By: 2nd Lt. Ebony Thomas
JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq - Upon entering into a room full of computers and monitors, one’s first thoughts are that they are not supposed to be here. Soldiers are busy typing away, no one is glancing at you. You feel like a spectator on mute.
This is the feeling that you get each time you enter the Fusion Cell.
The Fusion Cell is a term that soldiers and civilians from Kellog, Brown and Root, assigned to the 53rd Transportation Battalion (Movement Control), 77th Sustainment Brigade, 310th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, from Fort Eustis, Va., know well; it’s a place where the majority of them conduct 24-hour operations on Joint Base Balad, Iraq.
The Fusion Cell is a large room filled with row after row of desks and computer workstations. Master Sgt. Veronica Jack, non-commissioned officer-in-charge of the 53rd MCB plans and operations, refers to the Fusion Cell as the “meat and potatoes of the 53rd MCB.”
Her phrase speaks volumes to the level of responsibility the service members of the 53rd MCB have here on JBB. The 53rd MCB soldiers that work in the Fusion Cell are responsible for all logistical movements within the Iraq theater along with all convoys that head south to Kuwait.
Additionally, soldiers have the responsibility to coordinate the distribution of food, fuel, water, repair parts, etc., as well as to facilitate the movement of large equipment and general cargo that unit commanders need moved.
Soldiers and KBR civilians work together to coordinate the transportation requirements via a movement request that are submitted by all services requiring transportation support.
Typically, most units deployed to Iraq do not have enough flatbed trucks to move their own equipment. That is where the 53rd MCB coordinates their transportation needs.
Maj. James Peckham, a battalion operations officer and a native of Newport, R.I., currently on his fifth deployment, knows a great deal about the Fusion Cell and its responsibilities.
Peckham said that the Fusion Cell is a distribution management center for the 310th ESC. The ESC responsibility is to manage the flow of commodities. The service members of the Fusion Cell validate requests and bounce requests off of United States Forces-Iraq’s priorities and then assign requests to a sustainment brigade to be moved.
Various systems are in place to make this mission a success; Theater Operations Processing is such a system.
One of 53rd MCB subject-matter experts on the TOPs system is Pfc. Shanon Pirofsky.
“Units require us to help them move equipment, from small objects such as pipes to extremely large pieces of equipment like the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected systems,” Pirofsky said. “Also, TMR managers are the belly button to validate the stuff that needs to be moved.”
As the resident expert in the battalion, Pirofsky said she loves what she does.
“The mission that I am a part of is historic,” she said. “That is why I now call the Fusion Cell home.”
| Date Taken: |
04.08.2011 |
| Date Posted: |
04.24.2011 06:38 |
| Story ID: |
69260 |
| Location: |
JOINT BASE BALAD, IQ |
| Web Views: |
219 |
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0 |
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