Surface Deployment and Distribution Command

Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command
Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command shoulder sleeve insignia
Active	15 February 1965 – present
Country	USA
Allegiance	Regular Army
Branch	Transportation
Type	Army Service Component Command
Part of	United States Transportation Command
Garrison/HQ	Scott Air Force Base, Illinois
Insignia
Distinctive Unit Insignia

Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) provides ocean terminal, commercial ocean liner service and traffic management services to deploy, sustain and redeploy U.S. forces on a global basis. The command is responsible for surface transportation and is the interface between DOD shippers and the commercial transportation carrier industry. This includes movement of DOD member household goods and privately owned vehicles. SDDC is the USA's largest customer to the moving industry with more than 500,000 household goods moves a year. The command also provides transportation for troops and materiel (materials) to ports of departure in the U.S. and overseas and provides SPM (Single Port Manager) functions at ports worldwide in support of the surface movement of United States Department of Defense cargo, including military terminals at Sunny Point, North Carolina, and Concord, California.

Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) traces its organizational lineage to the Army's former Office of the Chief of Transportation, established 31 July 1942. Fourteen years later, the Defense Department established a separate agency to carry out traffic management functions. On 1 May 1956, SDDCs original mandate began when the Secretary of Defense designated the Secretary of the Army as the single manager for military traffic within the United States.

On 1 July 1956, the Army established the Military Traffic Management Agency (MTMA) to carry out those single-manager functions. Originally, MTMA did not operate military ocean terminals, a function held by the U.S. Army Transportation Terminal Command (a Transportation Corps component).

The original MTMA did not feature port commands but did include five regional offices: eastern (Pittsburgh, PA), western (Oakland, CA), central (St. Louis, MO), southwestern (Dallas, TX), and southeastern (Atlanta, GA). This arrangement essentially lasted until 1965. Only the Oakland headquarters remained the same after that time. MTMA and then DTMS called the field offices "traffic regions."

MTMA lasted only five and one half years. Then, as part of his overall DOD restructuring, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara transferred the organization to the newly established Defense Supply Agency (DSA). On 1 January 1962, he re-designated MTMA as the Defense Traffic Management Service (DTMS). The United States Army Materiel Command then took over the military ocean terminals. However, DOD and congressional concerns over duplication in military logistics soon led to further reorganizations. After a detailed reexamination of the Defense Transportation System, McNamara designated the Secretary of the Army as the single manager for military traffic, land transportation, and common-user ocean terminals on 19 November 1964.