The announcement by the President of the United States on Oct. 21, 2011, to move almost all U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of 2011 elevated planning and heightened sense of time awareness that the U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) needed in the assessment, disposition, and movement of equipment, vehicles and containers out of Iraq.As the Army’s lead materiel integrator, AMC provides strategic-level integration, collaboration and coordination in accomplishing rapid equipment retrograde and the enabling of repair, redistribution, and life-cycle management of equipment to support the Army Force Generation process.AMCs drawdown efforts can be categorized as gaining early asset visibility and accountability, conducting forward materiel triage to determine serviceability, and enhancing velocity of movement to end destination.AMC is uniquely positioned, in authority and capability, to facilitate the drawdown mission through leveraging the diverse planning and logistical skill sets within the Responsible Reset Task Force (R2TF).R2TF has been AMCs forward-deployed presence in support of Army Central Command since June 2009, and has AMC-wide reach back to provide the best support to United States Army Central (ARCENT) and the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) Joint Force.The sheer size of the Iraq equipment drawdown and reset cannot be understated. While the mission is daunting, it is also achievable.Imagine closing down the city of Annapolis, Md., two and a half times.The troop movement is akin to evacuating the entire population of Quincy, Mass., and moving them to Washington, D.C.If you put all the trucks in a single convoy it would stretch from El Paso, Texas, to D.C. If we stacked every container left in Iraq when the president issued his guidance – the stack would be 51 miles high – nine times the height of Mount Everest.Now do all that in 71 days.To meet the challenge, AMC forward positioned its deputy commanding general to:Reinforce strategic integration with Department of Army, Defense Logistics Agency, U.S. Transportation Command, Joint Staff, ARCENT, CENTCOM, U.S. Forces – Iraq, Office of Security Cooperation – Iraq, Department of State, U.S. Forces – Afghanistan, Theater Support Command and AMC.Synchronize AMC support to Operation New Dawn transition to Department of State.Synchronize deployed AMC partners and senior commander with AMC, and provide strategic oversight for Operation New Dawn’s drawdown, Operation Enduring Freedom’s surge recovery and future mission needs and planning.The R2TF also underwent targeted personnel changes to transition from a theater sustainment and support role to that of drawdown and subsequent retrograde and materiel transport from Kuwait and Afghanistan.To describe efforts in Iraq as a drawdown minimizes this vast mission.It is an important and complex task to manage the materiel end-to-end process, to acquire visibility, accountability, and condition of equipment in theater, to understand the Army equipment requirements, and to manage the industry base capability to reset and feed the ARFORGEN process.It is AMC's ability to synchronize these pieces that will reset the future Army as a decisive force. (Department of the Army)