SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii (USTCNS) --- The 836th Transportation Battalion found a way to save money, enhance safety and ensure a clean environment at Yokohama's North Dock.

The unit did this by sponsoring a Mobile Training Team from the Navy Supply Corps School in Athens, Ga. to conduct a Transportation of Hazardous Material Recertification Course at North Dock last month.

The one-week course was intense and fast-paced and included a comprehensive review of HAZMAT transportation by motor, rail, water and commercial and military air. It provided the formal training necessary for command re-qualification of personnel to certify HAZMAT shipments.

By regulation, an individual must recertify every two years after graduation from the original two-week HAZMAT Certification Course.

Since stow planning, handling and documentation of hazardous materials is an important part of the 836th's misison, the battalion must maintain a group of highly trained and capable individuals certified to handle HAZMAT shipments.

In the next six months, six of those individuals were due for recertification.

Rather than pay to send all six of them on an expensive temporary duty to attend the course, the Battalion Training section arranged for the Team to come to Yokohama. The budgeted TDY for those six individuals had been approximately $5,100.

Once the Team was confirmed for North Dock, the Battalion Training section contacted its sister battalions in Okinawa and Korea, as well as almost every other installation and Major Command in Japan, to offer the training to those agencies as well.

The 836th paid for the Team and charged a nominal fee of $30 per student for shipment of the books required to teach the course.

In all, 13 individuals from five different installations (Yokohama North Dock, Camp Zama, Sasebo, Yokota AB, and NAF Atsugi) attended the training. It was a well-rounded class that was able to pool and share its experience and expertise in HAZMAT handling.

"Hazmat is an ever-changing field, and we make it a priority to ensure our folks stay current in this area," said Tom Brewer, 836th Terminal Operations chief.

The Navy's Mobile Training Team was cost effective and the training it provided will ensure an abundant talent pool of HAZMAT certifiers for U.S. Forces in Japan for the next two years. (FROM 599th TRANSPORTATION GROUP PUBLIC AFFAIRS).