Force Provider demonstration.

Who do you call when you have a question about the design, construction, or management of a base camp? Currently, there is no single proponent you can contact to assist with base camp issues. To fill this gap, the United States Army Engineer School has submitted a proposal to the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), seeking the proponency for base camps. Assigning the proponency to the Engineer School will not mean that the engineers have all the answers to base camp issues, but it will provide one point of contact to coordinate all issues with appropriate agencies. In an effort to disseminate information, the Engineer School invited Quartermaster Corps personnel to Fort Leonard Wood in September to demonstrate a new base camp system so future base camp planners could see facilities that are available to deployed forces.

The Quartermaster Corps is one of the many organizations that the Engineer School coordinates with for base camp planning and design, because it owns the bed-down system the Army now uses called Force Provider. The original Force Provider was developed after the first Gulf War. This system is a packaged base camp that is containerized and can be deployed to support forces in any area of operation by providing billeting; a dining facility; and morale, welfare, and recreation (MWR) facilities. The Force Provider package--which also includes climate control, generators, kitchen facilities, and lighting--takes several aircraft to deploy. But now there is a new system out called the Expeditionary Life Support System (ELSS).

An ELSS is capable of supporting smaller units than the Force Provider and comes in 15 triple containers (TRICONs). This system can be fitted to the deployment by adding units to house more Soldiers. One system can be transported on one C-17 aircraft and contains a kitchen, a dining facility, billeting, latrines, showers, a laundry facility, power generation, and a water reuse system.

For the Fort Leonard Wood demonstration, an eight-man team, from the only Active Army force provider company, set up all the facilities in less than four hours.

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Additional capability packages can be added, to include facilities for cold weather, MWR, chapel, prime power, fuel storage and distribution, batch laundry, and a kitchen. Simple systems are usually best when deploying to contingency operations, and this system is simple to set up, operate, and maintain.

The current laundry system contains four washers and dryers that will be replaced by a commercial batch laundry system in the future. These washers and dryers are containerized and have onboard water heaters and pumps for the water supply and for removing the gray water. The showers have four shower stalls, onboard water heaters, and two sinks. The gray water removed from the showers, sinks, and laundry is sent to the water reuse system, which will treat the gray water to potable standards and store it for reuse in the showers and laundry. The system will treat thousands of gallons per day with a 75 percent recovery rate. It can operate for seven days without an operator present and contains a self-diagnostic system, making maintenance very simple.

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The kitchen/dining facility includes a cook-and-hold oven, a steam-and-hold countertop steamer, a 6-gallon steam kettle, an undercounter refrigerator, two refrigeration units, and a griddle. The system will feed several hundred Soldiers, and can be upgraded to feed even larger camps.

Officers from the Engineer Officer Basic Course, the Engineer Captain's Career Course, and the Warrant Officer's Basic Course toured the prototype base camp and were impressed with how easily and quickly the facilities were constructed. And several general officers and brigade commanders who visited the demonstration had positive comments on the power distribution system and the waste water reuse system. Without a doubt, the Quartermaster Corps has developed an excellent system that will aid our Soldiers in the accomplishment of their mission.

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Having a base camp proponent to help coordinate agencies and share information would be a step in the right direction toward solving some of the problems we are having in deployed locations. Hopefully, in the near future, TRADOC will assign the proponency to the Engineer School. If this occurs, expect new base camp training, doctrine, and concepts to evolve over the next few years. For more information about the base camp proponency, contact Michael Wolford at [phone] or e-mail him at <[e-mail]>. (Also see the April-June 2006 issue of Engineer, pages 28-29.)

Mr. Wolford is an environmental training specialist for the Directorate of Environmental Integration at the United States Army Engineer School, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He recently retired from the Army after more than 24 years of service. He holds a bachelor's in environmental science from Drury University, Springfield, Missouri, and is currently working on a master's in environmental management from Webster University, Saint Louis, Missouri.

By Mr. Michael T. Wolford