Fort Campbell transporters meet multiple deployment challenges: all of Mike Bowers' employees are on the traveling squad.

By MTMC Command Affairs

When a big train deployment leaves Fort Campbell, Ky., the majority of his 46-member staff don bright red shirts that double as reflective vests, and head for the field.

In bright gold letters on the back of their shirts is the office's proud acronym, "ITD," for Installation Travel Division. Bowers is also proud.

"We do it with a smile," said Bowers, of the planning and execution of the fast-paced missions of the installation's high-priority 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).

Each mission has its own demanding schedule.

In early November, that schedule calls for loading four trains in 10 days, bound for the National Training Center, in Fort Irwin, Calif. The trains will haul 234 railroad cars, carrying over 1,000 pieces of cargo.

To get it all properly loaded, life becomes a blur for the people in the travel division.

Army civilians can do the job best, said Bowers, because of their historical knowledge.

"The value of a civilian organization is the staying power of civilians," said Bowers.

A group of Bowers' employees is enjoying a brief "pitch-in" meal in a small kitchenette at the office's container yard.

"How long have you been here?" shouts Bowers.

The answers come back staccato style: 15 years ... 20 ... 10 ... 36 ... 27 ...

"They are transporters by vocation and avocation," said Bowers. "They genuinely love what they're doing.

"I do not have the money or influence to motivate them to the extent they are motivated."

A nearly 20-year employee of the office, Bowers said installation staffing reductions are making it harder and harder.

"Our unit movement section used to have 17 employees," said Bowers. "Now it has two."

To accomplish their missions, Bowers' employees excel in job descriptions with multiple functions, tasks and diversity.

And Bowers leads the way. Bowers is a sort of Mr. Everyman for the office. He leads his people--and also doubles as a train brakeman, a job he performed years ago.

Diversity in job descriptions is a fact of life for Bowers, installation travel officer for the past six years.

More change may be ahead.

The Army is studying the feasibility of contracting out the travel office--something that was recently approved at Fort Bragg, N.C.

"The dedication of these people is lit when they're under the gun," said Bowers. "It's not dedication to me, but dedication to soldiers and being part of our national defense."

Every available member of Bowers' team is on the field.

The soldiers affectionately call Berlin Black "The Container Man." Black is normally found in the post's container area.

Not today.

A veteran transporter, Black walks along railroad cars with shackled equipment and expertly detects many that are loose. Soldiers make corrections on the spot for him.

Sue Wright and Lois Hibbard walk the tracks. Wright uses a scanner to record vehicle identities on the narrow edge at the top of a railroad car. Hibbard, who normally works passenger actions, walks on the ground below, making a manual copy for backup.

The day is late--clouds shroud the assembly area as an early gray winter twilight settles in. The soldiers start heading back to their barracks for supper.

Most of Bowers' team is still at work.

A bright red Army engine shuttles empty railroad cars to loading points so work can begin promptly the next morning.

Bowers directs everything from an all-terrain vehicle as he races up and down parallel sidings.

Hanging off the rear of a moving line of railroad cars is Brakeman Carl Lutz.

The moving railroad cars and galloping locomotive make a calliope of sounds.

Lutz recently gave up a teaching assignment in the office's mobility school, leaving an office environment for the ranges of weather and operations at the railroad assembly area.

"I'm a train enthusiast," said Lutz. "I wanted to be out working on the trains."

Train movement of cargo is part of the heartbeat of Fort Campbell.

The office runs a virtual short-line railroad. It owns three Army locomotives and 46 miles of track, including a line off post to a main switch in nearby Hopkinsville.

The division's employees are unfazed by the field-like conditions and the long hours.

"This is about normal for a National Training Center move," shrugs Brenda Malick, of the readiness business center.

In the deepening twilight, tall arc lights bathe the yard in a faint illumination.

And Bowers?

He and Lutz are out in the darkness somewhere, moving more empty railroad cars forward for the next morning's loading.

RELATED ARTICLE: Railroad journey

... best of all, a freight train puffed and roared far away. The boy listened and felt the earth beneath him tremble with the moving of the train ...

When he reached the crossing, he was just in time to see the passing of the whole train, from locomotive to caboose.

-- The Human Comedy By William Saroyan