Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Brandon Banzhaf | Soldiers with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st...... read more read more
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FORT HOOD, Texas – Some tracks are designed to propel tanks rapidly through the battlefield while others lay motionless on the ground awaiting locomotives.
For the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, both types of tracks played an important role in moving cargo – worth an estimated $80 million – from Fort Carson, Colorado, to Fort Hood, Texas.
The 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, received 29 M1A2 Abrams tanks shipped from more than 800 miles by railcar Sept. 26.
“The battalion left 29 tanks in Korea and we received 29 to replace them,” said Capt. Steve Naser, commander of the 1-12 Cav. rear detachment and a native of Raleigh, North Carolina. He said the battalion will have mission ready tanks for training when it redeploys this month from Korea.
The 1-12 CAV is in the process of returning to Fort Hood after the successful completion of a nine-month-long tour in South Korea. The battalion was assigned to the1st Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division while on the peninsula as a Combined Arms Battalion, which is designed to be near self-sustaining on the modern battlefield.
In preparation for returning to Fort Hood, the battalion ensured that the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd BCT, which is the unit replacing 1-12 CAV in Korea, would arrive to equipment that works.
“They spent a lot of time getting their tanks fully mission capable and preparing them to a condition as if they are brand new,” said Nasser of the equipment the 1-12 CAV is leaving in Korea for the follow-on rotational unit.
The day began with more than 50 Soldiers wearing Army Combat Helmets, eye protection, reflective belts and gloves, and listening to a worker from the Railroad Operations Center tell them the do’s and don’ts of downloading equipment from the railcars.
Soldiers with safety measures fresh in their minds divided into teams and approached the railcars carrying the newly arrived armored war machines.
“First, they get the Abrams off the railcars and stage them,” said Naser. “We have licensed drivers ready to move the tanks to our motorpool.”
Leaders instructed the tank drivers to follow designated tank trails, or dirt roads, while heading to their destination. Road guards were staged at every intersection along the trails to provide safety for civilian traffic and expedite the convoy.
“We have about 50 people in the rear detachment,” said 1st Lt. Corey Carmack, who hails from nearby Copperas Cove, Texas, and serves as the 1-12 CAV rear detachment executive officer. “We received help from other battalions.”
Four sister battalions worked together to ensure 1-12 CAV’s equipment was accounted for and secured.
“The use of the railroad played a key part in allowing us to safely and securely move our equipment from Fort Carson to Fort Hood,” said Naser. “The staff ensured that the equipment arrived at its destination in the same condition it left and did so in a timely manner.”
The decision to transfer this equipment from Fort Carson to Fort Hood saved the Army an estimated $85 million, according to Sgt. 1st Class Bruce Chim, 3rd BCT property book noncommissioned officer in charge.
| Date Taken: | 10.03.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 10.03.2014 21:17 |
| Story ID: | 144273 |
| Location: | FORT HOOD, TX, US |
| Hometown: | COPPERAS COVE, TX, US |
| Hometown: | RALEIGH, NC, US |
| Web Views: | 131 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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