Camp Atterbury Public Affairs
CAMP ATTERBURY, Ind. -- For deployed Soldiers and units, the need to move something and the speed at which it moves can mean the difference between succeeding and failing a mission. In order to streamline the process of moving convoys, cargo and logistics, the Army enlists the help of Movement Control Teams (MCTs). These highly modular groups ensure that all air and ground movements within a given area are tracked and recorded, thus providing a constant vigil on anything that moves without feet.
Early this month, one such team, the 535th MCT of Manhattan, Kan., returned to Camp Atterbury after a 12-month deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. During their stay at Contingency Operating Base (COB) Speicher, the 13-Soldier team maintained two control groups for ground and air. Their tasks included checking the routes of all movements to and from the COB, ensuring the timeliness of all cargo shipments and assigning trip tickets for all mobile missions.
"We were quality control for how things moved," said Staff Sgt. Nick Obradovich, non-commissioned officer in charge for the team's Arrival/Departure Airfield Control Group. "Our job was to track where all cargo and conveys were and to keep on eye on their destinations."
Obradovich credited his team with many accomplishments during the deployment. On the air transportation side, the 535th increased air cargo movement to and from the COB by 337 percent from the previous year.
"This kept the convoys off the roads so they could concentrate on other priorities," he said.
During one mission, the team also set a COB Speicher record when they moved 30,000 pounds of food supplies via aircraft to Forward Operating Base (FOB) Warrior in one hour, which increased the FOB's provisions from three days to eight.
The team's ground assets kept busy as well, supporting more that 270,000 local residents with their freight.
Obradovich said that he credits his team's accomplishments to the ingenuity of the individual Soldiers.
"From both sides, the people that ran the shops are the brightest and most inventive kids," he said. "They never said no, always figuring out a way to do it. This deployment taught us that there's always a way to get something done, and that we'll always find a way to accomplish the mission."