39th Transportation Battalion (Movement Control)
The mission of the 39th Transportation Battalion (Movement Control) is to provide tailored and adaptive multi-functional, expeditionary logistics capabilities for transportation movement control and distribution in support of the US European Command (USEUCOM). It would support the deployment, redeployment, and sustainment of forces and provide well trained and equipped deployable units to support combatant commanders and the Overseas Contingency Operations.
The 39th Transportation Battalion was first constituted on 1 May 1936 as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 2nd Battalion, 21st Quartermaster Regiment. The unit was activated on 25 January 1942 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The unit was reorganized and redesignated on 16 June 1942 as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 2nd Battalion, 21st Quartermaster Truck Regiment. The 21st Quartermaster Truck Regiment was the first full truck regiment assembled under one command at one station. A regimental review under the command of Colonel Ellis Altman was held at Fort Benning on 27 September 1942. The Regiment, which was primarily comprised of African-American Soldiers arrived at Camp Anza, California (Arlington Staging Area) on 10 January 1943 to make final preparations for deployment to the Eastern Theater. On 19 January 1943 the unit departed Camp Anza. The soldiers of the 21st Quartermaster Truck Regiment were among 6000 personnel, male and female, white and colored, who embarked on 19 January 1943 aboard the USS Monticello. The "4201 Shipment" departed Wilmington, California harbor at 0800 hours, 20 January 1943 and reached Bombay, India on 3 March 1943. On 1 December 1943, the Regiment was reorganized and its 3 battalions were redesignated. The Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 2nd Battalion, 21st Quartermaster Truck Regiment was reorganized and redesignated on 1 December 1943 as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 39th Quartermaster Battalion, Mobile. The lettered companies, E through H, of the 21st Quartermaster Truck Regiment were redesignated 3305th through 3308th Quartermaster Truck Companies respectively and assigned to the 39th Quartermaster Battalion.
There is sufficient evidence to suggest that the 39th Quartermaster Battalion (Mobile) played a significant role in the building of the Ledo Road (later named Stilwell Road) connecting India to China. Research indicates that the 21st Quartermaster Group, the 39th Battalion's higher headquarters operated from the border area of Ledo, India and Assam, Burma and from Myitkyina, Burma during the India-Burma and Central Burma Campaigns from 1942 to 1945. Following the 39th Battalion's service in the CBI Theater of Operation, the Battalion was inactivated at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey on 7 November 1945. While on inactive status it was converted and redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 39th Transportation Corps Truck Battalion on 1 August 1946.
The unit was Redesignated 11 June 1954 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 39th Transportation Battalion. On 3 August 1954, the 39th Transportation Battalion was reactivated at Camp Gordon, Georgia once again as a truck battalion. Following several years of garrison and exercise support missions at Fort Gordon, the Battalion was reorganized and redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 39th Transportation Battalion on 25 June 1959. By the end of 1959 the 525th Transportation Company was issued the M52 Semi-Tractors and M127 Semi Trailers.
As US involvement in Vietnam began to accelerate there was growing need for logistics forces to support the combat forces already in the theater and those soon to arrive. On 31 July 1966, the 39th Transportation Battalion arrived in Vietnam and was initially assigned to the Cam Rahn Bay Support Command and given the responsibility for onward movement of supplies and equipment from the port of Cam Rahn Bay to various locations inland.
During the course of its 6-year deployment to Vietnam, the following Transportation Companies were assigned to the Battalion: 360th Transportation Company (POL), 515th Transportation Company, 523rd Transportation Company, 572nd Transportation Company, 585th Transportation Company, 666th Transportation Company, 805th Transportation Company, and 863rd Transportation Company. As a way to increase ton-miles, the 39th Transportation Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Al Ellis, began to use "dollie trailers." The 39th Battalion had a Trailer Transfer Point just below Khe Sanh and drivers would drop the 12-ton S&P's there. The 5-ton continued with its load into Khe Sanh. A 5-ton tractor pulled the trailer into Khe Sanh.
On 28 November 1966, the Battalion moved to Thuy Hoa in the II Corps Tactical Zone to move general cargo and ammunition to the air base at Thuy Hoa. In the Spring of 1967, the Battalion moved back to Cam Rahn Bay and its truck companies were reassigned to the 28th General Support Group at Thuy Hoa. The Battalion then moved south to Phan Rang in late 1967.
On 2 May 1968, the 39th Transportation Battalion moved north to Gia Le in the I Corps Tactical Zone and operated under the 26th General Support Group, an association that continued until the end of the war. While at Gia Le the battalion conducted port and beach clearance from the Naval Support Activity Tan My Ramp and Cornfield Ramp, as well as long haul operations. It would support all Army units north of Da Nang. Throughout much of 1968 and early 1969 the Battalion supported the 101st Airborne Division and the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in various operations in the Ashau Valley to include Operations Summerset Plain, Liberty Canyon, and Kentucky Jumper.
Arguably the most violent combat action of the war that the 39th Transportation Battalion saw was during the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) incursion of Laos during Operation Lam Son 719 in 1971. To disrupt the flow of enemy personnel and supplies into South Vietnam, a ground attack was launched across the Laotian border on 8 February 1971. For this operation the 39th Transportation Battalion was attached to the 8th Transportation Group with its headquarters at Quang Tri. The 585th Transportation Company moved to Tan My Ramp and set up the Forward Supply Area Vandergrift with the 515th Transportation Company and the Battalion headquarters.
On 8 February 1971, the 39th Transportation Battalion lost their first soldier during the offensive, Private First Class Charles H. Soules, a machine gunner on the guntruck, The Protector. During Operation Lam Son 719, several uparmored guntrucks took part of the offensive with names like the Ace of Spades, Satans Little Angels, Proud Americans, Eve of Destruction, and Mr. Nice. On what was perhaps the darkest day in the history of the 39th Transportation Battalion a convoy of fuel tankers was hit by the North Vietnamese Army and a total of 17 5000-gallon tankers were destroyed. In addition to the destruction of several fuel tankers, the guntruck Satan's Little Angel was also destroyed. As combat units began to draw down and leave Vietnam, so did the need for support troops. The 39th Transportation Battalion was inactivated at Fort Lewis, Washington on 10 March 1972.
In the early-1980's the United States Army Europe (USAREUR) recognized its readiness shortfalls in the movement control arena and resource actions were processed to acquire uniformed units and other force structure to meet the most critical needs. The needs were identified in the USAREUR Transportation Operational and Organizational Plan or TROOP. One of the most sweeping organizational changes was the conversion of table of distribution and allowances (TDA) movement control teams to modified table of organization and equipment (MTOE) movement control teams. Additionally TROOP identified the need to have adequate headquarters to command and control several subordinate movement control teams and highway regulating teams. The TROOP plan proposed that 2 of the 3 existing movement region headquarters under the 4th Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) convert to MTOE 55-500 Team AD (Battalion Headquarters) with an assigned MTOE 55-580 LD Team (Movement Control) to serve as the movement region operation center. As TROOP was implemented in 1985 the existing 2nd Movements Region, located at Rhine Ordnance Barracks, Kaiserslautern, Germany, was converted from a TDA to an MTOE organization. The 2nd MR had one Air Terminal Movement Control Team in Ramstein, 3 subordinate movement control teams in Kaiserslautern, Mannheim, and Idar Oberstein; 3 Highway Regulating Teams in Karlsruhe, Saarbruecken, and Koblenz; and 2 Rail Movements Offices in Karlsruhe and Saarbruecken.
While USAREUR was implementing the necessary changes to the movement control organizational structure in the mid-1980's, US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) and the United States Army Transportation Center were concurrently studying movement control doctrine and identified similar requirements needed throughout the Army. One of the outcomes was to establish transportation battalion headquarters as the basis for command and control over movement control teams. In early 1985, it was determined that the 2nd Movements Region Headquarters would be renamed the 39th Transportation Battalion (Movement Control). On 17 February 1986 the 39th Transportation Battalion (Movement Control) was reactivated at Rhine Ordnance Barracks assuming the mission of the 2nd Movements Region. Additional operating locations for the Branch Movement Control Teams (BMCT) assigned to various MCT's were in Mannheim, Zweibruecken, Pirmasens, Nahbollenbach and Worms, Germany; as well as Chievres, Belgium.
The 39th Transportation Battalion organization remained unchanged for 8 years. As the US Forces in Europe began to draw down changes forthcoming would transform the composition of the battalion for a decade. Upon the inactivation of the VII US Corps, so too was inactivated the 229th Corps Movement Control Center. In 1992, the 39th Transportation Battalion was assigned the movement control team in Stuttgart, Germany and its associated subordinate activities in Stuttgart, Heilbronn and Augsburg. In 1994, the MCT Stuttgart and MCT Idar-Oberstein inactivated and the activities that remained operational fell under the supervision of MCT Kaiserslautern and MCT Mannheim. In 1995, the Battalion headquarters relocated from Rhine Ordnance Barracks to Kleber Kaserne in Kaiserslautern, Germany and changes continued.
From 1995 through 1997 several of the small activities either inactivated or relocated and the Battalion gained 2 additional movement control teams. The first was MCT Rotterdam and the subordinate BMCT activities in Bremerhaven and Chievers, Belgium. The second was the establishment of the MCT in direct support of 37th TRANSCOM's Theater Distribution Center, a mission oriented versus area oriented MCT. After the changes through 1997, the 39th Transportation Battalion's area of responsibility had grown to an AOR through Central and Northern Germany and the BENELUX countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg).
During 2000 the Army Materiel Command Combat Equipment Group-Europe successfully completed a delivery of equipment to Qatar by using one ship that picked up equipment at 2 ports. This was the first time that the movement of Army Prepositioned Stocks by sea was accomplished using one ship making two stops, instead of chartering a ship from each port. Based in Eygelshoven, AMC CEG-E was managed by the US Army Field Support Command. In April 2000, CEG-E received a request from AMC Forward-Southwest Asia's Combat Equipment Group-Qatar for the delivery of a large load of equipment. To fill the request, CEG-E had to withdraw equipment from 4 of its storage facilities, including the Combat Equipment Battalion-Livorno in Italy. It was then arranged that the MS Green Dale, the ship making the journey from the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands to the port of Umm Sai'd in Qatar, would make a stop in Italy. Two US Army units provided vital support to CEG-E during the movement of equipment. The 39th Transportation Battalion was responsible for transport between storage facilities and the port, and assured that all border-crossing documents were completed. The 838th Transportation Battalion was responsible for harbor operations.
In 2002, organizational changes in the structure of movement control teams throughout the Army resulted in reactivating several Vietnam era transportation units and assigning them MCT responsibilities. The following numbered transportation detachments were assigned to the 39th Transportation Battalion in 2002: 606th Transportation Detachment (Area MCT) at Mannheim, Germany; 612th Transportation Detachment (Area MCT) at Kaiserslautern, Germay; 618th Transportation Detachment (Area MCT) at Kaiserslautern, Germany; 623rd Transportation Detachment (Port MCT) at Rotterdam, the Netherlands; and 624th Transportation Detachment (Port MCT) at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.
Just as the US Army downsized in Europe through much of the 1990's, the German Defense Forces and the host nation transportation support structure downsized and reorganized as well. At the end of 2003, the German Army reorganized the regional Wehrberichskommando (WBK) structure in place to provide convoy and special movement permits to military forces moving through their specific regions. As a result, all convoy and special movement permits were consolidated at the German Logistics Center in Wilhelmshaven, Germany and in doing so eliminated the need for each highway movement regulating team throughout Germany. The need for a US Army close coordination with this new organization remained and the Transportation and Logistics Liasion Office or TLLO located in Wilhelmshaven was established as a subordinate activity to the Support Operation Section of the 39th Transportation Battalion Headquarters. Similarly, over the preceding decade and with the privatization of the German National Railroad, all of the Rail Movement Management Teams from throughout the Battalion were inactivated and the functions were consolidated into the Battalion's SPO, Movements Branch.
On 12 April 2004, the 39th Transportation Battalion Headquarters deployed to Bagram, Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). The 39th deployed with 10 personnel and their organic 618th Movement Control Team from Germany to replace the 330th Movement Control Battalion. It was the first movement control battalion to be deployed for a 12 month deployment in support of OEF. The unit fell directly under the Joint Logistics Command (JLC) (at the time the 25th Infantry Division Support Command) who provided direct combat logistical service support to the Combined Joint Task Force-76, Afghanistan (CJTF-76). The 39th Transportation Battalion's mission was to control the movements of personnel, units and material within, and out of the CJTF-76 AOR and ensure effective and efficient use of all available fixed wing, rotary wing and commercial transportation assets.
The Battalion worked in a combined joint logistic environment where they had Air Force, Marines and contractors directly attached to the unit. To complete their mission, the Battalion had 3 Area Movement Control Teams that were task organized with 3 Cargo Documentation Teams, and 2 Cargo Transfer Platoons dispersed throughout the Combined Joint Operation Afghanistan Combined/Joint Operations Area (CJOA) in Bagram, Kandahar, Salerno, and Shindand. The Battalion also had a contractor run MCT in Karshi-Kanabad (K2), Uzbekistan and 3 MCT Liaison teams that were located in Rhein Main Air Base, Germany; Manas Air Base, Kyrgyzstan; and Arifjan, Kuwait. The Battalion had a total of 213 airmen, soldiers, marines, and civilians working in 5 different countries to support OEF.
To handle their tasks they ran 24 hour operations, 7 days a week for the full 12 months they were deployed. The Battalion was divided into an air and surface section, along with a plans section and 2 battle captains. Daily, the Battalion was directly responsible for validating movement requests from all CJTF-76 components. They provided daily ITV to the JLC Commander for strategic moves, sensitive cargo and sustainment as requested. They coordinated, scheduled, tracked and reported the flow of forces into and out of the Combined/Joint Operations Area (CJOA) through the TPFFD process. The Battalion Coordinated onward movement and delivery of containers where they dealt directly with commercial carriers, SDDC, DLA, and 1st TMCA. They were also the container manager for all containers within the CJTF-76 CJOA, which consisted of over 10,000 containers. Finally, they were JLC's "green sheet" authority for expediting mission essential sensitive cargo into the CJOA.
The 618th MCT located in Bagram and the 960th MCT located in Kandahar were responsible for the management, control, and tracking of all air and surface transportation requirements in their area of operations. To complete their mission each MCT had a Cargo Documentation Team (CDT) and a Cargo Transfer Platoon attached to their unit. These attached elements were instrumental in handling the high volume of sustainment containers, deployment and redeployment equipment that passed through their respective logistical hub. The 870th MCT and the 873rd CDT were originally located in K2, but were reorganized to stand-up a MCT in forward operating base Salerno, to provide air and surface movement control to Regional Command East (the "Kowst Bowl") of the Combined/Joint Operations Area (CJOA). The Shindand MCT was organized at the mid-point of the deployment, after green on green fighting occurred in late Summer 2004. They provided movement control support in Regional Command West, Combined/Joint Operations Area. The Shindand MCT had 8 soldiers that were pulled from the Bagram MCT.
The K2 MCT, which was made up entirely of contracted KBR civilians, and the 4 LNO teams were largely responsible for providing MCT support and guidance in their area of operations. They were instrumental in keeping the Battalion headquarters informed about all the missions and movements that were to enter or depart the Combined/Joint Operations Area through their respective area of operations. The LNO teams were made up from the MCTs located throughout the theatre and allowed soldiers an opportunity to work in different and unique locations during the deployment.
The 39th Transportation Battalion accomplished an incredible amount during their 12 month deployment in support of OEF. The first mission they undertook was the coordinating, tracking, and reporting of the 10th Mountain Division's redeployment and the 25th Infantry Division's deployment. This involved the onward movement of over 26,000 pax and the coordination and transportation of over 2,700 pieces of equipment. During the relief in place, the Battalion also provided reception, staging and onward movement support to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit Deployment landing in Kandahar (2,200 pax and 350 pcs) and the Jordanian Special Operation Force Deployment (200 pax and 30 pcs).
A key success factor for the Battalion was flexibility. This was attributed to its ability to reorganize and task organize for effective transportation support as the dynamic of the Afghanistan theatre changed throughout the deployment. By the time 25th Infantry Division took over in 2004, the mission hd turned to developing a more structured, stabile and logistically supported theatre, where they still went out and hunted down terrorist cells, but they also offered a long term solution toward peace and prosperity. To offer security, the theatre had to move to a more economical logistic support where they no longer relied solely on fix-wing and rotary wing to support their Forward Operating Bases. They had to develop multiple lines of communications that included surface support. This action relied heavily on the local commercial carriers to provide this support. The Battalion's experience with movement control in Germany was a key to turning the theatre from a non-doctrinal to doctrinal movement control theatre where the coordination and control of limited transportation assets became essential.
When CJTF-76 established a logistical hub in Salerno, to effectively support the Regional Command East, where many forward operating bases were located along the Afghan/Pakistan border, the Battalion sent a 9-man team to stand-up a provisional MCT. The team took direct control over both the fix-wing and rotary wing support operations and the surface operations in Salerno. The Battalion was also essential in coordinating and establishing Shindand forward operating base, which supported Afghan National Army and Special Forces soldiers that were sent to quell the green on green fighting that took place in western Afghanistan. In less then 48 hours, they planned, scheduled, and tracked 30 flights of over 200 short tons of equipment to support the Shindand Forward Operating Base. They then deployed an 8-man team to provide MCT support to the region. Finally, the Battalion was also able to support missions outside the CJTF-76 realm. They sent a 4-person team to Jacobabad, Pakistan to assist the Air Force in the movement of over 450 pieces of equipment to over 5 different countries, in order to help them close their air base prior to the December 2004 deadline.
One of the most complex and difficult missions the Battalion took on was the commercial container management. Prior to their arrival there was absolutely no container management or control of commercial movement from the port. The lack of control was costing the government millions of dollars a day as the commercial carriers charged them for container demurrage. Through the SDDC counterparts and commercial shipping firms, the Battalion was responsible for calling forward commercial sustainment containers from the port of Karachi, tracking their movement and closing out their arrival to bases. They were then responsible for tracking every container that remained in the country ensuring they were pushed back to the carrier as soon as possible to avoid expensive demurrage charges. The task of container management was centralized at the Battalion headquarters where on average over 10,000 containers a day were tracked and eventually returned to the commercial company.
During their year in Afghanistan, the Battalion was there to provide expert movement control support. They were instrumental in coordinating, tracking and reporting the movement of over 70,000 personnel, 8000 pieces of equipment, and over 25,000 commercial containers into, within and out of the Combined/Joint Operations Area. On 13 April 2005, the Battalion redeployed to their home station of Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Recognizing the need for additional Movement Control Teams in support of global requirements, the 486th Transportation Detachment (Area MCT) was reassigned from a direct support MCT to the 1st Theater Movement Control Agancy Headquarters to the 39th Transportation Battalion. As of June 2005, in addition to the operating locations of the assigned Movement Control Teams, the Battalion also had activities in the cities of Germersheim, Stuttgart, Bremerhaven, and Wilhelmshaven, Germany; Schinnen, The Netherlands; and Chievres, Belgium.
In addition to establishing a military MTOE to support movement control in Europe, one of the proposals in the TROOP plan was to maintain a comprehensive TDA augmentation to each transportation battalion headquarters, MCT, BMCT, HMCT and RMMT. This extensive network of local national employees provided the military command structure with expertise in the areas of host nation transportation and implementation of the USAREUR Movement Control System. The 39th Transportation Battalion Headquarters had a Senior Traffic Manager as the principle advisor to the Battalion commander, a traffic manager in the support operations section, and a small cell of transportation specialists in the support operations section. Each MCT has a traffic manager and assigned transportation specialists to support the mission of the numbered MCT's assigned AOR. BMCTs had transportation specialists assigned to support the units, activities and agencies that use the USAREUR Movement Control System. As HMCTs and RMMTs were eliminated, the employees working within those organizations have been reassigned throughout the Battalion. In 2005, the 39th Transportation Battalion had assigned 65 civilian employees under the augmentation TDA, working for the US Forces in Germany (less V CORPS area) and the BENELUX.
In 2006, as part of the Department of the Army's Transformation and Global Rebasing and Restructuring initatives, the 15th Transportation Detachment as well as the 66th Transportation Company (Medium Truck) and in 2007, the 5th Quatermaster Detachment (Rigger) were assigned to the 39th Transportation Battalion. In October 2006, the 39th Transportation Battalion assumed operational command of the 27th Transportation Battalion (Movement Control) and took over support responsibility for the entire V Corps region, gaining 2 additional military MCTs, 2 civilian MCTs and 11 BMCTs consisting of an additional 64 local nationals.
In May 2007, the 27th Transportation Battalion (Movement Control) was inactivated, leaving the 39th Transportation Movement Control Battalion as the sole Movement Control Battalion for central Europe. This, along with a general realignment of support assets within US Army Europe led to a reorganization of the units subordinate to the Battalion. By 2010, the Battalion had the following units assigned to it: 66th Transporation Company (Medium Truck), 15th Transportation Detachment (MCT), 486th Transporation Detachment (MCT), 624th Transportation Detachment (MCT), 627th Transportation Detachment (MCT), and 635th Transportation Detachment (MCT).
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