Self-Redeploying Units Reach Four Corners

Photo By 1st Lt. Natalia Palumbo | Soldiers assigned to self-redeploying units begin to download all non-essential equipment from their Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vechiles at the Four Corners operation site in mid-October 2011. The Four Corners operation, headed by the 553rd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 230th Sustainment Brigade, is designed to capture all retrograde material from self-redeploying units departing Iraq before the Dec. 31, 2011 deadline in support of Operation New Dawn.  

CAMP VIRGINIA, KUWAIT

10.18.2011

Story by 1st Lt. Natalia Palumbo 

553rd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion

CAMP VIRGINIA, Kuwait, - The Four Corners Operation, operated by the 553rd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 230th Sustainment Brigade, was a busy site when the first customers arrived from Iraq. The multi-class download site received four convoys redeploying from Iraq, Oct. 18, 2011. Members of the 2-29 Field Artillery Battalion from Fort Bliss, Texas, were some of the first troops to self-redeploy from Iraq since the directive to reduce the presence of U.S. forces in that country was publicized.

Four Corners has been fully operational and ready to receive soldiers and equipment for over seven months. “We, the Battalion, are very excited to be part of the responsible withdrawn of the troops from Iraq. We are very excited to see some of them finally,” said Capt. Jocelyn Hayes, acting officer in charge of the Four Corners Operation.

The first convoy arrived in the morning, and the last one made it to Camp Virginia in the late afternoon. “We decided to keep all the vehicles in one lane to have more command and control,” commented Staff Sgt. Jason Parson, non-commissioned officer in charge for incoming convoy lanes. “The first convoy had twenty vehicles and ninety seven personnel eager to turn in their equipment,” Parson said.

After the first convoy was cleared from the lane and escorted to the next stop in the re-deploying site of Four Corners, the 553rd team conducted an after action review of what took place receiving and assisting the convoy with turning-in equipment and properly disposing of hazmat. “Our priority is to safety assist soldiers with the re-deployment system, but our goal is to maximize the time they have on ground,” Parson explained.

One of the main changes will be to conduct the briefing to the convoy commanders and truck commanders while the rest of the soldiers in the convoy turn in ammunition. Members of the 261st Ordnance Company, 553rd CSSB, account for and bring back to record all munitions brought in on the convoys. “The convoys will be moving quicker through the site,” Hayes said. The ten soldiers in each lane will do the inspections of the vehicles and assist the soldiers with removing the different classes of supplies from the convoys’ inventories.

This has been the busiest day thus far for the Four Corners soldiers. Close to one hundred vehicles and nearly three hundred soldiers were processed at the site. It is expected for this number to increase significantly as Iraq closes down by January 2012.

• Date Taken: 10.18.2011
• Date Posted: 10.20.2011 08:55
• Story ID: 78751
• Location: CAMP VIRGINIA, KW