Team works on cutting edge of U.S. war on terrorism.

The water is shaded turquoise. The sky overhead is tranquil. I am deployed with MTMC's forward deployment support team. For operational security reasons, I cannot tell you where I am. Officially, the team is located at "an operating location in support of the U.S. Central Command execution of Operation Enduring Freedom."

Overhead is the thunderous roar of a soaring B-52 bomber. On the horizon rests a fleet of ominous gray ships.

For the Military Traffic Management Command, our reality is a deployment support team playing a pivotal port operations role with the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force and civilian contractors.

The deployment support team is fully engaged in port operations with the Navy to ready Air Force warplanes with armament and supplies. The Navy is the port operator, relaying on the deployment support team to oversee port operations and provide cargo in-transit visibility.

The prepositioning ships of the Military Sealift Command, readied with military equipment and supplies, are berthed at this strategic location to support our forces.

"The deployment support teams provide us with the flexibility to rapidly deploy our port operations capabilities anywhere in the world," said Col. Peter Gitto, the Commander of the 599th Transportation Group, based at Wheeler Army Air Field, Hawaii.

"The ability of 599th deployment support team members to execute these operations directly supports the Air Force's ability to place bombs on target," said Gitto. "This is how we are supporting Enduring Freedom."

MTMC's initial team that arrived on site in October included Tom Brewer, of the 836th Transportation Battalion, Yokohama, Japan; Staff Sgt. Michael Babb, of the 599th Transportation Group, Wheeler Army Airfield, Hawaii; and Staff Sgt. Lee Archuleta, of the 835th Transportation Battalion, Okinawa, Japan. Brewer serves as team leader.

In December, Staff Sgt. Neal Lucero, of the 837th Transportation Battalion, Pusan, Korea, arrived to begin a 90-day rotation of members. Lucero arrived in time to assist with the selective discharge of more than 100 containers.

"I arrived on December 10 and hit the ground running," said Lucero. "We were offloading ammunition on the vessel Cornhusker State."

In the next few months, there were additional discharges from the Cornhusker State, USNS Red Cloud, and USNS Fisher.

The formation of the team began in early October. That is when many seasoned 599th Group workers assembled in Yokohama for a two-week intensive deployment support team train-up and mission rehearsal. The training was specifically designed to prepare for a possible deployment in support of Enduring Freedom.

"At the end of the training period, we had the confidence that we could handle any type of mission in any environment," said Brewer. "Nonetheless, it was the training and experience gained during previous missions that was key to our success."

The training and experience was critical, as team members had to overcome work site challenges. For example, not all cargo had electronic bar codes. Cargo had to be tallied manually, said Brewer. That data was then sent to the host server in Yokohama for processing in the Worldwide Port System.

Sometimes, a particular ship's characteristics were not available in the automated stowing system known as the Integrated Computerized Deployment System.

"The team built the stow plan into the system based on a variety of data sources," said Brewer, "including manifest."

With increased documentation requirements, workdays did not end following a 12-hour shift on the pier. Work then followed MTMC team members inside their quarters, where they manually documented cargo into the Worldwide Port System.

"We're out there in the heat of the day to capture and hand document each piece of item loaded," said Lucero. "Then, we go to our rooms to update the data in Worldwide Port System. So, in fact, we worked on two distinct tasks for each discharge."

A strong working partnership exists among the military services and their parent units, said Archuleta.

"Being deployed here presented a number of personal challenges to team members, since it was on short notice, and expected to be of limited duration--less than 30 days," said Brewer.

"When the decision was made to keep the team deployed 90 days, it meant we had to rely on family and friends at home station to take care of personal business."

Lucero, who just completed his first month at the site, misses his wife and two young children, but he is excited about his work and the mission.

I watched Lucero wolf down a breakfast of "tosilog" (Philippine-style cured pork), garlic rice and scrambled eggs.

"It's not like mom's home cooking," said Lucero, "but you know, it comes pretty close."