Navy delivers Army equipment for U.S.-Tunisian exercise
That was the case in Bizerte, Tunisia, Jan. 8, when Military Sealift Command Europe's chartered cargo vessel MV Pella off-loaded U.S. Army equipment and supplies well ahead of the scheduled Jan. 14-25 bi-lateral U.S.-Tunisian military exercise, called Atlas Drop.
The Navy charted the Cypriot-flagged MV Pella specifically for this mission. The 6,000-ton, Danish built MV Pella, off-loaded trucks, forklifts, bulldozers, cranes, and 63 shipping containers which included medical equipment. Some containers were empty and were used as makeshift living quarters for the troops.
With some 600 U.S Army troops and U.S. Air Force personnel based in Europe, working together with paratroopers from the U.S. Army's Southern European Task Force (Airborne), Atlas Drop, an annual exercise first held in 1996, is designed to further cross-training and interoperability in airborne operations and live fire exercises.
At the end of the exercise, MSC chartered a Latvian cargo ship, MV Juris Avots, to return the equipment to Livorno, Italy. The ship arrived on Jan. 24.
"We expected it may take two days to reload the cargo, but the ship was loaded in a matter of hours, sailing out of the harbor at 6:30 p.m. the same day," said Canadian forces exchange officer to Military Sealift Command, Europe, and it's sealift operations director Lt. Cmdr. Luc Morin. Morin described the cargo loading as 'textbook' with U.S. Army soldiers and work crews from the local shipping company loading the ship and securing cargo.
The Navy often charters commercial vessels as a cost-savings measure, particularly where equipment needs to be ferried between European destinations, and frequently moves U.S. Army cargo in and out of Bosnia & Herzegovina and Kosovo.
(FROM MILITARY SEALIFT COMMAND - EUROPE)
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