Keeping up the pace

WHILE all Americans can take immense pride in the success of the recent worldwide movement of the nation's military might, the Soldiers of the Army Reserve's 1192nd Transportation Terminal Brigade have a much more personal interest--they've played a major role in the operation's resounding success.

Based in New Orleans, La., the unit specializes in getting vital equipment to and from ports and on and off the huge cargo ships that form the basis of the nation's military sealift capability.

It's a job at which the 1192nd has excelled. Since being called to active duty in January 2003 the 1192nd has worked at 15 ports across the country. As of mid-April the unit had discharged or loaded 158 ships carrying a total of more than 19 million square feet of cargo. The 1192nd has also loaded or discharged almost 20,000 commercial trucks and more than 26,000 rail cars.

Nor is the job over for the 1192nd. At the time of Soldiers' visit, unit members were unloading the large sealift ship USNS Sisler at the port of Jacksonville, Fla., while simultaneously preparing to move on to a new mission in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Called to Duty

Like many National Guard and Reserve units, the 1192nd was called to active duty as war with Iraq loomed early in 2003, said LTC Harold Sams, commander of the brigade's Headquarters and HQs, Detachment.

"The unit was brought onto active duty for annual training in January 2003 and was formally mobilized in March 2003," he said. "Because we knew we were going to be called up, we started preparing for mobilization back in March 2002. When the time actually came we moved through the mobilization station very quickly and were able to get right to the job."

And that first job was a huge one, said COL Maynard Sanders, the 1192nd's commander.

"We deployed to Corpus Christi, where we were tasked with moving the 4th Infantry Division to Kuwait. The war couldn't start until the division arrived in theater, so there was a lot of pressure on us to step up and get the job done," Sanders said.

"When the 4th Inf. Div. commander told us, 'We're in your hands,' we took it seriously. We knew these Soldiers were going right into combat, and we wanted them to have everything they needed for that mission. And that's exactly what we gave them," he said.

A Nationwide Mission

Even as it was embarking the 4th Inf. Div., the 1192nd was being tasked with similar missions at ports throughout the country, Sams said.

"Our area of responsibility shifted with the needs of the Army, with missions at ports on both coasts and the Gulf of Mexico," he said. "Since our total manning is only about 100 people, we handled the mission by forming teams of 15 to 20 Soldiers to supervise operations at each port."

Corpus Christi and Beaumont, Texas, have been the unit's busiest assignments thus far--a total of some 38 ships and nearly 24,000 pieces of equipment at the former and, augmenting the 842nd Trans. Battalion, 34 ships and 21,000 pieces of equipment at the latter. In Jacksonville the 1192nd has loaded or discharged 28 ships and handled some 14,000 pieces of equipment. Other ports at which the unit has worked include Charleston, S.C.; Wilmington, N.C.; Savannah, Ga.; Long Beach and San Diego, Calif.; Philadelphia, Pa.; Norfolk, Va.; and Tacoma, Wash.

"We sent teams all over the country, and some of the teams were headed by E-4s instead of E-7s," Sanders said. "These kids are just amazing, and they do whatever it takes to get the job done."

Most of the unit's operations at the various ports have been joint efforts, said MAJ Douglas Athey, the 1192nd's operations officer. The Navy's Military Sealift Command owns and operates the ships: the Marine Corps often provides personnel when a particular ship is carrying Marine equipment; and the Coast Guard provides security both ashore and afloat. Added to that mix, Athey said, are National Guard Soldiers from Puerto Rico who provide security aboard the ships, local law-enforcement agencies in each city, as well as civilian stevedores, truckers and railway workers.

Every time the unit goes into a different port it has to first do an assessment, Athey said. The Soldiers look at the port's facilities, organization and labor force.

One of the challenges the 1192nd faces is the differing condition of port facilities, he said. For example, some of the ports have vast areas of paved hardstand where vehicles can be efficiently massed before being loaded or after being unloaded, while the assembly arms at other ports are not paved.

"Unpaved assembly areas can present a lot of problems when you're dying to a load or unload vehicles from a ship," Athey said. "When it rains the areas turn to mud, and that complications everything.

Complications and Choreography

Whatever the complications at a particular port, the loading and unloading of a vessel always has to be a well-choreographed event. Athey said.

"It's our job to plan for everything to ensure that things run smoothly because getting the equipment where it needs to go is vital, whether it's going forward to the combat zone or back to its home installation," he said.

"The importance of planning is especially obvious when we're loading a vessel. The units identify 'force packages' that they want loaded in a certain order. For example, the first force package might be engineer equipment for crossing rivers or eliminating obstacles. The idea is that each force package is out aboard the ship in exactly the order that it will be needed when it arrives in theater, so that things roll off the ship ready to move out," Athey said.

To ensure that vehicles leave the ship in the correct order once they reach their destination, the 1192nd prepares a detailed load plan for the vessel, said MAJ Joe Woll, the officer in charge of the 1192nd's activities in Jacksonville. Resembling a builder's blueprint of each of the ship's cargo decks, the load plan shows exactly where each vehicle and piece of equipment will go.

"Each vessel has its own personality, and each loading and unloading has unique challenges," Woll said. "For example, we'll have a load plan for a specific ship but when the ship comes in, something will be different and we have to adjust to the new conditions. Some of the operations go fairly quickly, some make longer.

"When it all comes together--all the conditions are right, the planning is right and everyone is in sync--everything runs smoothly and the equipment gets where it needs to go," he said.

Jacksonville Operations

A prime example of "everything coming together" occurred in Jacksonville in late April.

The sealift ship USNS Sisler arrived at the Florida city's Blount Island marine terminal on April 29, carrying vehicles and equipment belonging to the running 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions. Forty-eight of the 1192nd's Soldiers--augmented by members of the 528 Transportation Battalion, an active-duty unit from Fort Story, Va.--were tasked to supervise the unloading of the ship, its cleaning and the loading of vehicles and equipment bound for Iraq.

The offload phase of the operation involved driving Humvees and other vehicles off the ship via its stem ramp, as well as lifting cargo containers and other vehicles off the upper decks with huge shore-side cranes. Bar-code labels attached to each vehicle and piece of equipment allowed Soldiers of the 1192nd's Cargo Documentation Section to accurately identify and track each object.

"That allows us to prioritize the shipment of vehicles and equipment," Woll said. "For example, here in Jacksonville the 82nd Airborne's materiel has priority on leaving the port, so our automated cargo tracking allows us to know every minute how much of the division's equipment has come off the ship, where it's parked and where it is in the dispatch process."

The system also allowed the 1192nd to keep the units up to date on where their equipment was, its condition and its expected arrival date at home station, Woll said.

Once off the ship the vehicles and cargo containers were subject to search and examination by U.S. Customs agents--assisted by Soldiers--to ensure that no drugs, illegal weapons or other contraband were being smuggled into the country. Department of Agriculture inspectors also checked the offloaded materiel for foreign plants, seeds or insects that might have been hitching a ride.

"If a vehicle doesn't pass the agricultural inspection, it's sent through a pressure wash to steam clean it," Woll said. "Cargo containers found to be carrying sand or dirt that might be home to potentially harmful plants or seeds have to be cleaned before they're released for shipment to the home station."

As soon as all the returning materiel was ashore, the vehicles and cargo containers waiting on the pier for shipment to Iraq began going aboard the Sisler. Soldiers scanned each item's barcode before it went up the ramp or was lifted aboard by crane, and in less than 72 hours the huge sealift vessel was ready to sail.

In all, some 1,425 vehicles and pieces of equipment and 377 cargo containers were unloaded from the Sisler during its brief stay in Jacksonville, while another 216 vehicles and pieces of equipment and 31 containers were loaded aboard. Soldiers of the 1192nd managed and supervised the entire process, displaying what their commander called "their usual professionalism."

"Here in Jacksonville--and everywhere else they've served in the past 14 months--these Soldiers have really risen to the challenge," Sanders said. "They've touched just about every piece of equipment that went to war in Iraq, and they played a pivotal role in our victory there and in our ongoing operations. I'm very proud of these Soldiers, and they can be very proud of themselves."

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