MTMC assists Polish support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

A Polish contribution of soldiers and equipment to support United States efforts in Operation Iraqi Freedom received a big boost from the Military Traffic Management Command.

Poland is contributing 2,300 soldiers to be part of a 9,200-strong multinational division.

To get equipment for the Polish soldiers to Iraq, MTMC provided single port manager duties at the seaport of Szczecin, Poland. The 950th Transportation Co., Bremerhaven, Germany, prepared the port of Szczecin for receiving, marshalling, documenting and loading of the inbound Polish equipment.

The sealift involved the loading of over 700 vehicles, representing 238,000 square feet of cargo and 720 shipping containers. Equipment was loaded on one container ship and three different roll-on/roll-off ships over the course of nine days.

A Deployment Support Team was formed which included 23 members. The team members came from the 598th Transportation Group, of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and multiple subordinate commands. Other team members came from a six-man team mobilized to support the MTMC Operations Center, normally assigned to the 1190th Deployment Support Brigade, Baton Rouge, La.

As the MTMC team began to gather in Szczecin, it quickly became apparent the biggest challenge would be documenting the incoming equipment and developing the prestow plan for the inbound ships. No one on the ground was familiar with the Polish military equipment, which was convoying in from various locations and not yet on hand.

In addition, the timeline for receiving and marshalling the rolling stock was very tight, with loading of the first roll-on/roll-off ship beginning July 15, 12 hours prior to the last night of convoy moves. A Polish Movement Control Team dispatched to Szczecin coordinated the inland movement of the inbound units and provided the 950th with invaluable manifest information.

Loading was a challenge as not all equipment was on hand when loading began. The loading process was simplified by marshalling equipment by size--calling equipment forward as either small or large pieces and stowing the equipment as economically as possible to minimize the square footage lost to broken stowage. The simplicity of the call forward plan also reduced some potential language problems between team members from the two countries.

The Polish military proved to be excellent working partners. Every time a requirement was explained to them, they quickly provided the necessary action. Their loading teams quickly mastered the marshalling and call forward procedures.

All told, the operation took seven days.

The Strong American, the last ship, sailed for Kuwait on July 23.

The Polish-led division will include 1,640 Ukranian and 1,300 Spanish soldiers. Smaller detachments will come from Hungary, Romania, Latvia, Slovakia and Lithuania. The soldiers are among troops from 18 nations supporting 150,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

The unit will be responsible for an area of operations of approximately 31,000 square miles.

Maj. Lynne LeGloahec, Commander, 950th Transportation Co.