599th deployment support team works down under in Crocodile '03.

A deployment support team from the 599th Transportation Group teamed up with stevedores and U.S. Marines to unload tons of military cargo at two Australian ports.

Deployment and redeployment operations were conducted at Gladstone and Port Alma, Australia. The operations took place in the fall as part of Exercise Crocodile 03, a United States/Australian bilateral joint exercise.

SDDC's team, led by Maj. Vince Thompson, 836th Transportation Battalion, Okinawa, Japan, managed the discharge of thousands of tons of military cargo at Gladstone and a separate ammunition discharge at Alma.

About 3,600 U.S. service members participated in the exercise from Sept. 1-Oct. 15, which was designed to improve United States-Australian com bat readiness and interoperability. Most U.S. military participants came from Okinawa and mainland Japan.

Team members initially outloaded the III Marine Expeditionary Force cargo in early August from Naha Port, in Okinawa, and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, said Capt. Henry McClendon, the team's operations officer. Later, the soldier and civilian team members redeployed to Australia for the discharge.

Single port management and port operations functions were executed "without a glitch" said McClendon.

"When the first vehicle rolled off the Aquarius Leader, a Panamanian Flag vessel chartered under Universal Service Contract 04, the deployment support team was fully prepared to pro vide cargo accountability and documentation using the Worldwide Port System," said McClendon.

"By this time there was no doubt in my mind that we were 100 percent mission capable and ready to take on the mission."

Two days later, team members had successfully offloaded 20,100 measurement tons of helicopters, trailers, vehicles, containers and other cargo. The material was transported on time to the Marines at the Shoalwater Bay Training area in Queensland.

A separate team offloaded ammunition at Alma from the Parkgracht, a second vessel chartered under the Universal Service Contract.

SDDC transporters responded to the challenges. As an example, the commercial port was accessed from Gladstone by a two-lane, dirt road winding through 100 kilometers of "outback" real estate. Other challenges included isolated sites and unfamiliar environments.

Then, an added challenge: A torrential downpour leaked rain into the portable building housing the Worldwide Port System equipment causing the only Small Computer System Interface terminal server on hand to burn out--threatening the system's use.

"The scene could have come from a technician's worst nightmare," said Nick Rosse, the team's information management specialist. "The dreaded case scenario would be the equipment was a total loss and we would have to unpack our backup system, and recapture and transfer all the data--a rather time consuming process when you're striving for accuracy and timeliness."

Far from home, Ross tried a field expedient: Blow drying the wet components. The expedient worked--when the power was turned on the equipment worked!

Foul weather conditions, commercial port traffic and tug availability all contributed to the delayed arrival of the Prestige Ace, which carried the bulk of the redeployment cargo.

SDDC's team responded. Lt. Col. Darrell Jenkins, team leader for the redeployment, assigned split shifts to facilitate continuous operations. One day later, on schedule, the last of 750 pieces of cargo were uploaded at Gladstone. Two vessels--Prestige Ace bound for Japan and Maersk Crest bound for Hawaii--headed out to sea. A third vessel, the Egelantierscracht, was uploaded with ammunition containers at Alma.

The successful offloads and uploads for Crocodile 03 were attributed to the ability of the deployment support team members' ability to rapidly develop into a cohesive unit.

"I couldn't have asked for a better group of folks," said Thompson. "They all pulled together. Our people from throughout the 599th Transportation Group in Hawaii and our battalions put forward a tremendous effort and did the job right!"

Jenkins agreed.

"The successful operations are a result of our team's ability to communicate clearly and often-and we can never overemphasize the value of cross-training our people," said Jenkins.

By Terri Kojima, Command Affairs Office, 599th Transportation Group