13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary)

Courtesy Story

CAMP TAJI, Iraq – The 10th Sustainment Brigade ended their historic one-year tour of duty during Operation Iraqi Freedom 09-11 today as they transferred authority to the 96th Sustainment Brigade from Salt Lake City.

The brigade, which departed Fort Drum, N.Y., in November 2008, was stationed at Camp Taji in support of the Multi-National Division – Baghdad and Multi-National Forces-West, handling sustainment support for more than 140,000 Soldiers, Marines and civilians operating in a battle-space equal to 1/3 of the country of Iraq.

Col. Mark E. Drake, commander, 10th SBDE and St. Paul, Minn., native, handed over sustainment responsibility of four combat sustainment support battalions and one sustainment brigade troops battalion to Layton, Utah, native, Col. C.J. Read, commander, 96th SBDE.

"The mission we transfer today would be better described as a privilege," said Drake. "Our objective has always been to provide responsible and reliable sustainment. It has been an honor to contribute to such a worthy endeavor."

Drake added that any success his Muleskinner's enjoyed was a direct result of great leaders of the nine battalions and more than 8.600 Soldiers who were a part of the task organization over the past 12 months.

"I will not bore you with the statistics," remarked Drake, "but I will tell you that the Muleskinner Soldiers have issued tons of food; supplied hundreds of thousands of cases of bottled water; pumped millions of gallons of fuel; managed and issued tons of ammunition; fixed a lot of equipment; moved a lot of stuff and drove their butts off – over 3.5 million miles."

The Muleskinners leave behind a legacy of unequalled sustainment support in the Iraqi theater of operations, said Drake. To his Soldiers he said, "All your efforts focused on the single objective to support and sustain the customer, and you did that magnificently."

The Task Force Muleskinners are set to return to Fort Drum soon.

This is the brigade's first deployment to Iraq, following deployments as the 10th Division Support Command in Florida for Hurricane Andrew Relief Operations in 1992. In December of that year, they deployed again to Somalia in support of Operation Restore Hope. In September 1994, the 10th DISCOM deployed to Haiti to support humanitarian operations as part of Operation Uphold Democracy.

In August 1999, elements of the 10th DISCOM deployed to the Balkans for peacekeeping operations as part of Task Force Eagle in Bosnia. In November 2001, elements again deployed to Kosovo in support of Task Force Falcon.

In 2001, elements of the 10th DISCOM deployed to Uzbekistan in support of the Global War on Terrorism. In August 2003, the DISCOM headquarters deployed to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom IV.

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