Military Cargo to Return to Philadelphia

After a two-year hiatus, vessels carrying military equipment are expected to call the Port of Philadelphia’s Packer Avenue multi-purpose terminal beginning in September.

Twenty-five vessels carrying military cargo called the terminal between 2003 and 2007. Since then, however, there has been a profound lull. The port never lost its designation as a strategic military port but the cargo stopped arriving, even as similar traffic at South Atlantic and Gulf ports such as Charleston, Jacksonville, Beaumont and Corpus Christi held on or increased.

Why? The military doesn’t explain its decisions, said Leo Holt, president of Holt Logistics, which operates the Packer Avenue Terminal at the Port of Philadelphia. “There are 13 strategic military ports designated throughout the country, and MARAD and the Department of Defense use them as they see fit.”

The military did not use another northeastern port, however, and moving northeastern military cargo through south Atlantic ports strikes some as badly reasoned at best. “We have deployed Fort Drum 25 times, and they were talking about moving to Charleston to deploy (Fort Drum). It doesn’t make sense,” said Susan Howland, president of the Howland Group Inc. and consultant to the Delaware River Maritime Enterprise Council.

Personnel changes at DOD and persuasive lobbying from other ports could have helped push cargo away from Philadelphia, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Whatever the reason, port interests and Pennsylvania politicians have worked hard to bring their region’s share of military cargo back to Philadelphia, according to Holt and the newspaper. U.S. Rep. Robert A. Brady told the newspaper he wrote letters, held meetings and “grabbed” anyone who came near the Armed Services committee to make his point, apparently successfully.

The first military ship to call Philadelphia in two years will arrive in September to take equipment from nearby Fort Drum, N.Y., to either Afghanistan or Iraq, the second will discharge equipment from Iraq for the Pennsylvania Army National Guard and the third will be bringing damaged equipment to be repaired at Fort Drum, according to the newspaper.

Brady said each ship would load and unload roll-on, roll-off cargo such as trucks, humvees, bulldozers and helicopters as well as many containers, the paper reported.