LSA Brenham, at your service: Logistics site serves Hurricane Harvey relief, recovery teams

Photo By Sgt. Scott Wolfe | A Texas National Guard Soldier, Spc. Diana Herrera, with the 1836th Transportation Company out of El Paso, fuels a HMMWV arriving at Logistical Staging Area Brenham, an hour west of Houston. LSA Brenham acts as a military rest stop with food, cots, latrines and fuel for units processing in and out of the Hurricane Harvey affected areas.  

BRENHAM, TX, UNITED STATES

09.09.2017

Story by Sgt. Scott Wolfe 

128th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

Texas National Guard hurricane response and recovery teams are hard at work along Texas’ Gulf Coast. Many of these efforts trace their way through a military rest and refuel station in Brenham, Texas.
Logistics Support Area (LSA) Brenham is set up at the Brenham Fire Department Training Center and is the gateway for much of the support rolling into the afflicted region.
When Texas Army National Guard units, and follow-on elements from other states, received activation orders, they were first directed to LSA Brenham. There, they received their final orders prior to moving on to their designated areas of operation.
The officer in charge of LSA Brenham, Maj. Luke Reynard, says the initial influx of Soldiers and vehicles was chaotic.
“In the beginning, this place was pretty hectic,” he said. “Units were all excited about getting in and getting to work.”
Reynard explained that the military rest stop has seen to the needs of over 1,000 Soldiers and more than 300 vehicles. He said Soldiers from the 112th Field Service Quartermaster Company, based out of Corsicana, Texas, ensure food, latrines, shower facilities and temporary sleeping arrangements are available for Soldiers, and the 1836th Transportation Company, based in El Paso, has a vehicle contact and recovery team and fuelers on site to see to the vehicles’ needs.
Staff Sgt. Ruben Campos, a vehicle recovery team leader with the 1836th, assists with fueling operations now that the rush to get out to the affected areas has died down. The 1836th fuelers were previously staged in Huntsville, Texas. Between there and Brenham, they have dispensed over 15,500 gallons of fuel.
“I feel a little under used at this point,” Campos said, explaining why he is helping the fuelers. “I’ve only had to recover nine vehicles.”
The activation order for Texas National Guard units was not unexpected, but still disruptive. Reynard was in Colorado running the Breckenridge Spartan Race with his wife. In anticipation of the coming order, Campos came into the armory on his day off to get ahead of the ensuing frenzy.
The first sergeant for the 112th, 1st Sgt. George Salazar, was helping his daughter enroll in college when he got the call to report.
“We knew it was coming,” he said. “That’s what the National Guard does. It gets called up for natural disasters.”
Now that Guard efforts have transitioned from rescue to recovery, units are retracing their routes from the Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange recovery areas to LSA Brenham before returning to their respective home stations.
When the first convoy of the 156th Brigade Engineer Battalion rolled into the LSA, the Soldiers manning the logistics area hurried to service the trucks lining up for fuel and direct them into the vehicle staging area.
“We’ve done a good job here,” said Salazar. “It’s been a good mission. Now we just need to get our people home safe so we can rest and reset for the next natural disaster.”

• Date Taken: 09.09.2017
• Date Posted: 09.10.2017 21:38
• Story ID: 247696
• Location: BRENHAM, TX, US