Korean exercise gets critical support from MTMC.

At the last minute, the boat master throws the engine in reverse. The landing craft eases to a stop and gently comes alongside an unloading pier.

It is another successful shuttle.

The landing craft has brought another load of vehicles and equipment to pier side for off-loading to shore. The shuttles go on and on ...

In Army transportation verbiage, we call it discharging "in the stream." What it means is we are discharging away from ports and piers. Cargo is taken down a ship's side-loading ramp and staged on a large floating barge--from there, it is moved aboard smaller vessels and then ferried to shore.

Officially, it is called Joint Logistics Over The Shore. We practice the mission whenever we get a chance. It is important to us because this is the way MTMC would have to discharge a cargo in an austere area or when the ports and facilities have been destroyed.

Members of a deployment support team from the 837th Transportation Battalion, Pusan, Korea, have seen a lot of successful shuttles recently.

We were part of the critical phase of Combined/Joint Logistics Over The Shore 2001, June 1-5.

This year's exercise took place at Chilpo Beach, which is located on Korea's East Coast and is approximately three hours north of Pusan. The exercise is a U.S. Transportation Command-sponsored exercise sanctioned by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. We worked with fellow transporters from the Fort Eustis based 7th Transportation Group. The unit's 350 soldiers comprised the largest Army organization in the exercise.

The role of our battalion this year was as the Single Port Manager for the exercise. We had the critical role of cargo documentation and in-transit visibility through the use of our Worldwide Port System. The in-transit visibility system feeds the Global Transportation Network, allowing commanders to quickly review the movement status of critical cargoes.

We got some great support from the 358th Automated Cargo Documentation Detachment from Fort Eustis, Va., which was under our operational control for the exercise. The 358th conducted the tactical cargo documentation mission, consisting of scanning/tallying cargo data from the military shipping labels. We provided the strategic documentation mission via our Worldwide Port System.

It was an excellent training event due to the fact that we both have the same endstate for the warfighter: safely getting the cargo on and off the ship and properly accounting for it.

To execute our Single Port Manager mission, we sent a task-organized deployment support team to Chilpo Beach. I served as commander. My team included an NCOIC, a systems administrator, and two Worldwide Port Systems operators to conduct 24-hour operations.

"We've pressed extremely hard over the last year to train soldiers and civilians to be multi-skilled. Clearly, we had the right personnel to successfully execute this mission," said Sgt. 1st Class Roosevelt Wilson, NCOIC.

This exercise also presented us with a great opportunity to deploy and conduct operations out of our Deployable Port Operations Center. The center is an electronic and communications platform that provides us all types of communications and automation support in an austere environment. Once on site, it was obvious that our crew drill training paid huge dividends. We were ready to operate within two hours.

Our accomplishments included providing in-transit visibility for 93 ammunition containers moved by lighter age. We also prepared Transportation Control Movement Documents and worked closely with the 25th Transportation Battalion Movement Control Team for 95 ammunition containers that were transported inland via commercial truck assets.

Once the ammunition containers were moved, we concentrated on the lighter-age movement of 180 ammunition containers that made up the exercise play.

When the dust settled, it was clear MTMC played a critical role in the operation's success.

By Maj. Sam Blanton
Operations Officer
837th Transportation Battalion