Photo By Sgt. 1st Class E. L. Craig | Soldiers with 710th BSB conducted their expeditionary Sealift Emergency Deployment...... read more read more
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FORT POLK, La. — On Aug. 27, 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans and a large part of the United State’s Gulf Coast. The 94th Brigade Support Battalion was one of the first active component sustainment unit’s tasked to support the people of Louisiana.
On April 15, 2015, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division’s 710th Brigade Support Battalion (formerly 94th BSB) moved more than 100 Soldiers from Fort Polk, La., to the Port of Beaumont, Texas showing the Army’s ability to provide ground troop sustainment support via sea vessel, also owned by the Army.
During this three day Sealift Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercise, April 13-16, the 710th BSB simulated responding to a hurricane in New Orleans as the unit did in 2005. In a natural disaster situation, the BSB would provide Defense Support to Civilian Authorities.
A key element to the exercise scenario was using an alternate mode of transporting their sustainment vehicles and equipment to enter the affected area due to destroyed land bridges between Fort Polk and New Orleans.
The lack of land access is where the 7th Sustainment Brigade’s Gen. Frank S. Besson Jr. Logistic Support Vessel played its integral part in the exercise.
Based at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia, the Besson came to the Port of Beaumont to bring 82nd Airborne Division Soldiers to Fort Polk for their Joint Readiness Training Center Exercise. While in port, until the 82nd Soldiers’ exercise was complete, the 710th took the opportunity to train on expeditionary logistic support.
“In agreeing to support our request 7th Sustainment Brigade saved us upwards of $300,000 because we only had to pay for minor cost associated with the commercial port aspect, roughly $50,000, which is relatively cheap for a training event like this,” said Capt. Kimilie Reed, SEDRE lead action officer, 710th BSB.
The process of using sea vessels get support where it’s needed has lost its common place in the Army’s deployment process.
“Ten or twelve years ago when I was in Germany, we did the same kind of EDRE’s with barges going to Rotterdam or Bremerhaven, said Lt. Col. Charlie Fisher, commander 710th BSB. “Back then that’s the way you did EDREs… and three months later we used this same process to move our equipment to Operation Iraqi Freedom One.”
Fisher emphasized how this training is in line with the Army’s top logistic leader’s intent.
“The Army’s G-4, Lt. Gen. Gustave Perna said ‘hey you need to become more expeditionary because we’ve lost that talent’,” said Fisher. “Right now we can get on a plane, go to stay-behind equipment and do our mission, but can we literally get to a port, load a vessel and no notice deploy?”
The 710th convoyed from Fort Polk after receiving a 4:00 am alert Monday April 13, 2015, putting the SEDRE into motion. The unit conducted operations as they would for a combat deployment.
“The convoy took us approximately three hours over 107 miles,” said 1st Lt. Jeffrey Key, advanced party convoy commander. “The biggest challenge was keeping the convoy all together with the communication piece and going through the different cities.”
It took coordination to move approximately 50 military vehicles, more than 100 miles across state lines. The 710th convoys were only allowed to use certain approved roads to get from Fort Polk to the Beaumont Port.
According to the lead action officer, this type of exercise, executed in this manner usually occurs at a division level and takes a about year to coordinate, but the BSB was able to pull it together in roughly four months.
“Coordination took place across three states—Louisiana, Texas, Virginia—including roughly eight agencies one of which is our sister unit, the Louisiana National Guard’s 199th BSB and the 7th Sustainment Brigade out of Ft. Eustis, Va.,” said Reed. “We also worked with the Department of Transportation offices in Louisiana, Texas and Fort Polk.”
This was no easy task to undertake according to Capt. Levi Hazlett, commander, Headquarters Company, 710th BSB.
“This was a major operation, we took high end convoy operations onto civilian roads,” said Hazlett. “We had field feeding operations, mayor cell operations and life support, field sanitation, the port operations; we took all of that and crammed it into three days and executed very well and safely.”
The 710th BSB found an opportunity to train while saving the Army money. The BSB shared this opportunity with its sister battalion giving the Louisiana National Guard a chance to train on their skills as well, while building camaraderie between the two units.
“Lt. Col. Fisher invited the 199th to partner with him in this training to enhance our skills for our federal mission which is to mobilize and deploy the unit,” said Lt. Col. Jason Mahfouz, commander, 199th BSB. “It also has a secondary benefit of preparing us for our disaster response and our civilian support.”
As a Louisiana native Mahfouz detailed the importance of disaster response readiness.
“With emergency preparedness being at the forefront of our state mission and helping our municipal partners, this mission helps us better prepare for rapid deployment if a natural disaster were to happen in Louisiana or a partnering state so the partnership of active duty and guard is a win-win,” said Mahfouz.
Working together is a little different and in some ways easier for logistic units.
“Logistics doesn’t need unity of command, just unity of effort,” said Fisher. “It was a simple thing of calling the 199th and saying if we had a no notice alert could you get this many vehicles through this time and space to Beaumont to put them on a ship if we got called to do hurricane response and he said I have seven vehicles heading your way.”
As a logistic support mission, providing sustainment support to affected areas includes fuel, potable water, electricity and medical attention.
“I learned how to secure my field litter ambulance on to the boat while supplying medical coverage if needed,” said Spc. Eric Hamilton, medic, 710th BSB. “No one needed medical attention during the training but we kept our eyes open for anyone requiring support.”
This SEDRE mission supported a 710th BSB theme set constantly echoed by the command to their Soldiers.
“Everything we do in the 710th supports the 3R, S, T (Readiness; Resilient; Relevant; Sustain; Teamwork). As a unit I want my Soldiers to master the fundamentals as we grow adaptive leaders which enhances our ‘Readiness.’ Our Soldiers, leaders, and families grow in the face of challenges making them ‘Resilient.’ We want our Soldiers to receive effective training that is ‘Relevant.’ We ‘Sustain’ the 3rd BCT, Fort Polk community and the high standards of being a Strength Soldier. All of this creates a vibrant partnership between our supported battalions, the Patriot BCT, Fort Polk and our community partners amplifying our ‘Teamwork’ mindset,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Eddie Camp, senior enlisted leader, 710th BSB.
| Date Taken: | 04.20.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 04.20.2015 17:50 |
| Story ID: | 160618 |
| Location: | BEAUMONT, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 337 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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