Army's top deployers receives chief's excellence award

"Today's enemy lives on battlefields in the darkest corners of our world, and that require an ability to rapidly deploy to remote, under developed and harsh locations with very little notice; said LTG Christianson,.. "Over the past two years, nine out of 10 of our active divisions have rotated to Iraq or to Afghanistan, and over 50 percent of our Reserve Component Soldiers have been activated in support of current operations."

LTG Christianson, Deputy Chief of Staff of Logistics, G-4; and Keynote Speaker, presented 23 awards at the Army's 2004 Deployment Excellence Award Ceremony held June 22, at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center in Washington, D.C., "Deployment excellence is measured in a variety of ways including accurate deployment data and training, equipment preparation, and organization and innovation and excellence in support to deploying units", said LTG Christianson, "A unit's ability to deploy is a critical measure of readiness, and is central to the ability of our Army to accomplish its mission".

The Army Chief of Staff established the Deployment Excellence Award Program in 2000 to recognize Active, Reserve and National Guard units and installations for outstanding deployment accomplishments.

The DEA program is open to any unit or installation that has deployed or supported a training or contingency deployment during the competition year (Dec. 1-Nov. 30). Units and installations can participate in the following categories:

* Large unit (battalion and above)

* Small unit (company and below)

* Supporting unit

* Installation

* Operational Deployment

Eligible units and installations participating in one of the first four categories, submit self-nomination packets to their major command. The MACOMs then forward their top unit packet selections to an Army-level evaluation board and that board determines semi-finalists within each category.

A team of deployment specialists then visits those selected units and/or installations, validates their deployment practices, and determines the best in each DEA category. Each unit's scores (board and site validation visit) are then combined and then sent to DA G4 for approval and announcement of the winners.

The operational deployment category (introduced in 2003) involves units (Active, Reserve, and National Guard) that have to deploy in support of operational missions like the war on terrorism, peacekeeping, rotations and humanitarian relief.

* MACOMs nominate specific deploying units based on their history of deployment excellence and a team from the Deployment Process Modernization Office observes and scores the deployment (preparation and submission of deployment data, included).

* Units can contend for either the large unit (battalion and above) or small unit (company and below) award

* Submission of nomination packets is not required and the unit is not required to do anything other than deploy.

The 2004 DEA recipients are:

Operational Deployment Large Unit

Winner: 2nd Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas

Operational Deployment Small Unit

Winner: Charlie Company, 121st Signal Battalion, 1st Infantry Division, Kitzingen, Germany

Operational Deployment Small Unit

Winner: Bravo Company, 65th Engineer Battalion, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii

Active Large Unit

Winner: 53rd Movement Control Battalion (EAC), Fort McPherson, Georgia

Runner-up: 11th Signal Brigade, Fort Huachuca, Ariz.

Active Small Unit

Winner: Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 7th Transportation Group, Fort Eustis, Va.

Runner-up: 469th Transportation Detachment, 24th Transportation Battalion, Fort Eustis, Va.

Active Support Unit

Winner: 842nd Transportation Battalion, Beaumont, Texas

Runner-up: 831st Transportation Battalion, Port of Salalah, Oman

All Army Installation

Winner: Fort Stewart, Ga.

Runner-up: Fort Bliss, Texas

National Guard Large Unit

Winner: 2nd Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, Lynchburg, Virginia

Runner-up: 1st Battalion, 162nd Infantry Regiment, Forest Grove, Ore.

National Guard Small Unit

Winner: 82nd Rear Operations Center, Lake Oswego, Ore.

Runner-up: Company B, 52nd Engineer Battalion, Lake Oswego, Ore.

National Guard Support Unit

Winner: 1067th Transportation Company, Phoenixville, Pa.

Runner-up: Florida State Area Command

Army Reserve Large Unit

Winner: 1192nd Transportation Terminal Brigade, New Orleans, La.

Runner-up: 1394th Deployment Support Brigade, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Army Reserve Small Unit

Winner: Headquarters and Headquarters Company, United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command, Fort Bragg, N.C.

Runner-up: 1190th Deployment Support Brigade, Baton Rouge, La.

Army Reserve Support Unit

Winner: 2125th Garrison Support Unit, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.

Runner-up: 307th Quartermaster Battalion, Salt Lake City, Utah

2005 DEA Key dates:

Competition period--Dec. 1, 2003 to 30 Nov. 30, 2004

DEA Operational on-site visits Feb. 1, 2004-Feb. 9, 2005

MACOM nominations to DEA board--Jan. 31, 2005

DEA board convenes--Feb. 14 to 25, 2005

Semifinalist List Forwarded to DA--March 8, 2005

DA releases message announcing Semifinalist March 11, 2005

DEA Validation teams visit--March 15 to April 15, 2005

Winners list forwarded to DA--19 April 19, 2005

DA releases message announcing winners--April 22, 2005

Awards Presentation Ceremony--June 1, 2005

For additional information, visit the Deployment Process Modernization Office web page (http:// www.deploy.eustis.army.mil/DEA/ default.htm) to download or to view the awards evaluation criteria, checklists, and sample nomination packets.

COPYRIGHT 2004 U.S. Army Signal Center
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group