24th FMSU Conducts EDRE III

Photo By Sgt. Elizabeth Clark | Pvt. Geneva Winborne (left), a financial management specialist with 24th Financial Management Support Unit, Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade, sits on the ramp of a Boeing CH-47 Chinook during the unit’s Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercise Level III on Jan. 25, 2019 at Ft. Stewart, Ga. Soldiers loaded and flew on a Chinook for the final phase of their EDRE III. Winborne and another Soldier got to ride the ramp as a treat for their promotion later that day. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Elizabeth White/Released)  

FORT STEWART, GA, UNITED STATES

01.28.2019

Story by Sgt. Elizabeth Clark 

3rd Division Sustainment Brigade

The 24th Financial Management Support Unit, Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade conducted the final phase of their Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercise Level III (EDRE III) on Jan. 25, 2019 at Ft. Stewart, Ga.
“EDRE III is executing a deployment. It shows us going through the administrative portion, doing Soldier Readiness Processing (SRP), loading and then getting our Soldiers out of theater,” said Capt. Michelle Liggitt, the commander of Bravo Detachment, 24th FMSU, STB, 3rd Inf. Div. Sust. Bde.
Once they get that initial alert, the unit has a small window of time to have everything ready. 24th FMSU is part of the Global Response Force (GRF) that gives support to civilians, contractors or other U.S. service members in an emergency situation domestic or abroad.
“The purpose of the exercise was to get a realistic view of what it would be like if we were to deploy,” said Staff Sgt. Bianca Rodriguez, a dispersing agent with 24th FMSU, STB, 3rd Inf. Div. Sust. Bde. “We are currently on a GRF mission, so out of nowhere we could get that call at 4 o’clock in the morning to deploy.”
Over three days, Soldiers gathered their bags, went through SRP to receive immunizations, drew weapons and boarded a Boeing CH-47 Chinook on the final day to ‘deploy’ to a field site on Ft. Stewart. Their EDRE was complete once they deployed, but Liggitt saw an opportunity for the Soldiers to train in their core functions.
“The end goal was to make sure we hit all of our EDRE III tasks, make sure that we get out to the field,” said Liggitt. “In addition to that, we added one of our Mission Essential Task List tasks: perform dispersing operations. I figured if we were going to go out to the field, we might as well do some training exercises.”
They set up a Financial Management Training Platform (FMTP), the ‘bank,’ the headquarters for pay operations in an austere environment, and distributed notional funds to teams of cashiers. Those cashiers, or ‘bank tellers,’ then went out and set up Financial Management Support Teams (FMSTs) and performed manual dispersing operations.
“We usually have our main forward operating base (FOB) and our FMSTs go out to do dispersing, that’s how we would do it on deployment,” said Rodriguez. “The FMST will do dispersing, or do exchange transactions with Eagle Cash cards. They’ll take money off the card, cash checks, manage saving programs or fix pay on FOBs.”
By adding on pay operation training to the rapid deployment exercise, the 24th FMSU Soldiers have a better understanding of what to expect during a GRF mission or going downrange and this gave Liggitt the chance to see any short falls that could be corrected.

• Date Taken: 01.28.2019
• Date Posted: 03.05.2019 10:27
• Story ID: 312922
• Location: FORT STEWART, GA, US