COSCOM makes long awaited transformation into 1st TSC

Photo By Staff Sgt. Jerome Bishop | Lt. Gen. R. Steven Whitcomb, Third U.S. Army commanding general, speaks during the...... read more read more

Photo By Staff Sgt. Jerome Bishop | Lt. Gen. R. Steven Whitcomb, Third U.S. Army commanding general, speaks during the activation ceremony of the 1st Sustainment Command (Theater) at Fort Bragg, N.C., April 18. . The unit, which was formerly known as the 1st Corps Support Command under XVIII Airborne Corps, now falls under Third U.S. Army and Army Forces Central Command.  see less | View Image Page

04.18.2006

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By Spc. Jerome Bishop, 1st TSC PAO

After nearly 34 years of logistical support to the XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg, the 1st Corps Support Command furled its colors during the 1st COSCOM Inactivation Ceremony Apr. 18 at Seay Field here marking the end of an era, and the birth of a new one.

Brig. Gen. Kevin A. Leonard, the 1st COSCOM commanding general, and Command Sgt. Maj. Luis Lopez, the 1st COSCOM command sergeant major, were joined by the commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps, Lt. Gen. John R. Vines for the retirement of the 1st COSCOM colors.

"The men and women of the 1st COSCOM have performed bravely," said Vines in an address to the Soldiers of the former 1st COSCOM before retiring the colors. "The 1st COSCOM has support brilliantly the policies of our nation, the strategies and operations that our military has tasked to support."

Moments after the 1st COSCOM colors were furled, Lt. Gen. Steven Whitcomb, Third U.S. Army and U.S. Army Central Command commander, joined Leonard and Lopez in unfurling colors never before seen during the activation of the 1st Sustainment Command (Theater).

The furling and unfurling of unit colors was much more than a symbol of the Army's transformation. The Soldiers of the former 1st COSCOM will be taking part in the birth of a new and unprecedented support unit.

The 1st TSC is the first theater sustainment command to exist in the active duty Army, said Col. Ferdinand Samonte, 1st TSC chief operations officer.

"There's no manual or doctrine on being a theater sustainment command," he said. "For the young Soldier, they will be at the forefront of Army change."

As the 1st TSC, logisticians of the former 1st COSCOM will no longer be supporting the XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg as it has been doing since June 1972, but will instead provide logistical oversight in a new area of responsibility.

"Our mission will be the logistics for all of the [U.S. Army Central Command theater of operations]," said Samonte. "Our responsibility will begin in the Horn of Africa all the way to Afghanistan."

The CENTCOM Theater, which falls under the control of the Third Army from Fort McPherson, Ga., includes troops stationed in Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Israel, and other Middle Eastern nations.

"We're going from several thousand Soldiers down to about 400," said Samonte.

While deployed, the Soldiers of the 1st TSC will not actually conduct logistical operations as they did when they were Soldiers of the 1st COSCOM. Their primary mission will be to supervise, observe and contribute knowledge from experience to the other logistic units deploying to the CENTCOM Theater of operations, said Samonte.

The transformation from a COSCOM into a TSC isn't only affecting the Soldiers of the unit, but also of those from other units stationed on Fort Bragg.

Units like the former 46th Corps Support Group and the Corps Distribution Command, which were once part of the 1st COSCOM but were inactivated as part of the transformation, both were key players in the support of units on Fort Bragg. Now the XVIII Airborne Corps will receive most of its logistical support from the 507th CSG, which will continue to receive leadership from the 1st TSC until it becomes an independent corps asset in October 2006.

Command Sgt. Maj. (ret.) James Washington, command sergeant major of the 507th CSG from 1992 through 1997, said he was sad to see the 1st COSCOM go away.

"I hate to see them leave," said Washington," but it's time for change due to the war situation and they're going to support the Middle East."

"The Army could have gone to [the 13th COSCOM], III Corps in Fort Hood, Texas, but they came for the 1st COSCOM instead," he added.

Other 1st COSCOM veterans came to the ceremony to witness the transformation, and shared the same bittersweet emotions.

"[The 1st COSCOM] always got the job done. I enjoyed being a part of that," said Chief Warrant Officer (ret.) Billy Flanagan, a former maintenance officer from the 189th Corps Support Battalion who served with the 1st COSCOM at the end of World War II and the Korean War. "I hate to see them go, but I want to see the transformation."

The most obvious change to the Soldiers of the 1st TSC will be that the former 1st COSCOM's airborne status will not be joining the 1st TSC after the transformation. This means the Soldiers of the 1st TSC will don the standard black beret worn by the majority of Soldiers in the Army instead of the maroon beret worn by the Soldiers of airborne units as well as the loss of the airborne tab above the what was once the 1st COSCOM patch.

"It's emotional because the [Soldiers] are switching from the maroon beret to the black beret," said Command Sgt. Maj. Joseph R. Allen, XVIII Airborne Corps and previous 1st COSCOM command sergeant major.

"A lot of our guys came up to me said 'You left because you saw this coming'," he added with a laugh, but he was still saddened by the deactivation of the 1st COSCOM and the XVIII Airborne Corps' loss.

"We're losing an asset," Allen said, "but we'll see how it goes."

"Today as we write the last few sentences in the final chapter of the history of the 1st COSCOM, we'll hear the last shout of the old, and the cry of the new," said Leonard. "It is fitting that as the 1st COSCOM takes its last bow here at Fort Bragg - it breathes life into the 1st [TSC] of the Third Army and Southeast Asia."