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MTMC completes record barge movement through American heartland

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ALEXANDRIA, La. (USTCNS) --- Off they come - vehicle upon vehicle.

Ten vehicles are ashore - then scores - then hundreds ...

The Military Traffic Management Command is completing the largest National Guard deployment by barge in history - and it is happening very fast.

Some 1,173 pieces of cargo come off 65 barges at the port of Alexandria, La., on the Red River.

The date is May 7 and the Indiana Army National Guard's 76th Infantry Brigade is on its way to high-priority training at the Joint Readiness Center at nearby Fort Polk, La.

The unloading is the end of a seven-day, 800-mile plus voyage from loading points in Clarksville and Evansville, Ind., and Peoria, Ill.

The vehicles went through three river systems - the Ohio, Mississippi and Red - and 13 locks to complete the journey. Moving 24 hours a day, the barges traveled through the heartland of the country at an average speed of eight knots.

An additional 449 pieces of cargo moved to Fort Polk aboard 116 railroad cars. The twin actions moved the equipment for an entire light infantry brigade of 6,000 soldiers.

Quickly and efficiently deployed within 40 miles of its training ground, the Warfighters can now concentrate directly on training.

"We have had a great experience moving by barge," said Maj. Jim Callahan, the brigade's logistics officer.

"With barges-you drive on and you drive off," said Callahan, explaining that valuable time is not lost in shackling vehicles to rail cars and taping windows with tape.

The movement was "as close to mobilization" as you can get, said Callahan. He said the projected three days unloading was done in two days.

In all, the Indiana Army National Guard mobilized 7,400 troops for the two-week training exercise at the Joint Readiness Center.

From the Alexandria port, equipment was driven three miles to the former England Air Force Base, used as an intermediate support base.

The support base's commander, Brig. Gen. George Buskirk, is enthusiastic about MTMC transportation from Indiana to the deepest South.

"It is wonderful," said Buskirk, assistant adjutant general of Indiana. "It could not have been smoother."

"The equipment flows off the barges and goes right up the road to be staged. When our soldiers leave the intermediate support base-we go into the training play."

Among those working at the docks is Cpl. Tim Carver, of the 158th Maintenance Co., Montgomery, Ala.

Carver motions vigorously for a big truck to move off a barge and into the landing site.

"This is a smooth operation," said Carver. "It is going like clockwork."

The National Guard soldier should know. In 12 years of military service, he has served in Desert Storm, Bosnia peacekeeping and two emergency deployments for Midwestern flood damage.

The barge arrival at the Alexandria port has brought a whirl of activity and action.

In all of 1999, the port had 311 barges with 325,000 tons of cargo, said John Marzullo, the port's executive director.

Now, the 65 barges will be discharged - and loaded again in two weeks.

In two weeks, the port will have had over one-third of the barge
traffic it had in all of the past year.

"We will have 450-500 barges this year," said Marzullo.

Marzullo praised the orderly discharge conducted by the Indiana
National Guard troops.

"These are some of the best customers you can have," said Marzullo. "They are very good and very qualified."

A highpoint of the movement was the use of in-transit visibility, said Louis Fingerman, of MTMC's Deployment Support Command's CONUS Traffic Management Office, who coordinated the transportation.

"It worked very well on this mission," said Fingerman. "This was a high priority move so we worked hard to maintain visibility."

An in-transit visibility section tracked the barges on their seven-day voyage from Indiana and the 12-day voyage from Illinois.

Close phone contact was maintained with the Canal Barge Co. by a team led by Arlene Beard, a traffic management specialist in his division.

"We used phone for this move," said Fingerman. "In the future, the barge company will have a Global Position System that will allow instant access to their location."

Project manager for the move was Charles Duet, of Canal Barge Co.

"This was a textbook perfect operation," said Duet.

After winning the solicitation, it was Duet's job to schedule and synchronize the movements of the towboats and barges to have the right numbers at the right place.

Duet missed the actual loading. An Army Reservist, he was performing two weeks active duty in Kuwait. He followed the loading via e-mail from his duty station of Camp Doha, in Kuwait City.

The voyage shows the economy and safety of water transportation, said Richard Lolich, of the U.S. Maritime Administration.

"The voyage shows all the attributes of inland water transportation," said Lolich, of the office of ports and domestic shipping.

When the National Guardsmen complete their two weeks of active duty training at Fort Polk, the soldiers will bring their vehicles back to the port of Alexandria - for the return barge voyage home. (FROM MILITARY TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT COMMAND).

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