On 31 December 1986 Deputy Secretary of Defense William H. Taft IV (February 1984 to April 1989) approved a Joint Chiefs of Staff recommendation to unify Military Airlift Command (now Air Mobility Command), Military Traffic Management Command (now Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command), and Military Sealift Command under a unified transportation command with headquarters at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. In addition, the Joint Deployment Agency, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, would be absorbed by the new command. Furthermore, Commander in Chief, Military Airlift Command, would also serve as the commander in chief of the unified transportation command. Finally, on 18 April 1987 President Ronald Reagan ordered the Secretary of Defense to establish a unified transportation command, a directive made possible in part by the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, which revoked a law prohibiting consolidation of military transportation functions. The purpose was to provide global, air, land, and sea transportation to meet national security needs.
