Logistics Seminar
The NZDF PASOLS Support Team.
In August New Zealand co-hosted the 37th Meeting Of Pacific Area Senior Officer Logistics Seminar. Mr Faser Boyd reports.
The Pacific Area Senior Officer Logistics Seminar (PASOLS) is a meeting of logisticians from a large number of nations in the Pacific/Asia region. PASOLS members meet annually to discuss common logistics problems and to develop mutually beneficial solutions. The personal contact between member nation logisticians is invaluable in building relationships and promoting understanding, which facilitates cooperation in mutual logistics support when the need arises.
This year’s meeting was co-hosted by the NZDF and USPACOM, in Christchurch from 25 to 28 August 2008. The theme of the Seminar was ‘Logistic Support to Peacekeeping Operations, with the presentations and discussions leading to the revision of appropriate sections of the PASOLS ‘Handbook of Mutual Logistics Support’.
This Handbook is being progressively developed to provide a resource for the use of nations who do not have a wide experience of coalition operations. It provides procedures, points of contact in each member defence force, and details of matters of interest such as how the United Nations finance systems work. Presentations to support the theme came from a wide range of representatives from New Zealand, Canada, Thailand, China, Vanuatu, Indonesia and the United Nations. This year’s Seminar was attended by 110 representatives from 26 countries and the United Nations, all of whom took maximum advantage of the opportunity to meet with logisticians they would otherwise never encounter. The proceedings of the meeting are on http://www.pasols.org/.