14th Transportation Battalion (MC)
From the tranquil coasts of Brindisi to the frigid camps of Taszar, the 14th Transportation Battalion (MC) plays an integral role in operations and exercises all over Europe. Moving cargo in southern Europe and northern Africa is the mainstay of the 14th Transportation Battalion (MC) based in Vicenza, Italy. With three separate Movement Control Teams (MCT) stationed throughout Italy, the battalion has the daunting task of providing all inland transportation for the Southern European Task Force (SETAF) as well as all theater level movement for all services moving in and out of the Balkans, southern Europe and North Africa.
The 14th Transportation Battalion was constituted 9 April 1943 in the Army of the United States as the 517th Port Battalion, Transportation Corps. Activated 4 June 1943 at Shirehampton, England (companies A, B, C, and D, 517th Port Battalion redesignated 24 May 1944 as the 797th, 798th, 799th, and 800th Port Companies, Transportation Corps- hereafter separate lineages). Inactivated 25 June 1946 in Belgium. Redesignated 29 September 1948 as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 14th Transportation Port Battalion and allotted to the Regular Army. Activated 13 October 1948 at Camp Stoneman, California. Redesignated 24 July 1950 as Headquarters, Headquarters and Service Company, 14th Transportation Port Battalion. Inactivated 25 June 1955 in Japan. Redesignated 9 May 1956 as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 14th Transportation Battalion. Activated 25 May 1956 at Fort Story, Virginia. Inactivated 28 March 1963 at Fort Story, Virginia. Redesignated 29 July 1963 as Headquarters and Depot Supply Company, 14th Aircraft Depot Battalion. Activated 11 August 1963 at Atlanta Army Depot, Georgia. Reorganized and redesignated 29 June 1965 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 14th Transportation Battalion. Inactivated 30 April 1972 at Oakland, California. Activated 16 October 1988 as the 14th Transportation Battalion (MC) at Vicenza, Italy.
The MCT stationed in Vicenza, Italy as well as the Air Movement Control Team (ATMCT) focuses most of their attention on supporting the varied and numerous movements of SETAF. The third MCT in the battalion, stationed at Camp Darby, located near the strategic port of Livorno, Italy, has the responsibility of the remaining missions.
Movement Control Team-Livorno
Tasked with the majority of the theater level joint movements, MCT Livorno has, or is currently involved in, movement control in the following locations: Thessaloniki, Greece; Rijeka, Croatia; Koper, Slovenia; Durres, Albania; Livorno and Brindisi, Italy. Most importantly, MCT-Livorno has developed lasting relationships with the Air Force, the Marines, and Military Traffic Management Command (MTMC).
Being collocated with the Air Force 31st Ammunition and Red Horse Squadrons allows the MCT to work on a daily basis with the Air Force. Support for the 31st Ammunitions Squadron includes frequent intra-theater ammunition movements between Italy and Germany as well as surge requirements that included support for the Kosovo Air campaign and other large-scale contingency missions. A well-established spirit of cooperation between the two services allows for quick responses to short notice requirements that the Air Force might have in the region. The MCT provides expertise on movement planning to include formulating load plans via rail, air, and highway. Many restrictions and movement considerations all must be understood and carried out by the origin MCT. These include obtaining diplomatic clearances, highway permits (for Class V and oversized equipment), contracting commercial carriers, preparing and issuing freight warrants and customs clearance documentation, tasking military line haul assets, providing escort requirements, routing information, cost estimates, and finally providing a complete movement plan to the shipper based on priority, required delivery date and selected mode.
The 31st Red Horse Squadron, which can be compared to an Army construction battalion, has the unique mission of providing engineering equipment to some of the many humanitarian and Air force construction projects that have been necessary in the Balkans. Getting the construction equipment to the Balkans is no easy task as most of the pieces are grossly oversized. Because it is collocated with the 31st Red Horse however, MCT - Livorno has the added benefit of being both origin and destination MCT. The most cost effective and logistically efficient mode is a water lift from the Port of Livorno, which is strategically located only 10 km from Camp Darby and Depot area. MCT Livorno arranges for movement of the equipment to the Port of Livorno (Port of Embarkation) and quickly moves a team into the Port of Debarkation located anywhere within the Balkan conflict area. Operation Cornerstone, where the 31st Redhorse deployed heavy engineer equipment to FYROM in support of a NATO Partnership for Peace (PFP) exercise, was a prime example of movement data/load plans being generated locally. The MCT booked the equipment for shipment from the Port of Livorno and delivered it to the Port of Thessaloniki Greece for further onward movement. All inland transportation from the Port of Thessaloniki, Greece through the border of FYROM was within the broad AOR of the 14th Transportation Battalion.
Being familiar with providing movement control, specifically moving large equipment into the Balkans, gives MCT - Livorno the needed expertise to easily handle the movement of the Navy's SEEBEEs, stationed in Rota, Spain. The main requirements for the SEEBEES are inland truck transportation from Thessaloniki to Camps Bondsteel and Montith in Kosovo. MCT Livorno established a local tender of service to handle all non-self sustaining or tracked vehicles and equipment and coordinated all diplomatic and customs clearance for transiting countries as well as routing and escort requirements.
Another added benefit that MCT Livorno has due to its location is the habitual relationship that has been fostered with the 839th Terminal Port Battalion, Military Traffic Management Command. Because of its close working relationship in Livorno the unit is able to deploy in concert with the 839th and provide inland transportation for major exercises in stride. Examples of this would include support for SFOR rotations in redeploying the 49th Armored Division/3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and deploying the 3rd Armored Division into the Bosnian theater using the port of Rijeka, Croatia. Downloading a vessel is strictly an MTMC task but for actual transportation from the POD into the theater, the MCT is equipped to rapidly build a rail load plan and determine movement requirements, such as highway line haul or theater airlift requirements based on priority and equipment dimensional data. In this capacity MCT Livorno was able to safely and efficiently provide the onward movement portion of Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration (RSOI). A close working relationship with the 839th promotes a combined effort as the vessel is discharged and the equipment is staged so that onward movement is as unencumbered as possible.
Understanding the intricacies of using the port of Rijeka, Croatia and providing inland transportation in the country made MCT Livorno the logical choice to provide movement for a short notice live fire exercise for the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. With less than 72 hours to plan and execute the movement of a Brigade Combat Team (minus) sized unit into Croatia, MCT Livorno met the challenge in stride. Because of the MCT's ability to establish contracts through the International Contracting Transportation Branch (ICTB) in Stuttgart, Germany, the needed assets from trucking companies in Europe were assembled. This provided fluid inland transportation from a Marine Corps unique offshore and pier side discharge. The challenges of moving M1A1 tanks, Marine Amphibious Assault Vehicles, other highway oversized equipment and over 1500 passengers would not have been possible without the close working relationship between the services.
With the need for greater flexibility between services and the need to execute missions in an ever-changing global environment, the 14th Transportation Battalion (MC) is poised to provide uninterrupted movement control on a theater and strategic level. Success in these missions requires the joint efforts of MCT-Livorno and its partners in the Air Force, the Navy, the United States Marine Corps, and the Military Traffic Management Command.
Movement Control Team-Vicenza
Movement Control Team-Vicenza is the 14th Transportation Battalion (MC)'s largest MCT charged with a critical mission. MCT-Vicenza has the primary responsibility of moving the Southern European Task Force (SETAF) anywhere in Europe or Africa within 72 hrs. SETAF, located at Caserma Ederle in Vicenza, Italy, with its 173rd Infantry Brigade, is USAREUR's only conventional airborne unit. The SETAF Staff also forms the core of a Joint Task force for contingency operations. For the past year, MCT-Vicenza has been the transportation focal point for all SETAF operations. The team has successfully performed its critical mission in a high OPTEMPO environment.
According to FM 55-10, Movement Control is the "planning, routing, scheduling, controlling, and coordinating responsibility for movements." It "also includes responsibility for In-Transit Visibility (ITV) of personnel, units, equipment, and supplies moving over lines of communication" as well as "the commitment of assigned modes and terminal assets according to command planning directives." In MCT-V's case, even though the MCT executes all the various facets of Movement Control to one degree or another, planning and coordination receive particular prominence.
In general terms, the activities MCT-V performs falling under the planning category would include developing load plans for commercial shipments and attending IPRs for major operations. Under the category of controlling, the MCT would include the tasking of MCT-V's mode operator (28th Transportation Platoon) for various line-haul missions requiring military transport; providing LNO support to the 22nd ASG Deployment Operations Center during major operations--both training and contingency; preparing and tracking all shipping documentation; and performing commercial container management responsibilities. Finally, in the category of Coordinating, the MCT would include coordinating commercial bus and truck tenders; coordinating Carabinieri escorts; coordinating diplomatic and convoy clearances; host nation coordination; and coordinating fund certification for various unique transportation requirements. In Italy, all movements by US Forces involving weapons, CL V, outsized cargo, or tactical convoys with more than 4 vehicles, require an escort by the Italian Carabinieri (Federal Police). This must be coordinated well in advance as official approval must be received from Rome--this normally requires 10 working days. Tenders such as the OTO or One-Time-Only are basically contracts for commercial transportation that are negotiated by the Intra-Theater Commercial Transportation Branch (ICTB). Situated at HQ USEUCOM, ICTB represents US Forces for surface transport negotiations with European and former eastern block commercial carriers. In any case, the OTO in particular satisfies movement requests not covered through existing general or special tenders.
Planning in MCT-V not only involves determining how the MCT will utilize its own personnel to support a particular operation, but also scrutinizing the maneuver unit's logistical plan to make sure they have submitted requests for their planned moves. This gets pretty complicated when you start talking about major training operations such as Veneto Rescue 2000, which involved over 400 movements (including, movements into Slovenia) and the deployment of units down from Central Region. This was a Mass Tactical Airborne Exercise focusing on a NEO scenario (Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation). As a result, MCT-V's efforts were especially important in this case with so many moving pieces, because if any move happened to fall through, with so many foreign agencies involved, it could potentially have been a show-stopper--where an entire Exercise is stopped dead in its tracks at worst, or the MCT is faced with an incredibly complicated and painful series of work-a rounds to weed through to pull the mission off. In any case, the MCT helps the unit to help themselves by acting as a check on their planning.
Coordinating is another extremely critical function. As mentioned earlier, in an operation like Veneto Rescue where there is a large volume of movements, what often happens is the plan indicates certain movements but no one has actually requested the assets from the MCT! And the MCT personnel simply cannot do anything without a movement request because of the funding issue. Without the request and its accompanying Fund Cite they cannot contract commercial assets. Not only that, many movement requirements are time-sensitive. For example, movement #399 may indicate that there will be a bus movement with weapons, across national boundaries at 0900 hours. So the MCT goes through the hundreds of requests that it has, in order to verify that the unit has actually submitted a movement request. Now, this particular movement would require a great deal of coordination involving multiple time-sensitive requirements. Since it involves weapons, it will require a highway clearance (10 day lead time required), a Carb Escort (7 day), a diplomatic clearance to allow it to go into Slovenia (10 Days), as well as the actual ordering of the bus (10 days). In normal intra-Italy bus movements there is usually a 3-day lead-time required for bus movements (if it has no weapons). But since this is outside Italy, it will require a One-Time-Only tender (OTO) to be requested from the Intra-theater Commercial Transportation Branch (ICTB) in order to secure the lowest bidder for this move. In any case, the MCT is faced with a fairly complicated move, which involves several agencies. The MCT personnel look through the files, and find out that there has been no request submitted and the move is 15 days out. The MCT immediately contacts the unit, they get the Team the request, and all is well again.
This is typical of what the MCT does during the planning phase. The movement controllers do it over and over again until execution time--attending the log planning conferences; constantly anticipating requirements the units may have; advising them on the issues; and warning them as they approach deadlines. One of the most important things MCT-Vicenza does is hold a weekly Transportation Coordination Meeting at its office on Caserma Ederle (every Thursday at 0930). All the key players attend this meeting: the 173rd Infantry Brigade Transportation Officer; an FSC platoon leader; the 28th Transportation Platoon Leader; the 22nd ASG S-3 representative; the 1-508th Bn (AB) S & T Platoon leader; the 14th Trans Current Ops Officer; the 14th Trans Carabinieri Coordinator; and the Italian Logistics Liaison to SETAF. During this meeting, the key players go over in detail, day by day, all the movements the MCT currently has visibility on, i.e. that the MCT has received requests on. In this way the MCT is able to identify any transportation that was planned, but not requested. Many times, a customer has simply forgotten to submit the request. Since everyone is there, the MCT is able to make instantaneous corrections of potentially disastrous errors. The MCT then discusses major upcoming operations both training and contingency and works through all the details with all the key agencies so everyone is on the same sheet of music. A recent example is the Atlas Drop 2000 re-deployment train. The port of Livorno ran into some difficulties getting the train loaded on time and up to Vicenza. Due to locomotive problems as well as damaged switch tracks the train was delayed by 24 hours. The MCT pulled together all the agencies mentioned above on 09 Nov 00, and within an hours, and within the context of the meeting and after several phone calls, MCT-V was able to shift an entire rail download operation (including all the installation support) by 24 hours.
Other important operations where MCT-V put these critical principles into action included Lariat Response 2000, Rapid Resolve II, and the bi-annual GTA Rotations. In Lariat Response, which took place in Hungary, the MCT had to use all its available talent and resources it could muster to get a critical shipment of CL V to the maneuver folks. The MCT had to overcome obstacle after obstacle to make it happen. First, the commercial carrier showed up without the proper certification required to transport CL V. To compound this situation, there was a European truck driver's strike that occurred which made it virtually impossible to get another carrier, let alone get it into Italy where the borders were being blocked. It was finally through the strength of MCT-V's BMCT (consisting of all local national civilians) and their years of experience working with local carriers and developing strong professional relationships, which, in the end, ensured that the MCT found a carrier and made RDD.
Rapid Resolve II which was a Mass Tac into Bosnia is an example of an operation where intense planning and coordination paid big dividends. It was a virtually flawless operation due to the extensive prior coordination. The biggest concern the MCT had was the re-deployment, which required busses to drive from Italy to the dangerous Bosnian theater. The carrier that won the bid through ICTB to get the mission was Garoldini--an extremely reliable organization that does most of MCT-V's Intra-Italy moves. However, all their drivers only spoke Italian and had never been into that theater before. The MCT spent hours working with them with maps and ensuring that they could get there. In addition, MCT-V personnel had to make sure that it had three-way communication (the MCT, the driver, and MCT-V's ops down range), so that they could walk them on to Camp Eagle if they got lost. It worked.
The bi-annual CMTC rotation of the 173rd to GTA is no less a challenge involving up to 9 trains of vehicles and equipment; transport of 1200+ pax in 39 commercial busses; and sensitive items (the weapons) line-haul through France--all requiring months of meticulous planning and coordination to ensure a smooth and seamless operation.
This is typical of MCT-V's day-to-day operations regardless of whether its personnel are in planning phase or execution phase. It's always exciting, and always challenging. The Team has a saying that "during the planning phase things slow down for the soldier, but for the leaders it never ends."--Very true, they are either deeply involved in the planning (NCOs as the well as Officers), or they are leading the execution which for the most part consists of putting out show-stopping brush-fires, feverishly making phone calls to carriers, working with MCT-V's battalion operations to adjust carb times, and adjusting movements based on the maneuver units evolving operation. A very challenging endeavor indeed.
The bottom line is, whenever a SETAF movement occurs, MCT-Vicenza has a team of soldiers on the ground providing movement control. Whether it is supervising rail load operations (including all documentation, and ensuring that the loading unit is enforcing safety standards), or controlling the flow of convoys and bus movements.
