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Amphibious Construction Battalion 1 Develops Roll On/Roll Off Discharge Facility Capabilities

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS110703-06
7/3/2011

By Seaman Jumar T. Balacy, Navy Public Affairs Support Element West Public Affairs

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (NNS) -- Amphibious Construction Battalion (ACB) 1 conducted Roll On/Roll Off Discharge Facility (RRDF) and Lift On/ Lift Off (LOLO) exercises in support of Pacific Horizon and Dawn Blitz Feb. 22-March 16.

Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 3 and 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) led Pacific Horizon, an offload of Marine Corps principle end items (PEI) to Camp Pendleton and the first part of I MEF's humanitarian aid/ disaster relief (HA/DR) scenario called Dawn Blitz.

To support the movement of PEI, ACB 1 assembled the 72 feet wide by 240 feet long RRDF platform. The platform was used to drive vehicles from the ship to the Improved Navy Lighterage System (INLS) craft to conduct an instream offload from the USNS Sgt. William R. Button (T-AK 3012) to Camp Pendleton.

LOLO uses a ship's crane to move vehicles onto the INLS craft that then ferries the vehicles to the beach. While moving equipment from ship to shore, Sailors and Marines were able to strengthen their amphibious skill set.

ACB 1's Bravo Company, responsible for the maintenance and operation of watercraft and the driving force behind RRDF, has been preparing for Pacific Horizon since August 2010. Since then, Bravo Company has experienced a non-stop operational tempo fulfilling RRDF requirements and other mission capabilities, such as Floating Causeway and basic combat skills in a regularly scheduled field exercise (FEX).

With each subsequent exercise building upon the last, Bravo Company continued with more training operations in November 2010 in the Coronado Bay.

From Nov. 29-Dec. 11, 2010, Bravo Sailors solidified core RRDF competencies off the coast of Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands with USNS 1ST Lt. Jack Lummus.

In Operation Cobra Gold, Bravo Sailors used RRDF to support the rapid deployment of combat power in Thailand from Feb. 22-March 16.

"In the eight months that I've been here, watching that team develop, watching their skills come together—just watching the level of proficiency become what it is right now—has been pretty exciting," said Lt. Cmdr. Luke Green, operations officer for ACB 1. "It was a great exercise and everybody who was out there performed absolutely flawlessly and I couldn't be more proud to be a part of that."

Moving 201 pieces of equipment was a difficult task, especially when Bravo Sailors executed the mission amidst a rainstorm and tsunami warning. Assembling, disassembling, and securing the platform three times before completion.

"The skills and strength our team developed through all of our previous operations is what gave us the ability to deal with this and any other situation we come across," said Boatswain's Mate 1st Class Timothy Maguire, RRDF platform causeway commander.

The experience imparted valuable skills to all Sailors involved, increasing the operational readiness of Amphibious Construction Battalion 1.