CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – The 728th Transportation Company was activated in February of this year, where Col. Toni A. Glover, 650th Regional Support Group commanding officer, supported the activation at Mare Island, Vallejo, California.
And so, when the Soldiers of the 728th TC, led by Capt. Jason Fong, 728th TC commander, traveled to Camp Pendleton, California for Big LOTS - West 2017, where it would participate in their very first annual training event, blazing a new trail and attending this event during the month of July.
The 728th TC was on the ground to fulfill an important mission, conducting transport operations for both the U.S. Amy Reserve and U.S. Marine Corp units, transporting vehicles from Camp Pendleton to locations in the San Diego area.
Big LOTS - West 2017 is a United States Army Reserve functional exercise part of the Army Reserve Training Strategy in order to enhance unit readiness by conducting live and virtual port and bare beach operations with external evaluations.
“This was an important training event because it teaches our unit, as a whole, how to operate safely when deployed,” said 1st Lt. Juneto Dellota, 728th TC executive officer. “As a new transportation company, it is important to understand how we should operate and how we can get the equipment where it needs to be and also keep our Soldiers safe.”
The 728th TC uses the Palletized Load System (PLS), which is a truck-based logistics system that entered service in the United States Army in 1993. It performs line haul (long distance), local haul (short distance), unit resupply, and other missions in the tactical environment to support modernized and highly mobile combat units.
The Palletized Load System provides rapid movement of combat configured loads of ammunition and all classes of supply, shelters and containers. It mirrors similar systems in use with the British, the Demountable Rack Offload and Pickup System (DROPS) and other armed forces.
The Soldiers to the rear are just as if not more important than the Soldiers who are in the front, driving the vehicles. The Soldiers in the rear, led by Sgt. 1st Class Omar Rios, 728th NCOIC, are the mechanics and maintainers who make sure the wheels can roll.
Staff Sgt. Patrick White, 728th TC motor sergeant NCOIC, is one of the unsung heroes, who is there before the troops come to work and the last to leave the motor pool, turning off the lights at night.
“We love using our large Recovery Trucks (the Wrecker), which are affectionately known as ‘Bouncing Betty,’ our bread and butter, but we also have the capacity to fulfill our mission here to support the Marine Corp,” said White. “We are excited to be here to train in a real world environment.”
The Oshkosh HEMTT recovery vehicle, known as the ‘Wrecker’ performs for the most difficult recovery missions with the maneuverability to traverse any type of terrain and the power to recover vehicles weighing in excess of 10 tons, even those mired in mud, sand, water and snow.
The Transportation Corps is a combat service support branch of the U.S. Army and is headquartered at Fort Lee, Virginia. At the end of the ceremony, the unit sang their transportation corps song.