53rd Transportation Battalion (Movement Control) / 53rd Movement Control Battalion (EAC)
The 53rd Transportation Battalion (Movement Control) / 53rd Movement Control Battalion (EAC) MCB is the Third U.S. Army's (ARCENT) premier Theater Movement Control Battalion. The unit is an effective and efficient Movement Control Battalion essential to providing flexible movement control operations to meet transportation requirements across the spectrum of the Joint Chief of Staff exercises and contingency operations in a joint and coalition environment
The mission of the 53rd Transportation Battalion is to "within 96 hours of notification, deploys to conduct movement control operations in order to facilitate the rapid projection of forces deploying into and out of the U.S. CENTCOM area of responsibility; provide Command and Control for all attached or assigned Movement Control Teams in order to support reception, staging, onward movement, sustainment, retrograde and redeployment operations; and serve as the Third US Army (ARCENT) executive agent for theater movement control.
The 53rd Transportation Battalion was formerly stationed at Bremerhaven, Germany under the 37th Transportation Group [later 37th TRANSCOM].
The 53rd Transportation Battalion was first constituted May 28, 1943 as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 53rd Quartermaster Truck Battalion, and it was activated in north Africa June 22, 1943. It was reorganized May 22, 1944, and redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 53rd Quartermaster (Mobile).
The battalion was inactivated Nov. 12, 1945, in Germany. Then Aug. 1, 1946, the battalion was converted and redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 53rd Transportation Corps Truck Battalion when it was activated at Fort Sill, Okla. On May 3, 1949, the battalion was alloted to the Regular Army, and it was reorganized and redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 53rd Transportation Battalion at Kaiserslautern, Germany, April 1, 1953. Then, June 19, 1959, it was once again redisgnated as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 53rd Transportation Battalion and remained so until it was inactivated Sept. 15, 1995.
The 53rd Transportation Battalion was reactivated Oct. 29, 1999, at Fort McPherson, Ga., as the active component augmentation to the Third Theater Movement Control Agency.
Deployments to the Southwest Asian theater have increased in recent years. The areas of reception, staging, onward movement and integration have increased in size and scope, resulting in the need for a movement control battalion. Consequently, the 53rd Transportation Battalion (Movement Control) received new permanent orders Oct. 29, 1999, reorganizing it into the only CONUS-based active component movement control battalion headquarters (echelons above corps). Unlike other elements of the 377th Theater Support Command, to which doctrinally it would be expected to be assigned, the 53rd Transportation Battalion is an active duty unit. The 53rd Transportation Battalion in the Third United States Army welcomed a new commander in August 2001 during a change of command ceremony held at Hedekin Field at Ft. McPherson.
The battalion served in seven campaigns in World War II, including: Sicily (with Arrowhead), Naples-Foggia, Anzio (with Arrowhead), Rome-Arno, southern France (with Arrowhead), Rhineland, and central Europe.
As of April 2005, the 53rd Transportation Battalion was deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, conducting movement control operations throughout Kuwait. The battalion had, by then, onward moved more than 80,000 troops and 30,000 pieces of cargo and equipment into the theater.
The battalion’s awards and decorations include the Army Superior Unit Award, awarded in 1986 and 1990.
The distinctive unit insignia was originally approved on 27 Apr 1966. On 27 Sep 1993 the description and symbolism was revised. It consists of a gold elephant's head bearing with and encircled by his raised trunk, a brick red enameled tower with four conjoined gold arrowheads issuing from the turret and encircled in base by a black scroll inscribed "SIEGESR'A'DER" in gold letters. Brick red and golden yellow (gold) are the colors traditionally associated with the Transportation Corps. The heavy equipment (truck) of the organization is symbolized by the elephant and the tower, indigenous to Europe, the general area in which the unit served during World War II. The four arrowheads alluding to the four assault landings made the Battalion.
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