MTMC opens new gateway for Kosovo shipments.

The Military Traffic Management Command has opened a new gateway for the movements of peacekeeping equipment to Kosovo.

In early June, a deployment support team loaded 890 pieces of 10th Mountain Division cargo from the port of Constanza, Romania, on the Black Sea. Two vessels were used in the load-out. Both traveled to Port Jersey, N.J., for discharge.

Team members came from the 840th Transportation Battalion, Izmir, Turkey; and the 953rd Transportation Co., Piraeus, Greece. It was the first time members of either unit had worked a Kosovo redeployment mission.

Opening of the new port provides MTMC additional movement opportunities in the landlocked Balkans region. Previously, MTMC has used the ports of Borgas, Bulgaria; and Thessaloniki, Greece, to move equipment in-and-out of Kosovo.

"The entire deployment support team performed magnificently," said Lt. Col. Bill Gibson, Commander, 840th Transportation Battalion. "Operating around the clock, the team members safely completed my last mission prior to changing command June 21."

The deployment support team formed two weeks prior to the operation, said Maj. Mary Harkin, Commander, 953rd Transportation Co., who served as the team commander.

"The team showed cohesiveness seldom found in units that consistently work together," said Harkin. "I think it's great that we can combine Greek and Turkish local national employees, Department of the Army civilians and military to create such a great team".

Constanza is the fifth largest deep-water port in the world, located just north of Bulgaria and Turkey's Bosphorus. The Romanians welcomed us with open arms. They bent over backwards to ensure that we were safe and had all of the resources we needed to accomplish our mission.

Our cargoes started arriving into the port May 9 from Kosovo. The shipments continued until May 21. The cargo was properly documented on the Worldwide Port System by team members that included Michael Pittas, of the 953rd, and Osman Gonen, of the 840th. The operation was the first in which members of the 840th had received cargo by rail while serving in the role of single port manager and port operator.

"Rail provides its own unique set of challenges," said Sgt. 1st Class Louis Cass, the team's NCOIC.

The trains brought in some problems, said Cass. Some of the equipment that was received was dead-lined and some trailers arrived without prime movers.

There was always the right equipment and fight amount of personnel to download and marshal the cargo, thanks to Aslihan Dogu, the team's port service caller; Tevfik Moran and Argun Nardal, of GEDVEC Services; and Paul Tadlock, camp manager, of Brown & Root Services.

Upon arrival Osman Irim, developed a stow plan using the Integrated Computerized Deployment System. This was the first time that Irim had been tasked as the lead stow planner. With help from Panagiotis Agelidis, Irim was able to create a generic ship design of the staging area and stage the cargo to match it. This saved tremendous time during the upload, especially since our cargo staging space was so limited.

Ship selection, dust, space and excessive time at the port all proved to be challenges for team members. Tommey Crutches, the chief marine cargo specialist from the 840th, used his more than 20 years of military stevedoring experience to keep things running smoothly.

Additional critical support came from the 21st Theater Support Command, of Kaiserslautem, Germany, which operated Task Force Constanza.

Cargo clearance was accomplished from a detachment of the 560th Military Police Co. (Customs) was on the ground to clear the cargo in accordance with U.S. Department of the Agriculture standards. All cargo was cleared two weeks prior to the arrival of the first ship.

The team received augmented documentation assistance from the Army Reserve's 1179th Deployment Support Brigade, Team 4, Detachment 1. Members started their documentation by working with 10th Mountain Division transporters at Camp Bondsteel.

"Trained documenters--software and hardware--are absolutely necessary to complete missions in a timely manner," said Michael Pittas, of the 953rd. "Members of the 1179th caught on quickly and proved to be reliable on board the vessel. Our documenters were able to call the ship's manifest within an hour of load completion and this was a direct reflection of their quality work."

Gibson agrees with that assessment.

"The relevance of having this team to validate the unit's documentation prior to movement to the port was highly valuable to us during the port operations phase," said Gibson.

The Constanza operation ended June 11 with the departure of the Merlin for New Jersey.

Our experience at Constanza further validated our composite deployment support team concept. We can't do these missions alone. It takes teamwork from across a broad spectrum of the military to make it happen.

By Capt. John Myhre
Operations Officer
840th Transportation Battalion