Small but potent team chalks up 16 missions within 90 days
Despite the consistently sweltering heat they endure due to their Caribbean-based area of responsibility, they take it in stride.
They have to-they are in the midst of completing 16 major missions in 90 days-a fairly normal optempo for the bustling workforce.
The team is currently comprised of five military and 23 civilians, many of whom are constantly deployed according to Maj. John Lawson, the 832nd's executive officer.
"We never have a full staff available to perform our at-home missions such as booking documentation for all the cargo coming into Puerto Rico," said Lawson. "We could not complete our critical mission if we were not cross-trained to perform a multitude of jobs," he said.
According to Lt. Col. Robert Oliveras, commander of the 832nd, it's a balancing act maintaining day-to-day traffic management with a robust annual volume of 8,000 to 9,000 containers, 3,000 privately owned vehicles, and 2,000 breakbulk shipments to sustain units in Puerto Rico and 27 military groups throughout the region.
Oliveras is confident that his workforce is up to the challenge.
"These folks continue to impress me," Oliveras said. "They are always ready to volunteer. It makes me feel proud to have an absolutely dependable force ready to go anytime.
Lawson enumerated the lengthy list of current missions, starting with his own recent deployment to Colombia accompanied by Master Sgt. Zoraida Pabon, battalion non-commissioned officer in charge.
"There were so many missions happening roughly at the same time, it looked like a revolving door around here," said Lawson.
According to 21-year military veteran and Puerto Rico native Pabon, she's not home much.
"In the 14 months I have been here, I have been deployed 17 times," said Pabon. "I live out of my suitcase-I get home long enough to do the laundry, then repack and take off for the next mission.
"I thrive on doing whatever it takes to accomplish the job," declared Pabon.
In Colombia, Lawson and Pabon oversaw the documentation function of three individual cargo discharges from a Military Sealift Command-chartered vessel, the Moby III, at the Colombian ports of Cartagena, Barranquilla, and Santa Maria in support of the the Plan Columbia exercise.
Nestor Oliveras, the 832nd's Terminal Operations Division acting chief, and Helen Merriwether, a transportation intern, deployed mid-February to Trinidad to perform a port site survey in support of the Tradewinds 01 exercise.
A few days later, Carlos Benudiz, an 832nd plans and documentation officer, was sent as a one-man deployment support team to the island of St. Vincent to oversee the discharge and subsequent reload of another MSC chartered vessel, Seacor Clipper.
According to Lawson, St. Vincent, which is part of the Grenadines, is a very difficult destination to reach.
"Only small Cessnas travel there," Lawson explained. "To get to Union Island, a small island off St. Vincent where the ship discharge and uploads take place, you must take a ferry or other smaller aircraft."
Later in February, a two-person deployment support team-transportation assistant Yolanda Santiago and marine cargo specialist Sgt. 1st Class Guillermo Mosquera-deployed to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to transfer U.S. Air Force cargo onto the Barge Dona Margarita for transport to Conception, Paraguay.
"Sometimes the locales to which we are deployed offer unique challenges," said Lawson, describing the trip he and Pabon took to Colombia.
The region has had its share of problems; Lawson and Pabon took many precautions to keep themselves safe and away from harm's way.
"We blend in with the local population as best we can," said Lawson.
Pabon, who has been stationed in Japan, Korea, and Hawaii prior to joining the DSC unit, is lucky-she enjoys traveling.
"This last deployment to Colombia was most exciting," said Pabon. "We could not get our usual transportation from Barranquilla to Santa Marta and we could not get a hotel due to the carnival.
"The Colombian police offered to help us out by taking us to Santa Marta on one of their small helicopters. When it landed to pick us up, we noticed something was missing-its door. The pilot said it had just fallen off during the flight.
"I had second thoughts about riding in it, wondering what next might fall off," retold Pabon. "The pilot said it was safe and as it turned out, the 50-minute ride was beautiful.
"At first we followed the road, but then we really saw some beautiful countryside when the pilot took a recon detour to try to find his missing door."
"It's a busy place; we're definitely not sitting around waiting for something to happen," Oliveras acknowledged.
"We support the U.S. Southern Command and all the exercises in their area of responsibility-we're busy-but it's what we do." (FROM MILITARY TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT COMMAND, DEPLOYMENT SUPPORT PUBLIC AFFAIRS).
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