challenges in the Pacific. So first, if we think about contested logistics, disunderstanding, especially looking at some of the issues that we're currently facing and that the Ukraine, looking at the importance of what's happening in the lessons learned during the Ukraine's operation. They're things that we can take away from. So I think that the Ukraine has been successful overall because of some of the things that they've done initially with the logistics operations. And so logistics has been around a long time and Army's wars can never be won because of logistics but they definitely can be lost because of logistics. So when we start talking about contested logistics, today's environment, especially in the Pacific, logistics will be contested across all domains. So what can we do today to get prepared for that operation? So when we start thinking about contested logistics, in the Army lens, we start to think, how can we position ourselves? What do we have now that we can position in the Pacific or globally across the world to ensure that we're positioned correctly to support that the particular theater of operations? So when we start thinking of those things, what comes to mind is Army pre-position equipment. So we start thinking about Army pre-position equipment. What are those equipment that we have that we can use that can bring to bear in the Pacific theater operation? That's important. Do we have the right equipment in the Pacific at the right time and can we get it to the right point of need when needed? We have our seven sustainment support brigade that have those functions, the Army watercraft associated with them. So there have been studies on the Army watercraft. So what we need to do when I say we meaning the Army, how many watercraft do we really need to sustain in the Pacific theater? How we maintain in those watercraft? Do we have enough? So I think it's worth senior leaders kind of pulling that thread a little bit and conducting a study to ensuring that we have enough watercraft and that those watercraft are actually being maintained, maintained to a level that they need to be maintained and not just hovering around 37% because at one particular time the Army watercraft fleets were, the readiness rates were dipped as low as that 37%. So we have to ensure that we are maintaining the level of our readiness for Army watercraft at a high level because we don't know when we may need those Army watercraft because when you look at modernization on the logistics side, we still have enduring equipment. So as we're modernizing and bringing new equipment online, we're still trying to maintain our enduring equipment set. So that's a challenge for some of our logisticsians out there. And as we're bringing new equipment abroad, ensuring that we have our maintainers that's trained and that they have the right tools to maintain this new equipment. Those are the key things that we have the right equipment preposition globally and this equipment is maintained and that is also exercise, meaning that this equipment is being downloaded and that it is supporting joint exercises, joint meaning, all services, allies and partners are utilizing this equipment. The more we can touch the equipment it is being utilized, it's that muscle memory. It's the people knowing and understanding what capabilities they have to bring to bear that come back to command and understanding that we have this resource that's associated with this theater that I can use. So all of that is important when I start thinking about how we sustain operations in the Pacific. When we start talking about new equipment being fielded in that theater, just ensuring that our maintainers are being trained to maintain this new equipment while at the same time maintaining the enduring fleets that we have. So that's gonna be equally as important. And so as we moved to sustainment 2030 and beyond, we have this whole predicted logistics that's on the table now. So I know our AMC commander, he's doing a great job with that CASCOM commander. They're doing great, they predicted logistics. So that's the wave of the future. I'm excited about that. I'm telling you, logistics can't win a war. We all know that, but I'm here to tell you that. Logistics, if not done correctly, can cause a defeat. So we have to pay attention to all those decisions and some of the challenges with logistics. And we have to do the things now to get ahead of these challenges and confront. Confront logistics head on and attack those things. And I know that our senior leaders are doing that. And again, I'm just proud to be a part of that. And I hope that my research and that when people kind of read the research and the paper, they can walk away with some little anecdote to say, hey, this paper kind of highlight certain things and that's the hope of this. Like I say, some of the things in my research, some of the senior leaders, some of the senior leaders are already working towards that. But I just kind of wanted to highlight my 30-something years of logistics in the Army, things that I've seen on the ground that I felt like just putting it out in the paper, hoping that senior leaders would read the paper that they can understand from my level. I kind of went through the ranks from enlisted officer to a current in the Army. So I've seen a lot of logistics. And again, hopefully this paper will kind of knight people to focus a little more on logistics and not let it be the last conversation for our conversation after we've gone through everything, just understanding that logistics is very important. And as we start talking about any type of exercise, we should always ask ourselves, hey, where's my logistics counterpart? If they're not in the room, let's pause and let's find that G4 because this is important.