Photo By Laurie Pearson | Staff Sergeant Ruben Garcia, senior enlisted advisor for 1st Force Storage Battalion,...... read more read more
In addition to the usual ebb and flow of equipment making its way through 1st Force Storage Battalion, the unit has also been tasked with processing divested equipment aboard Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, California.
In March 2020, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. David H. Berger, released a 15-page summary of the future trajectory of the United States Marine Corps, “Force Design 2030.”
In the document, he outlines the Strategic Guidance, and National Defense Strategy and plans for impactful and necessary changes.
The broad sweeping changes mean that the Marine Corps is transitioning from large, heavy equipment, such as the M1A1 Abrams Tanks, and moving toward equipment that will be smaller, lighter, more mobile, with low-signature sensors and weapons. As such, the divested equipment must be moved and stored.
“1st FSB, along with sister battalion 2nd FSB, are the only two tactical facilitators within Logistics Command and, as such, carry out all ground level logistics initiatives,” said Lee Hubble, 1st FSBs Material Management Operation Group, also known as M2OG, lead. “With that very ambiguous description the reality is our mission remains the same; receipt, store, and issue Military Equipment. M2OG is simply a new mission set added to our existing Operational Tempo.”
In this role, Hubble is tasked with monitoring and managing the asset flow of various supply chains from each Equipment Collection Point (ECP) servicing the Marine Expeditionary Forces.
“Once equipment is successfully turned into the ECP it is then transported to its respective M2OG home (1st or 2nd FSB),” he explained. “After arrival at its destination, our team is then tasked to divest, maintain, or bring the assets received from deactivated units for future use up to serviceable condition.”
The local M2OG team is comprised of 10 defense contractors with Hubble as the only current government representative.
“We plan on hiring 11 more defense contractors and one more government representative to bring the Barstow team to a total of 23 personnel,” he said. “We are also in the review and hiring process for 17 government positions that will be remotely located within the ECPs in Hawaii and Japan that fall under our organizational structure.”
The intent is to station LOGCOM government personnel in ECPs geographically spread across the I MEF, II MEF, III MEF and Marine Forces Reserves’ areas of operations, allowing them to have a direct hand in executing retrograde activities in Hawaii and Japan. 1st FSB’s focus is on I and III MEF and MarForRes.
“From this position, we can affect all LOGCOM initiatives from cradle to grave with the team here at Barstow as the nerve center monitoring and managing operations,” Hubble said.
1st FSB, as a whole, has active duty, contracted, and civilian Marines on staff. M2OG is one of the sections within the larger mission-set for the battalion.
“We expect to receive more than 3,000 pieces of rolling stock with around 60 percent of the assets scheduled for retention here,” he said. “The remaining 40 percent will be divested using various strategies with one example being the recent Tank unit deactivation. Once the unit deactivated and turned in all of their M1A1 combat tank and M88 recovery vehicle platforms we executed the divestment strategy. The particular strategy for those assets was a minimal redistribution of the remaining across the fleet and the lion’s share returning to the Primary Inventory Control Activity (PICA) demilitarization and divestment.”
“We are responsible for both, with 100 percent auditability and accountability of asset divestment and long-term asset storage; the latter is executed using a meticulous Care of Supply in Storage (COSIS) program,” Hubble said.
The assets specific to Force Design are designated to be divested and retired from the Marine Corps system by various means, to include selling some to other branches of the military.
“Assets which are selected for retention will remain with FSB, under our care,” said Hubble. “They are kept in serviceable condition until slated for issue to a unit activated in the future. In short, assets are selected for retrograde from a command and are then turned into the servicing ECP. Once at the ECP, inspections and paperwork occur for the assets being transfered to the next stop in the supply chain, which will be one of the ECPs,” Hubble explained. “Once received at the respective FSB, Central Receipt and Issue (CRI) begins the receipt process which consists of the same thing at the ECPs but at the higher echelon. After CRI conducts initial receipt procedures the respective section/company is notified via Global Combat Support System- Marine Corps (GCSS-MC). Supply Technicians from the respective section/command sign for the asset and begin life cycle management procedures while in FSB custody.”
With MCLB Barstow’s vast amount of open real estate, 1st FSB staff expect to receive the larger “rolling stock” which is the military equipment on wheels or tracks.
Some of the equipment will be divested using various strategies to be carried out across the next three fiscal years. Some assets will be stored with on MCLB Barstow’s Yermo Annex on a long-term basis.
| Date Taken: | 08.13.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 09.02.2020 11:46 |
| Story ID: | 377311 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 618 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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