Photo By Sgt. James Geelen | The Fort Carson Mounted Color Guard holds the uncased guidon for 68th Combat...... read more read more
FORT CARSON, Colo. –Every day millions of people around the world return home to their families from business trips, conferences and other forms of business traveling. The celebrations are the same no matter if they’re gone for a couple days or away for months.
The same holds true for the Soldiers from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 68th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 4th Sustainment Brigade, 4th Infantry Division as they celebrate the official conclusion of their deployment, by uncasing the battalion colors 26 Aug. in a ceremony at Founder’s Field on Fort Carson, Colorado.
“The uncasing of the colors today signifies our battalion headquarters’ official return home to Fort Carson following the unit’s six-month deployment to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in support of Operation Spartan Shield,” said Lt. Col. Michael K. Schulte, commander, 68th CSSB, 4SB, 4th Inf. Div. “The battalion colors represent the long and storied history of 68th CSSB, dating back to 1936. But today we recognize a new chapter to be added to our unit’s proud lineage.”
In January 2020 the Stagecoach battalion was called upon with little notice to deploy to the United States Central Command area of operations.
“This was the battalions first no notice deployment as part of the Army’s Immediate Reaction Force,” said Col. Steven E. Putthoff, commander, 4SB, 4th Inf. Div. “They paved the way for sustainment and movement oversight operations, while ensuring uninterrupted logistics support throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
In a high-tempo operational environment, properly conducted sustainment operations are vital to mission success.
“Stagecoach provided distribution, field feeding support, and movement control support to five different brigade elements totaling over 120 customers,” Putthoff said. “They devised a new method for tracking, accounting for and distributing over 200 million dollars’ worth of commodities, 300,000 gallons of fuel, 650 transportation movement requests, between Kuwait, Bahrain and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
The Soldiers deployed prior to the COVID-19 outbreak and they had to adjust their mission.
“It forced us to improvise how we planned for and conducted sustainment operations as our movements and contracted support were affected by national curfews, border closures, and disruptions in the supply chain,” Schulte said. “However, under what has now become the new norm, the Stagecoach Soldiers were able to adapt and overcome to ensure uninterrupted sustainment support to its customers. Proving that the Army can operate successfully despite the challenges and interference presented by COVID.”
The focus of the Stagecoach Soldiers remains forward.
“The Soldiers of 68th CSSB, are ready for the next mission at hand,” Schulte said. “In these uncertain times, the only certainty is that everyone must ready to deploy when and where the nation calls upon us because teleworking from home will not be an option.”
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| Date Taken: | 08.29.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 08.31.2020 15:13 |
| Story ID: | 377158 |
| Location: | FORT CARSON, CO, US |
| Hometown: | COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, US |
| Hometown: | MANSFIELD, PA, US |
| Web Views: | 48 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Stagecoach Uncasing Ceremony, by SGT James Geelen, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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