3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment deploys through the Port of Beaumont-Texas.Shortly after 1 p.m. on February 16, the USNS USNS United States Naval Ship (civilian-manned; in service) USNS United States Navy Seals Fisher cast off her lines from the Port of Beaumont The Port of Beaumont is a deep-water port located in Beaumont, Texas. It claims to rank as the fourth largest in the United States and the thirty-fourth largest in the world in terms of tonnage. It also claims to be the busiest military port in the U.S. , Texas and headed down the Neches River The Neches River (pronounced "NAI ches") flows for 416 miles through east Texas to its mouth on Sabine Lake near the Rainbow Bridge. Two major reservoirs, Lake Palestine and Lake B. A. Steinhagen are located on the Neches. toward the Gulf of Mexico Noun 1. Gulf of Mexico - an arm of the Atlantic to the south of the United States and to the east of Mexico Golfo de Mexico Atlantic, Atlantic Ocean - the 2nd largest ocean; separates North and South America on the west from Europe and Africa on the east , loaded with 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment An armored cavalry regiment (ACR) is a regiment of the United States Army or United States National Guard organized for the specific purposes of reconnaissance, surveillance, and security. equipment bound for Southwest Asia Southwest Asia or Southwestern Asia (largely overlapping with the Middle East) is the southwestern portion of Asia. The term Western Asia is sometimes used in writings about the archeology and the late prehistory of the region, and in the United States subregion . This marked the end of another mission for the 842nd Transportation Battalion at the Port of Beaumont for Port Call 02-05. Deploying the 3rd ACR See riser card. was a massive task that required weeks of planning and the teamwork to accomplish. All the hard work paid off according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Sgt. First Class Paul Dow, the Movement non-commissioned officer for the 3rd ACR. "This was the smoothest deployment that I have experienced in my career. The teamwork and support we received (from the 842nd Transportation Battalion) was outstanding." This is the 3rd ACR's second time through Beaumont in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom; they went through the first time in April 2003. This latest deployment began with the first of 12 trains from Fort Carson, Colo. arriving on January 29. The cargo reception dates specified for the deployment called for an aggressive movement plan for the 3rd ACR and the Port of Beaumont--a 60-plus car train a day for 12 days. Despite winter weather conditions at Fort Carson and damaged track between the fort and port, all the trains were received and discharged by January 9 in accordance with the Port Call. Sometimes that meant that the 842nd, augmented by the 1395th Transportation Terminal Battalion, had to discharge over 120 rail cars a day in order to make room for the next train. 3rd ACR provided specialty drivers to assist in the discharge and staging of its M1 Abrams tanks and M1070 Heavy Equipment Transport trucks. The 3rd ACR deployed with more than 3,000 pieces of cargo, including 350 containers stuffed with supplies, 1,100 trucks, 36 rotary wing aircraft and over 500 armored vehicles; all were loaded onto two Large, Medium Speed Roll-on/ Roll-off vessels, or LMSRs. The two ships, the USNS Red Cloud and USNS Fisher are the largest vessels in the Military Sealift sea·lift tr.v. sea·lift·ed, sea·lift·ing, sea·lifts To transport (troops or supplies) by sea, as when ground or air routes are blocked. n. A system or an instance of such transport. Command's fleet. Each vessel is capable of loading 380,000 square feet of cargo with decks nearly 16 feet high. That equals approximately eight football fields worth of stow area per ship. The 3rd ACR had over a half million square feet of cargo to deploy, which is a real challenge to stow properly. Ralph Cote of the 842nd Transportation Battalion was the lead Marine Cargo Specialist for the deployment. "We had to cube out each vessel to make sure there was no CLOP (Cargo Left On the Pier)," said Cote. There was a significant amount of nested equipment that could only be stored on decks with 13 feet or more of clearance. To maximize the use of stow area, Team Beaumont unhitched  This article or section contains information about a scheduled .It may contain non-definitive information based on commercials, a website or interviews. small trailers from large trucks and stowed them on decks with a low clearance. The Marine Cargo Specialists at the 842nd also reviewed the dimensional data dimensional data see dimensional data. for all of the cargo and updated the weights for vehicles that had been fitted with additional armor plating. This kind of creative thinking and attention to detail helped to ensure that the deployment went smoothly and all the cargo made it aboard the two LMSRs. In fact, the Chief Mate of the USNS Red Cloud stated that this was the heaviest load the vessel had ever carried- 1505 pieces of cargo, 270,272 square feet displacing 18,946 long tons. Teamwork at the Port of Beaumont is what makes deployments such as this happen flawlessly. There are a lot of moving parts involved a deployment such as this one and it requires communication and coordination to make it work. The Port of Beaumont has moved 13.5 million square feet of cargo in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Team Beaumont was recently awarded the 2005 Army Chief of Staff Deployment Excellence Award in the Active Supporting Unit category. It's the second award for the 842nd as they also won in 2003--a testament to the hard work and dedication of all the members at the port. Story and photos by Luke Gygax, Traffic Management Specialist 842nd Transportation Battalion |
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