Photo Essay: Fort McCoy CIF, 86th Training Division partner to improve armor issuing process for CSTX

Photo By Scott Sturkol | Ashley Birks with the Central Issue Facility (CIF helps prepare body armor for shipment June 6, 2018, at the CIF at Fort McCoy, Wis. The Fort McCoy CIF and 86th Training Division, with support of the contractors, worked together to do something that’s never been done before between the organizations — combine an entire issue of 8,000 sets of body armor vests and plates on one receipt. The organizations accomplished that feat June 9-11, 2018, when $16.9 million of personal armor sets were issued for Combat Support Training Exercise 86-18-04. (U.S. Army Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.)  

FORT MCCOY, WI, UNITED STATES

06.21.2018

Story by Scott Sturkol                                                                                        

Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office           

Contractors with Veterans Range Solutions, Soldiers with the 86th Training Division, and workers with the Central Issue Facility (CIF) worked to prepare body armor for shipment June 6, 2018, at the CIF at Fort McCoy, Wis.

The Fort McCoy CIF and 86th, with support of the contractors, worked together to do something that’s never been done before between the organizations — combine an entire issue of 8,000 sets of body armor vests and plates on one receipt.

The organizations accomplished that feat June 9-11, 2018, when $16.9 million of personal armor sets were issued for Combat Support Training Exercise 86-18-04.

“This is the largest hand receipt we’ve ever done since I’ve been here,” said CIF Property Book Officer Thomas Lovgren. “This really was a team effort of many of us working together to have this large issue completed. This effort saves on time and the amount of bulk issues we would have completed for the exercise.”

Sgt. 1st Class Cassandra Hill, property book officer with the 86th, drafted a plan and method to have the items issued over a three-day period over the start of the exercise through the exercise’s Reception, Staging, Onward Movement, and Integration (RSOI) area at Improved Tactical Training Base Freedom on Fort McCoy’s South Post.

“This is a large bulk issue and we wanted to streamline this to allow for easier issuing, so (the 86th) signed for it at the CIF and then we brought it to the RSOI, where it is issued to each Soldier (in the exercise),” Hill said.

Getting the thousands of pieces of armor moved from the CIF to the RSOI area required 11 semi tractor-trailer loads with 492 pallets over three days. Twenty-plus contractors with Veterans Range Solutions and numerous Soldiers with the 86th helped prepare the armor for shipment to ITTB Freedom and issue the armor at the RSOI.

“(Sgt. 1st Class) Hill really put together a great plan to do this,” Lovgren said. “We all discussed this in a meeting nearly two months prior to the exercise. As we got closer, she really stepped up and worked out this plan for this issue to be done this way. This has saved us many, many hours in time and effort alone.”

More than 6,000 troops from across the United States are training at Fort McCoy for CSTX 86-18-04 through June 29. Right after the exercise is done, the same armor will be returned to the CIF much in the same way it was issued.

Fort McCoy has supported America’s armed forces since 1909. The installation’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” The post’s varied terrain, state-of-the-art ranges, new as well as renovated facilities, and extensive support infrastructure combine to provide military personnel with an environment in which to develop and sustain the skills necessary for mission success.

Learn more about Fort McCoy online at www.mccoy.army.mil, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”

• Date Taken: 06.21.2018
• Date Posted: 06.21.2018 12:41
• Story ID: 281806
• Location: FORT MCCOY, WI, US