Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Gaelen Lowers | Spc. Camille Wallingford, redeployment support team specialist for the 840th...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq - While companies, battalions, brigades and divisions have transitioned in and out of the Iraqi theater of operations, there has been one battalion that will be here until the last soldier leaves.
“We will not leave until Operation New Dawn is over,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Quillar Ransom, command sergeant major for the 840th Transportation Battalion, 594th Transportation Brigade, Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, 1st Theater Sustainment Command, and a Los Angeles native. “Until everybody in Iraq redeploys, the 840th Trans. Bn. will be here.”
This is because the 840th Trans. Bn. is an enduring unit. Soldiers and leaders transition in and out of the unit, but the unit’s colors are never cased, and they remain on Joint Base Balad. The 840th Trans. Bn. has been a fixture in Iraq because their mission is a very important one, particularly to soldiers within six months of redeployment. The unit is specifically designated to help other units redeploy their troops and organizational equipment from theater back to their home stations.
“We are the only one of our kind in this theater,” said Ransom. “The skill set that we provide on the battlefield is so valuable. It is not easy for a unit to say, ‘Here are 50,000 troops and all of their equipment. Now let’s go home.’ That is a very difficult process.”
The process is pretty streamedlined, added Lt. Col. David Banian, commander of the 840th Trans. Bn., 594th Trans. Bde., 1st TSC, and a Foxboro, Mass., native.
“We provide all the necessary elements to help a unit redeploy,” he said. “All we need them to do is pack.”
Within 180 days of a unit’s scheduled transfer of authority and redeployment, the 840th Trans. Bn. will contact the unit and provide them with the knowledge and the know-how to get redeployed, said Ransom. They will start them down the path of getting all the paperwork and equipment together for a proper redeployment.
Once a unit is 120 days out from redeployment, the 840th Trans Bn. will conduct a redeployment training team brief, which brings together five elements of the redeployment process, said Banian. The briefing consists of the Coast Guard, who handles the regulated waste materials that will be shipped back to the states; customs officers, who check all cargo; the 14th Movement Control Battalion, who move the equipment; the 402nd Army Field Support Brigade, who own all of the equipment that doesn’t leave theater; and the 840th Trans. Bn.
“We bring in this total package of what it takes to go home,” said Banian. “We will issue a [fragmentary order] directing units to attend the brief, but we often have a good turnout just because soldiers want to know what it takes to get home.”
The unit takes this knowledge and gets to work on setting dates and times within their unit to have all equipment packed and ready for pickup.
“This is what we do,” said Ransom. “We are going to help you redeploy. Even if you don’t know how to do it, even if you don’t want to help yourselves, we are going to redeploy you responsibly, the right way.”
Although the 840th Trans. Bn. is centrally located at JBB, many units are not stationed in Balad, and instead, are located on other forward operating bases throughout the country. This is when the 840th Trans. Bn.’s Deployment Distribution Support Teams will take on the mission of their entire battalion.
“We have three DDSTs embedded with each of the divisions,” said Banian. “There’s one in [United States Division]-North, one in USD-Center and one in USD-South. Those eight-or-nine-person teams support every unit in their footprint.”
Ransom said the DDSTs are an extension of their battalion in each of the three areas of operation. Wherever the unit is in Iraq, the 840th Trans. Bn. will travel and help them, when they need to redeploy.
Although the battalion as a whole is very small, less than 100 personnel, the job they perform and the area they support is massive, Ransom continued. The battalion is projected to move more than 63 percent of all the equipment in Iraq before it ships out of country.
“We are very small but a very important and powerful battalion, because we provide such a unique skillset to the battlefield,” Ransom said. “You would think that someone with such an enormous responsibility would be a big unit, but we’re not, we’re very small. We have a great group of very motivated and very talented transporters who are excited about their jobs.”
| Date Taken: | 01.16.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 01.30.2011 16:14 |
| Story ID: | 64474 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE BALAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 272 |
| Downloads: | 5 |
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