Afghanistan connection?

JayBee wrote:I doubt that containers that are being transhipped at Riga are coming from Germany. More likely they are coming direct from CONUS.

The Defense Logistics Agency ships pretty much all goods going on the Northern Route for Afghanistan (i.e. not through Pakistan) through DDDE Germersheim in Germany. See here or here. AAFES also supplies all bases in Afghanistan (and Iraq) by redistribution from its Grünstadt and Gießen facilities.

Oddly enough DDDE Germersheim still doesn't have a rail terminal. Unlike pretty much every other US depot in Germany. Despite the railway tracks passing the depot at less than 200m distance. And despite Germersheim's central station, connecting to a cargo rail track to the small port of the town, being located only half a mile from the depot.

And it's five A310 for the Luftwaffe, not nine. The MRT were rebuilt into MRTT, they don't exist side-by-side.

kato wrote: Oddly enough DDDE Germersheim still doesn't have a rail terminal. Unlike pretty much every other US depot in Germany. Despite the railway tracks passing the depot at less than 200m distance. And despite Germersheim's central station, connecting to a cargo rail track to the small port of the town, being located only half a mile from the depot.

Not surprising that Germersheim lacks direct rail access. US DOD doesn't make much use of carload (wagenladungsverkehr) rail freight in the US except to move vehicles. The DLA facility is likely the reason that Maersk contracts with ERS Railways to operate a 5-day per week Intermodal train from Maasvlakte (Rotterdam) to Germersheim.

Update: A recent article in the SDDC (Surface Deployment and Distribution Command) online publication, TRANSLOG has a short article about the U.S. Army's railway advisors to Afghanistan assigned to ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) Headquarters in Kabul.