Advertisement
Published: September 18th 2009
Edit Blog Post
The greatest part about deployment is the varied amount of activities that occur on a day to day basis. Dobie has been out training with the soldiers and lately I have been inside assisting with creating the operational plans for the soldiers to execute during their training in the field.
So a week or so ago, all the units were preparing for our movement forward to Kosovo. We borrowed all the forklifts we could find and rounded up hundreds of soldiers from all the different units and away we went. The mission: Load all the personal gear, pack all the section equipment and supplies and prepare for the airlift over to Europe.
You could smell the diesel in the air and hear the beep...beep...beep of the equipment. It is the best feeling to be in the center of a completely chaotic situation. Soldiers are lifting boxes, securing lids with tape and trying to make decisions about what stuff goes to Kosovo and what goes to Germany and what stays on Camp Atterbury for our training.
Many things have to happen at the same time. The truck has to bring the containers and offload them in the loading area.
The transportation queen was sitting tall as she rode around and enjoyed the view from the good seat inside the container mover. Soldiers were putting together what we call tri-walls (white inserts that fit into the containers), and then other soldiers were filling them with supplies and equipment.
There was a team that went around and marked the unit on the side of the tri-wall with black markers, there was another team that assisted soldiers with filling out the paperwork correctly, and I was just running around talking to people and trying not to be too bossy. Most times that is the most difficult part of running the operation for me. Finding a nice blend between annoying others and ensuring the mission is completed.
I also enjoy the time with the soldiers. Both officers and enlisted, young and old, and leaders and their subordinates all have to help with the movement process. For me it's easy. All these soldiers trapped in one area and somehow that signals open game for me to chat and interact with many in a short period of time.
All said and done, hundreds of tri-walls were loaded and half a tree was
used to fill out all the paperwork. I had the music blaring so that the environment was at least a little fun and people were actually laughing and joking around.
For most, the most difficult dilemma most were having was... where does the stapler go? Camp Atterbury, Germany or Kosovo. Honestly, most soldiers don't like this part of the army. Packing...Unpacking...Packing again...Unloading...Packing for storage...Unloading again and then finally packing it all back up again. For me, it's probably the best part of the trip. I absolutely love all the equipment and am fascinated with the movement process of how can all the ships, trains and planes arrive at the same time so that soldiers will have all their equipment and supplies for traing.
Also, for me just having all the soldiers trapped in a pretty confined area is great. I can chat with officers, enlisted, young soldiers and seasoned soldiers and it also provides an atmosphere that is fairly fun and relaxed. I turned my boom box on loud and then run around at warp speed trying to keep my eye on everything.
The loading process also signifies that we won't be at Camp Atterbury forever and
that with every boxed packed it will be that much closer to Kosovo.
One step closer to Kosovo...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.07s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0369s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb