Teamwork pays off for MTMC transporters in Southwest Asia

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (USTCNS) --- Having never been in MTMC before, I was surprised at my selection to command a terminal battalion in Bahrain, Southwest Asia.

After meeting Col. Tom E. Thompson, commander, 598th Terminal Group, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, I was given that vote of confidence to "Go out and do great things!" (Thompson's battle cry!).

I arrived in beautiful Bahrain bright-eyed and bushy-tailed with no actual idea as to what I was really getting into.

After all, I was excited about getting battalion command. So I thrust myself into command unafraid with an untiring resolve to conquer the world.

Then, the world of MTMC hit me with a dose of reality. Where were my soldiers? Equipment? Where are my units? Staff? All viable questions that needed to be answered in order to have mission success in my own mind's eye. What I found was a shortage of personnel, high turnover, poor working relations and no vision or unit goals.

I always believed that a strong operational base was the first order of business to mission accomplishment. It's not the only thing, but a good place to start.

The area of operations of the 831st is vast -- covering Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates and Kenya --with 19 soldiers and civilians. (There were 13 at battalion headquarters and two each in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.) Drastic changes had to be made and I mean quickly.

By the way, I forgot to mention that I assumed command early December 98, and before I could even take a breath, all hell was breaking loose.

We went to Threatcon Charlie as Iraq reared its ugly head. Our counter to Iraqi aggression was Desert Fox. As history shows, our armed forces took out the bad guys and peace was upon us again.

The Desert Fox crisis united the battalion together. We immediately discovered what our strengths and weaknesses were. Our greatest weaknesses were the lack of personnel, organization and the assignment of duties and responsibilities. The eye of the storm is where it is most calm while the storm rages all about.

The calm of our storm came in the guise of Maj. Pete Lee and Sgt. Major Jerome Payton.

The first order of business was to give these two outstanding soldiers room to operate. I first pulled Lee over from the detachment in Saudi Arabia to serve as battalion's executive officer. Have you ever seen a battalion without a functional executive officer?

His primary mission was to stabilize administrative functions, provide continuity, institutional knowledge, run the staff and operations.

Next, I gave my senior NCO the power to orchestrate and run battalion functions as a command sergeant major should. Together, we set the battalion's vision, goals and objectives that would focus on our mission and impact future operations in support of the area of operations. These actions normalized the structure and responsibilities for all to abide by.

We saw ourselves getting organized. Relationships in and outside of the battalion improved immensely. We were becoming independent.

Confidence was growing at a tremendous rate. Personnel actually knew what their jobs and responsibilities were. Since we were so short handed, cross training was not only our saving grace -- but the norm.

Staff personnel became multi-faceted -- not by choice but by necessity. We found that with the right training and support from our higher and adjacent headquarters, we could survive and have some success. As we began to function and conduct ourselves as a battalion, our greatest challenge and accomplishments were yet to come.

It was revealed to me early on in my command that the 831st had in the past, gone into panic mode at the assignment of an operation by asking for the world. I had a vision to become a battalion that needed only minimal augmentation -- if any. How to get there was the question. All was about to change, as two more vital elements had come into play.

For a significant period, the battalion had no senior civilian and no operations officer. Help came with the arrival of Maj. Darryl Goodman and Christine Jackson. Both had a low training curve and in-depth experience and knowledge in seaport operations. They formed a nucleus for a strong operations section, but time was definitely not on our side.

Various missions and operations were rapidly appearing on our scope at an alarming rate. Missions including Harvest Falcon, Bright Star 00, Turbo Cads 00, Combat Equipment Group - SWA and Army Prepositioned Stock - 5. Support for these operations were to take place, non-stop from February - December 1999, in multiple countries -- often at the same time.

Coupled with everyday operations and issues at the battalion and the detachments, we had a monumental task. Gathering all my staff together to brainstorm, my primary concern was what's the best way to get the mission done? How much help do we need?

"None" was what my staff replied in a unified stance. After intense analysis and risk assessments, we decided we could do it all ourselves.

This was achieved by the institution of our mission matrix. Simply put, we coordinated with the 598th and the Joint Traffic Management Office in MTMC Headquarters to influence the vessels and their sailing dates that arrived in our ports.

These simple initiatives allowed us to shift personnel to each location as the vessels arrived without augmentation from an outside source. Each detachment commander developed a detailed concept of operations for each phase of the mission detailing such issues as force protection, agriculture inspections and hazardous materials. With our mission in matrix in hand, we put our master plan into effect.

With our small number of personnel, the battalion was left bare with minimal staff. On occasion, we had to adjust and maintain flexibility, but in the end, everything worked to perfection.

We discharged and uploaded thousands of pieces of break bulk cargo, containers, wheeled and tracked vehicles worth millions of dollars. We proved that we could do more with less, safely and efficiently. We had arrived!

As we all turn our attention to military and political changes taking place in the world, many changes and initiatives are being initiated throughout the whole of MTMC. One of the primary initiatives was the advent of the Battalion Evaluation Group.

Three other battalion commanders and myself were selected to streamline the future structure of terminal battalions. In our case if approved, we would plus up to about 31 personnel.

We would be independent of augmentation for routine missions, increase our depth, gain some continuity and have the ability to send deployment support teams to any location in the world.

The 831st Transportation Battalion has emerged as a force multiplier in the logistics arena in the Central Command area of operations. We are firmly in place and stand ready to serve anywhere, anytime. After all, we are at that pointy end of the spear. (FROM MILITARY TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).