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Sometimes
when the air cargo industry
awards season rolls around,
we start thinking:
Why
isn’t there an award
for all the true-blue,
unvarnished, unsung heroes
of air cargo?
There
is certainly plenty of
recognition and (even
self-aggrandizing) advertising
extolling the virtues
of great companies and
people, and also superior
programs, all of which
are vying for air cargo
industry awards.
But
in an increasingly commercial
venture, we do wonder
where a selfless effort,
beyond award-driven individuals
and companies, can be
recognized just for the
sheer decency of saluting
a job well done?
So
rather than just gripe
about industry awards,
here begins a series celebrating
people, companies and
events in the air cargo
experience.
The
aim here is to tell stories
that touch the heart of
our global air cargo audience,
which, after all is said
and done, may be the best
award of all.
William
R. (Bill) Boesch is a
high-level executive who
has been in the transportation
and logistics industry
for almost 50 years.
He
entered the field of global
transportation and logistics
in 1965 as a graduate
student working for Seaboard
World Airlines, a pioneering
cargo carrier serving
the U.S., Europe, Africa,
and Asia.
He
held various marketing
and operations management
positions with the company
before becoming its Vice
President and Director
of Worldwide Sales in
1978.
Mr.
Boesch assumed similar
responsibilities at Flying
Tiger Line after it merged
with Seaboard in 1980.
He
joined Emery Worldwide
in 1982, a major airfreight
forwarder, aircraft operator,
and logistics provider,
as Vice President of its
International Division.
He
became Senior Vice President
and General Manager of
Emery in 1985 and Executive
Vice President and General
Manager in 1987, before
leaving the company to
become Pan American World
Airways’ Senior
Vice President of Cargo.
Mr.
Boesch assumed broader
responsibilities as Pan
Am’s Senior Vice
President for Passenger
and Cargo Operations at
the beginning of 1988,
but left later that year
to become American Airlines’
Vice-President of Cargo,
a division AMR wished
to expand.
He
became President and CEO
of the Cargo Division
in 1991 and Chairman of
the Cargo Division in
1996.
Under Bill’s direction,
American became a world
leader in the air cargo
and logistics business,
with annual revenues of
over a billion dollars.
Bill
served as CEO of DLH/DP
Global Mail in 2004, led
the company out of its
financial difficulties,
and managed the integration
with Smartmail.
He
directed the movement
of both companies’
corporate headquarters
and the branding change
to DHL Global Mail.
But
then Bill did something
a little different, taking
on a task (just recently
completed) as a transportation
advisor to the U.S. military—first
in Iraq and later Afghanistan.
His
work was not at some military
base stateside, either.
He
went and lived in both
war zones, operating in
places where he was constantly
in harm’s way, to
the point where he carried
personal weapons.
But
as with all things, Bill
Boesch, who has just recently
returned to America from
Afghanistan, is quite
self-effacing and even
matter of fact when talking
about the high adventure
of supplying the military
with a critical skill
set after a remarkable
life in air cargo.
“I
went to both Iraq and
Afghanistan because I
believed that by organizing
tribal transportation
companies we could significantly
reduce the number of American
casualties.
“The
War in Iraq was on going
in 2004 and the military
truck transportation was
taking very high hit-rates
(as high as 30 percent).
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“The
soldiers guarding the
supply trucks, which were
mostly coming out of Kuwait
and were driven by USAF
personnel or 3rd country
nations (people from India,
Pakistan, Philippines,
etc.), were hired by a
Kuwait company called
Agility and later PWC.
“Many
Iraqi people hated to
see these American goods
moving on non-Iraqi trucks
with non-Iraqi drivers
guarded by U.S. military
gun-trucks, rolling through
their villages while their
people were unemployed
and their families suffering
from lack of food, clean
water, medical attention,
and schooling.
“Many
transferred these negative
feelings toward Americans
who said they came to
liberate them.
“As
a result these convoys
were reportedly continually
attacked with IEDs, rockets,
or small arms.
“My
feeling was, how do we
explain to a U.S. family
that their sons or daughters
were killed or mutilated
guarding a shipment of
Kool-Aid soft drinks?
“The
United States Secretary
of Air Force, Mike Wynn,
asked me to study the
culture of Iraq and see
if this gave us a hint
on how to improve the
trucking operation.
“Right
away, the analysis needed
to take into consideration
that, in addition to being
Americans in a foreign
country and the challenge
of foreign language and
cultures, the complexity
was doubled by Sunnis
and Shiites fighting each
other hand to hand, which
included pulling each
other off trucks, with
beatings and killing running
rampant
“The
Sunnis also viewed the
U.S. as supporting the
Shiites after Sadaam Hussein’s
departure, which resulted
in the Sunnis in the West
and North supporting Al
Qaida.
“As
a counter the Shiites
were teaming up with Iran.
So the cultural complexities
within Iraq were extreme.
Our studies showed us
that the tribes were strong
and could protect the
trucks.
“So
my task in Iraq and later
in Afghanistan was to
reduce number of American
casualties by working
with the tribes to get
them to transport our
materials.
“I
went into Iraq as a civilian
businessman trying to
find and talk with the
top tribal sheiks, who
were mostly hidden because
of fear of being killed
by the U.S. forces.
“After
many months we penetrated
the tribes and set up
tribal companies to transport
U.S. goods in al Anbar
within the so-called ‘Triangle
of Death.’
“The
operation worked and the
trucks did not suffer
any attacks or loss of
goods.
“We
then expanded to the Shiite
area in the South and
finally to the mixed regions
in the north.
“During
the 3 years of the Iraq
Transportation System’s
operation within Iraq,
there were no attacks
on any of our operated
trucks.
“Further
the system is now credited
with taking over 300,000
U.S. soldier man/days
out of harm’s way.
“I
truly believe that many
of our soldiers came home
because of the work my
team accomplished.
“As
time goes on and peace
finally comes to this
region, the hope is that
someday, with all of the
facts on how our mission
was conducted, people
will recognize the scores
of very brave people who
risked their lives every
day.
“They
are the true heroes in
my view.
“Because
Iraq was so successful,
once again we were down
on the ground attempting
the same type of program
in Afghanistan.
“Right
away we found out that
Afghanistan is quite a
bit more culturally complex
than Iraq.
“The
tribal system was not
as strong as in Iraq,
so we had to deal with
village and tribal elders
all along the truck routes.
“We
formed a program to only
go to the most dangerous
areas in Afghanistan,
which were those areas
that the normal, military-contracted
trucks (Host Nation Trucking,
which was replaced by
National Afghan Trucking)
would not go even with
full security.
“So
to get supplies to those
areas, either air or military
convoys were used.
“Our
elder operation, Afghan
Trucking Network, put
together the elders and
started operations with
local village owner operators
in the west, then went
into the SW and connected
the two regions going
through the highly dangerous
drug smuggling regions.
Again, the systems were
successful, with the result
that ATN is credited with
taking over 16,000 U.S.
soldiers out of harm’s
way, with an on-time delivery
of goods reliability at
98 percent.
“For the moment,
expansion of this program
has been put on hold for
technical reasons so I
am back in the U.S., but
think daily of those brave
man and women fighting
an unseen enemy in the
mountains of Afghanistan.
“Looking
ahead there is no reason
why the program cannot
eventually be resumed
to the South and the highly
dangerous Eastern areas
of Afghanistan.
“The
need is great with so
many American lives at
stake.
“I
cannot ever forget the
personalities and faces
of our brave young soldiers
in these two conflict
zones, with the abiding
wish to continue to help
insure that many more
soldiers are taken out
of harm’s way so
that they might safely
come back home.
“The
realization that my experience
might help save even one
soldier’s life has
led me to believe giving
back and helping others
is in fact the best work
of my life.”
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Cultural
and sociopolitical factors
form a balancing act that
is difficult to the extreme
in the case of the Middle
East, and it would be
one thing if that were
all Bill had to deal with.
But unfortunately, sometimes
the simplest things, like
common practices for best
efficiency along the cargo
chain, become mangled
in the process.
“The
military moves long-haul
air cargo mostly through
AMC (Air Mobility Command),
which uses its organic
aircraft (C130s, C17s
and C5s). Most of the
heavy-lift cargo is moved
on these aircraft along
with palletized cargo.
“AMCs
organic lift is supplemented
with CRAF (Civil Reserve
Air Fleet) using mostly
palletized cargo on commercial
747s—in both peacetime
and during conflicts.
CRAF can take all the
committed aircraft assigned
to the program depending
on the scale of the conflict.
“Within
Iraq, cargo was carried
by a few commercial carriers
who bid daily on the movements
using mostly low-cost
Russian aircraft (An12s
or IL76s) and crews.
“The
problems that I saw with
the movement of military
cargo were low utilization
of cube and weight.
“I
can understand this happening
from time to time on hot
incoming cargo, where
it would be against the
mission to delay material
by waiting for additional
cargo to fully utilize
the cube and weight, but
I cannot understand why
this is happening with
outbound cargo during
the drawdown in both Iraq
and Afghanistan.
“The
military fully utilizes
the trucks so there must
be some reason why they
do not do the same with
aircraft.
“Many
pallets are built knee-high
and in a commercial operation,
that would never be acceptable.
“Also,
the booking and performance
systems need to be centralized
and done through one system,
as the systems in many
cases are different and
cannot synchronized with
each other. An example
is that it is difficult
to book outbound cargo
because one of the systems
does not have a code for
that.
“Operations
like AMC try to do their
best to move cargo, but
are never-the-less criticized
by the in-country operations,
which appear to have lack
of control or oversight
of the situation,”
said Mr. Boesch.
With
admiration for companies
like Emirates, it’s
no surprise that after
forty years in the business,
Bill believes innovation
technology is the key
to making cargo a better
business on the global
scale.
“There
have been many improvements.
“The
industry needs to keep
on target with its IT
systems and find ways
to be more customer friendly
and to be compensated
fairly for product; it
needs to have a top focus
on revenue per tonne mile
rather than load factor;
and it needs to work with
world governments on security
that protects both the
public and the vital air
cargo industry.”
With
his service having lasted
“five LONG years,”
Bill is finally ready
to settle a little bit
at his beach house in
Treasure Island; he’s
most looking forward to
“getting to know
my two girls again.”
We
have in our minds the
idea of what makes a good
soldier—Strength,
Efficiency, Caution, Intelligence—but
we seldom talk about the
other side of being a
soldier: Hope.
Without
Hope, you couldn’t
see the possibility for
changes, you wouldn’t
dare to make any, and
you would miss the most
important part of the
job: coming home.
It
sounds to us like Bill
is a true military patriot.
Geoffrey/Flossie
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