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834th Transportation Battalion

The mission of the 834th Transportation Battalion is to synchronize Defense Transportation System surface cargo movements and provide traffic management and single port management for the Department of Defense in peace and crisis. Plan, coordinate and accomplish the expeditious and economical movement and documentation of Defense Transportation System surface cargo through terminals in Long Beach, Oakland, Port Hueneme and San Diego, California. Provide operational and caretaker oversight of the Military Ocean Terminal Concord, California (MOTCO) ­ an ammunition transshipment port which will be maintained in a reduced operational status for exercises and contingencies. Deploy/redeploy U.S. forces and advise and assist wartraced Reserve units as assigned by Commander, MTMC DSC. Participate in Joint Chiefs of Staff and USTRANSCOM sponsored exercises. Be prepared to deploy military personnel and emergency- essential civilians OCONUS.

In 1995 the Congress voted to accept a proposal to close the Oakland Army Base under the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process. Consequently the 1302nd Major Port Command needed to relocate, after a tenure in the same locale of over half a century. The 1302nd recommended relocation to become a tenant of the Naval Weapons Station Concord, 27 miles from the Oakland Army Base. The Department of the Army accepted this recommendation and in April 1997 formally directed relocation to Concord. The command physically moved between 24 September and 2 October 1997. In place of commercial stevedores handling breakbulk cargo at the Oakland Army Base, the command entered into an agreement with the Naval Weapons Station Concord to have the Navy's civil service stevedores handle cargo. On 1 November 1997 a new arrangement began to process container cargo. Previously a contractor at the Oakland Army Base loaded (or "stuffed") freight into containers; while containers imported from overseas were unloaded (or "unstuffed") by civil servants. Under the new arrangement, a contractor in his own warehouse (in Alameda, CA) stuffs and unstuffs cargo, while government personnel monitor and advise the contractor. Cargo handling is proceeding successfully.

Responsibility for port operations at the former Concord Naval Weapons Station in California transferred 01 October 1999 from the Navy to the Army's Military Traffic Management Command. The 834th Transportation Battalion provides operational and caretaker oversight at the California terminal. The 834th moved its operation to Concord in October 1997, as a result of the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission's decision to close Oakland Army Base. The unit traces its organizational lineage to the San Francisco Port of Embarkation and coordinated the movement of military cargo through Oakland Army Base since the base's establishment at the beginning of World War II. The 834th currently coordinates the movement of Defense Transportation System surface cargo, excluding ammunition, through Concord and four West Coast strategic expansion ports.