Transportation Personnel Services, Inc. history

The Transportation Corps’ primary function is becoming movement control, which it was created to perform during World War II. SDDC will have responsibility for sea ports of debarkation and embarkation, JLOTS, and Army watercraft, as did its predecessor, the ATS, after it was created in 1899.

During war, however, the need for military transportation habitually expanded into organizations that managed the different modes, such as wagons, boats, and railroads. [The Quartermaster, Subsistence, and Pay Departments were consolidated in 1912 to create the Quartermaster Corps.]

On 9 April 1919, the Purchase, Storage, and Traffic Division of the General Staff subsequently directed (through Supply Circular No.

The National Defense Act of 4 June 1920 placed all military transportation except rail under the Army Transportation Service as a separate service of the Quartermaster General, effective on 15 July 1920.

When the company won a contract to deliver a major local newspaper in 1921, O'Neill again renamed the business, this time to Superior Transfer.

The company's relationship with GM began in 1934 and evolved into the core of Leaseway's contract carrier trade.

Following the bombing of the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941, the United States entered its largest war ever.

In March 1942, the Army created a Transportation Division under Colonel (later Major General) Charles P. Gross in the Services of Supply.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union had established control over Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain and detonated its first atomic bomb in 1949, and Communists had seized power in China.

The first military showdown of the resulting Cold War between the Communists and the free world began when the Communists of North Korea invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950.

That same year, Brigadier General William B. Bunker convinced the Chief of Transportation, Major General Frank S. Besson, Jr., of the importance of helicopters in logistics. As a result, in May the Army approved the organization of five helicopter companies with the first, the 6th Transportation Company (Helicopter), activated in July 1952.

By the time hostilities ended on 27 July 1953, the Port of Pusan had discharged three times the cargo of all the other Korean ports combined.

The O'Neill brothers took their family business public in 1960 as Leaseway Transportation Corp., with an initial capitalization of $2.25 million.

The Vietnam War began as an adviser war, with Transportation Corps helicopter companies arriving as the first intact units as early as December 1961.

When the United States Army assumed a greater ground role in the war in the summer of 1965, Transportation units were among the first to deploy to Vietnam in order to bring in the massive buildup in troops.

Leaseway earned a spot on the New York Stock Exchange in 1966.

AHL Services, Inc. began life in 1979, when founder Frank Argenbright Jr. created it as a replacement for Argenbright Holdings Ltd.

In 1982 the firm launched a new subsidiary, Leaseway Express Inc., as a "less-than-truckload" common carrier.

However, the joint invasion of the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada in 1983 required the Armed Forces to revamp their doctrine and organization.

In 1984 the CEO announced staff cuts and a plan to sell businesses that did not achieve 16 percent return on equity.

Although Leaseway's profits jumped to more than $62 million in 1985, its stock continued to languish around the $30 mark, fueling stockholder discontent--especially among the O'Neills, who still controlled about 30 percent of the company's shares.

In April 1986, a family coalition of shareholders, led by Patrick J. and Hugh O'Neill, launched a proxy fight against Chairman McDonough.

She noted that "only one month after the ink was dry on the leveraged buyout documents (July 1987), Leaseway failed to make its initial projections."

In 1988 Gerald McDonough turned the positions of Chair and CEO over to Richard A. Damsel, a former senior vice-president for finance and administration.

In February 1990, Leaseway missed a $12.75 million interest payment on its junk bonds.

In January 1991, Leaseway stopped paying interest to its senior lenders.

To facilitate that acquisition, in March 1992 AHL had formed ADI, which it has since used as a platform for expansion in Europe.

Starting in 1993, the year when receipts first topped $100 million, the company began to build its top layer of management, and this was in place, in large part, by the middle of the decade.

Late in 1994, Damsel announced that he would be resigning from Leaseway's chair and chief executive office.

AHL has recruited all its top executives since 1995."

AHL in 1996 entered into a joint venture with British Airways whereby it would provide a variety of services at the latter's Nice, France operation, including passenger and baggage check-in.

Also in May 1997, AHL bought the access control business of USA Security Systems, Inc., a New Jersey firm, for some $2.6 million in cash.

In a 1998 listing of its top clients, AHL showed two that had been with it for 17 years, almost to the time of the company's founding: Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines.

With the start of the Global War on Terrorism in 2001, the Transportation Corps operated the airports of debarkation in Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa.