Military

Rhein Ordnance Barracks, Germany

Rhine Ordnance Barracks is across Kaiserstrasse from Vogelweh and houses the 29th Support Group, TSC's forward-deployed contingency logistical command. Other 21st TSC units on ROB are the 5th Maintenance Company, the 230th Military Police Company and the 5th Quartermaster Detachment.

USAREUR has programmed for construction or renovation of all required facilities for two strategic deployment hubs-one located at Rhine Ordnance Barracks adjacent to Ramstein Airbase supporting the Central Region and the second in Northern Italy supporting the Southern Region. Additionally, a stationing plan has been developed that ensures each deployable unit is supported by a local railhead, appropriate road network and a regional APOD/APOE.

The successful partnership between USAREUR and USAFE, working together to meet the needs of the EUCOM commander, has been an essential part of the development and employment of the Immediate Ready Force [IRF]. Also key to the readiness and rapid deployment of the IRF is the prepositioning of equipment at the Deployment Processing Center. Located at Rhine Ordinance Barracks, the DPC stocks complete equipment sets for the FEMs, maintaining them at a 100 percent readiness rate. The location of ROB, adjacent to Ramstein Air Base, the primary aerial port of embarkation in Germany's Central Region, helps speed the delivery of IRF personnel and equipment anywhere they are needed.

The Deployment Processing Center at Kaiserslautern's Rhine Ordnance Barracks, together with Ramstein Air Base, constitutes a key deployment hub. Rhine Ordnance Barracks was chosen as 21st TAACOM's Deployment Processing Center because of its key location. The DPC has been in existence for two years. It is situated just a few kilometers from Ramstein Air Base, and there is a military-controlled access road linking the two sites. The DPC is easily accessible by train and sits adjacent to Weilerbach and Miesau Army Ammunition Depots. If a unit within US Army, Europe, is deploying and has a mission requirement to carry ammunition, the unit must come to one of these two depots to get uploaded.

The Deployment Processing Center (DPC) is the 'Green Ramp' for Europe, which can process European based units or units transiting the theater from the continental US The DPC provides a capability for European Command to stage forces to support crisis situations within the theater. These could be units to conduct or support combat operations or operations other than war -- peacemaking, peacekeeping or humanitarian operations. It provides a reception and staging point for expeditionary forces waiting to be committed to an operation. The DPC frees up the leadership to do the planning, mission analysis and everything else required for what's going to happen at the other end.

Pusher units do everything to get the Immediate Ready Force (IRF) unit deployed, maintaining skill sets like administration, vehicle maintenance, palletization, and loading aircraft. They augment the full time cadre at the DPC -- the pusher unit provides the muscle to the DPC framework. V Corps gives its battalion-sized elements the pusher tasking a year out. Once selected, they train with the DPC full-time cadre and current pusher unit. Once qualified, the unit is on immediate recall to the DPC for 90 days.

On 21 December 1998 it was announced that Headquarters US Army Europe was realigning its air defense artillery units to comply with the Army's Patriot Standardization Plan. The Patriot Standardization Plan enables all ADA battalions to perform the Southwest Asia mission, simplify wartime alignment plans, simplify strategic lift planning and equitably distribute Patriot battalions among ADA units. As a result of the plan, USAREUR realigned its three Patriot missile battalions with their twelve missile batteries, two maintenance companies and one maintenance team into two battalions with five batteries and one maintenance company each.

1-7 ADA Battalion, with its Headquarters and Headquarters Battery and B and C Batteries moved from Rhine Ordnance Barracks, Kaiserslautern, Germany, to Ft. Bliss, TX. A Battery, 1-7 ADA Bn, was assigned to 5-7 ADA Bn in Hanau and moved from Rhine Ordnance Barracks to Babenhausen, Germany. F Battery, 6-52 ADA Bn located at Ansbach was assigned to 5-7 ADA Bn and move to Babenhausen. These units were reflagged as D Battery and E Battery, 5-7 ADA Bn. The Patriot LX maintenance team from 3d COSCOM's 147th Maintenance Co. stationed with 6-52 ADA in Shipton Kaserne, Ansbach moved to Ft. Bliss. 549th Maintenance Co. currently assigned to 1-7 ADA Bn at Rhine Ordnance Barracks was assigned to 6-52 ADA Bn and move to Ansbach. All moves were completed by mid-July 1999.

In June 2001 Kaiserslautern's Rhein Ordnance Barracks became home to U.S. Army Europe's first one-plus-one single soldiers quarters constructed from the ground up. The new SSQ houses 24 soldiers from various Kaiserslautern Military Command units on two floors. One-plus-one rooms give soldiers their own sleeping area, with a shared bath between rooms. The new standard replaces older formats, including 'gang-style' latrines where an entire floor would share one or two large common bathrooms. The new rooms give each soldier 118 square feet of private living space, and each room has a walk-in-closet, TV, local access network, telephone connections, and 110- and 220-volt electrical outlets. A shared kitchenette with refrigerator and microwave rounds out the entryway to each set of rooms. All rooms are also equipped with fire sprinklers for safety. The basement has a laundry room, personal storage areas, a game room, dayroom, bathroom and utility room, and an adjacent parking lot has plenty of room for soldier's vehicles.

The USAREUR objective by 2005 is to enhance the Deployment Processing Center (DPC). Rhine Ordnance Barracks (ROB) has all facilities to support deployment of a brigade and the Immediate Reaction Force (IRF), except a consolidated vehicle processing facility, a hazardous material storage, issue and turn-in facility. Improvements to the DPC will permit process deploying equipment at the rate of 40 C-17 equivalents per day during a major deployment. This will allow maximum deployment of Army forces at the APOE. Forty C-17 equivalents is the projected capability in 2005, following significant Air Force construction at Ramstein Airbase. The DPC's current capability is only ½ of Ramstein's 2005 capability.