From Mark Metz please make arrangements to attend if you can :
To MRS Veterans and Friends:
Following a year marked by budget cuts and Sequestration
the Transportation Corps, the TC Museum, and Ft. Eustis are planning two events
to recognize the service and contributions of both Veterans and those still
serving.
The new Chief of Transportation, BG John P.
Sullivan, has designated Thursday, the 24th of July as the date to celebrate
the 72nd Anniversary of the founding of the Transportation Corps on July 31,
1942. He will use the opportunity to dedicate the recently completed
Operation Iraqi Freedom wing of the TC Museum. In addition, the Transportation
Corps Regimental Association will be announcing the recipients of this years
scholarships awards. These activities will be followed by a social and
picnic to be held in the Museum's Rail Pavilion. The following day, Friday the
25th of July, the The TC Museum Foundation will hold it annual general
membership meeting with a theme focused on "TC Veterans and
Retirees."
The second event being
scheduled is a Ft. Eustis installation recognition of Veteran's Day on November
11th. While this is still in the planning stage, efforts are underway way
to invite and host Amtrak's 40th Anniversary Exhibit Train for an on post
visit. This would be most appropriate in that General Frank S. Besson,
for whom the TC Museum is named, in retirement was one of the Presidential
appointees incorporating and an initial Board of Directors member of Amtrak's
parent the National Railroad Passenger Corporation.
The
dedication and museum activities are open the public and your participation is
encouraged. Plan to join us for one or both of these events at Fort
Eustis to honor and celebrate the accomplishments of Army Railroaders from the
Civil War to current operations in Afghanistan. Take time this Memorial
Day to remember and honor all who have served to defend and protect our country
through the decades.
The following was written as the Rail Column for
inclusion in the Foundation Spring Newsletter. Because of its size, it
most likely be printed in two parts. As always, comments and corrections
are most appreciated.
Mark Metz
LTC (R), TC
Foundation Rail Committee
22 May 2014
_______________________________
THE MILITARY RAILWAY
SERVICE (MRS) FROM KOREA TO AFGHANISTAN
With special thanks to:
COL David T. Pollard, COL Robert M. Pelletier, MAJ Scott D. Meyer, MR George
Gounley & MR Tim O. Moriarty
The Korean Conflict would be the last overseas
(OCONUS) military involvement that would see the deployment of tactical
Military Railway Service units, specifically the 712th, 714th, 724th, and 729th
Transportation Railway Operating Battalions (TROB) and the 765th Transportation
Railway Shop Battalion. Post Korea, the Army's active duty railway force
structure would consist of the 774th Transportation Group (Railway), the 714th
Transportation Battalion (Railway Operating) and 763th Transportation Battalion
(Railway Shop) all stationed at Fort Eustis, VA. On 3 June 1965 the 774th
Transportation Group and 763rd Transportation Battalion would be inactivated
leaving the 714th Transportation Battalion as the Army's only active duty rail
battalion.
During the Viet Nam war era, several rail units
were activated at Fort Eustis to include eleven Transportation Detachments
(Railway Station) on 1 June 1966; the 157th Transportation Company, (Diesel -
Electric Locomotive Repair) and the 663rd Transportation Company (Railway Car
Repair) on 1 April 1967; and the 716th Transportation Group (Railway) on 25
January 1968. The 716th Transportation Group, with lineage as a
World War II Railway Operating Battalion, time as an active unit would be short
lived as it was inactivated on 3 September 1968. The only rail units to be deployed
to Viet Nam would be the 149th, the 525th and 526th Transportation Detachments
(Railway Station). Assigned as documentation specialists to the 507th
Transportation Group (Traffic Management Agency) (TMA). they quickly lost their
rail identity and were absorbed into the parent organization.
While no operating operating units were deployed
to Viet Nam, limited military use was made of the rail network that remained
operable. This was primarily around port cities to nearby depots and
installations. Actual operations were conducted under a Host Nation (HN)
agreement by the Viet Nam Railway (Hoa Xa Viet Nam). For example, during
1970 -71, trains operated from Bridge Ramp in Da Nang to Phu Bai, carrying
rations, fuel, and construction materials to 101st Airborne Division
(Airmobile), and gravel for roads from Camp Sally, north of Hue, toward Phu
Bai. During this period the railroad also began to be used for retrograde
material from Phu Bai to Bridge Ramp, after the railroad successfully handled a
short notice request to carry helicopter rotor blades to meet up with the
repair ship USNS Corpus Christi Bay.
Interface between US forces and the Vietnamese
Railway was conducted by the Military Assistance Command Viet Nam (MACV) rail
liaison office and the TMA. During the US involvement, the Vietnamese
Railways were operating with French built steam and diesel-electric locomotives
along with US built General Electric diesel-electrics provided as foreign aid.
In addition, the Army sent several Plymouth built diesel-hydraulic
locomotives in TC paint from Thailand to country for Vietnamese use.
Freight equipment was a mixture of French built and US foreign aid cars
built by Pullman-Standard.
The post Viet Nam troop draw down was not kind
to the Army rail structure. Units activated at Fort Eustis but not
deployed were inactivated or returned to reserve status. The 714th
Transportation Battalion (Railway Operating) (Steam & Diesel Electric)
itself was inactivated on 22 June 1972 leaving all rail operating capability in
the Army Reserve (USAR). With the inactivation of the 714th, the 1st Railway
Detachment was established at Fort Eustis to carry on some of the battalion's
mission including individual training of Army railway soldiers, hosting reserve
railway units during their annual training, and operating the post utility
railway. Railway MOS's were deleted from the active Army in May 1976 and
the 1st Railway Detachment itself would be inactivated on 30 September 1978.
By
the mid -1970s the USAR force structure was reduced to the 3rd Transportation
Brigade (St. Louis, MO), 67th Transportation Group (Railway) (Jacksonville,
FL)(Affiliated with SCL), the 706th Transportation Group (Railway) (Chester,
PA), the 717th Transportation Battalion (Railway Operating) (Philadelphia, PA),
the 729th Transportation Battalion (Railway Operating) (Middletown, CT), the
757th Transportation Battalion (Railway Shop) (Milwaukee, WI), along with a
handful of company-level units. Most were inactivated by the end of the
decade, to include the 3rd Transportation Brigade (31 December 1976), the 706th
Transportation Group (30 June 1976) and 717th Transportation Battalion (15
September 1975). The 729th was inactivated on 30 September 1976 and its
assets, through a series of reorganizations and reflaggings, later emerged as
the 1205th Transportation Railway Operating Battalion, a
smaller unit providing domestic (CONUS) railway operating and track
maintenance support to the Military Traffic Management Command's (MTMC)
Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point, NC (MOTSU). The headquarters of the
757th Transportation Battalion was inactivated on 16 December 1980, leaving the
subordinate numbered railway companies as separate units, and was then
reactivated on 16 May 1985. The 67th Transportation Group remained active until
1 October 1986. In the wake of its inactivation, the 416th Transportation
Battalion (Railway) was activated on 16 September 1987 as a composite unit with
45 personnel to provide railway operation planning rather than actual operating
capability. It too was inactivated during the post-Cold War drawdown in
February 1994.
For forty-five
years from its inception in December 1945, the Berlin Duty Train would provide
not only transportation between Frankfurt, Bremerhaven and Berlin, but serve as
a Cold War symbol of the Allies exercising transit rights through East Germany
to the divided city of Berlin. Army TC would provide conductors for the train
throughout it existence. Conductor duties included processing passengers
and overseeing the crew in the absence of the train commanders, who rode only
through the East German portion of the trip. In later years, German rail
employees from the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) in the West and the Deutsche
Reichsbahn (DR) in the East actually operated the trains. Included
as one of the many passengers, Elvis Presley would ride the train in 1958 as
part of his Army career. With the coming to end of the Cold War,
elimination of Soviet checkpoints, and the reunification of Germany; the
political justifications for the train ceased to exist. The Berlin Duty Train's
last run was on 8 December 1990.
Utilization of Army railroaders during the First
Iraq War was limited. The only unit to be activated was the 1205th TROB
that reported to MTMC's MOTSU terminal to augment the civilian workforce.
Volunteers from the 757th Transportation Battalion did deploy to several US
installations to include Fort Hood and Fort Carson to support unit
deployments. In theater, the 318th Transportation Agency (Movement Control)
would utilize the Saudi Railway from the Arabian Gulf to Riyadh as a segment of
the western supply route to Iraq.
Throughout this period from the end of the
Korean Conflict through the turn of the century, Army rail organization and
doctrine remained based on the World War II era. The basic battalion
mission remained being able to operate the equivalent of a hundred mile
commercial railroad division. In the 1970s as the Army was embracing
containerization, Transportation School rail lesson plans still focused on
break bulk. This organizational structure and doctrine no longer fit Army
deployment requirements. By the time of the Second Iraq War in 2003, use
of Iraqi rail capability to support US troops was TBD (To Be Determined) during
the planning process.
In February 2003 when the possibility of
utilizing the Iraqi Republic Railway (IRR) network to support Coalition forces
was made by LTC Robert Pelletier in a 3rd COSCOM pre- deployment planning
exercise in Germany, LTC Pelletier found himself directed by the
COSCOM commander BG Charles Fletcher to develop a plan. LTC Pelletier was
an activated reservist on leave from his civilian employment as a corridor
manager in Union Pacific Railroad's Omaha operation center. The plan called for
utilizing the 757th Transportation Battalion along with internal expertise from
on hand reservists with railroad experience to assess, repair, manage and
operate the Iraqi rail system. Initial and future operational plans were drawn
up as well as personnel and equipment requirements were determined. In early
March 2003, Operation
Iraqi Freedom's Coalition C4, MG Claude V.
Christianson requested the 3rd COSCOM provide a “Tiger Team” to
plan, organize and utilize the IRR to support Coalition forces.
The
Tiger Team, headed by LTC Pelletier, deployed to Arifjan, and then to Umm Qasr
in early-April to work with a team from the 757th Transportation Battalion that
was attached to the 17th Port & Maritime Regiment (UK). After
the rail line between Basrah to Umm Qasr was opened, the Tiger Team moved to
Baghdad to begin operations and conduct an assessment of the entire IRR
system. Future military logistics nodes (railheads) were identified and
proposed, schedules were developed, a communications network was established and
preliminary security forces were stood up. Early
on, the deployment of the remaining elements of the 757th Transportation
Battalion was deleted from any concept. These actions meant that rail
support would be completely dependent on working with the HN IRR management and
its operating capability
By mid-May, train
schedules and timetables were developed and coordinated with the IRR.
Compensation terms were negotiated and agreed to with the IRR. Ultimately,
railheads were established at the logistical bases of the 101st Airborne
Division (Air Assault), the 4th Infantry Division, the 3d Armored Calvary
Regiment, the 3rd COSCOM, the1st Marine Expeditionary Force and British Forces
in the Basra - Umm Qasr area. Additionally,
the Tiger Team became an integral part of the Ministry of Transportation’s rail
reconstruction and post war utilization of the rail network as part of nation
building. Utilization of the IRR
capability proved to be a force multiplier by moving 11,000 container during
the first eight months of rail operations reducing the overall need for
military or contractor motor vehicles and drivers.
Integral with working with HN rail capability is a strong
interface with the nations political bureaucracy. By mid summer Mr.
Gordon Mott joined the Tiger Team as the Department of Defense' senior civilian
rail expert. Following service with the 3rd
Transportation Railway Command in the
late 1960s, Mr. Mott held various managerial positions with the Burlington
Northern Railroad, the Federal Railroad Administration Northeast Corridor
Project, and CSX Transportation. Securing and directing US aid for the
IRR proved critical in increasing both short term IRR capability and reliability
along with cementing its long term role in nation building. Having on
the ground managers with US
commercial railroad knowledge and experience first utilized during the Civil
War once again proved its worth in Iraq.
While the use of the IRR in the Second Iraq War
was a limited portion of the overall requirement, it was important for Army
doctrine as it confirmed that with proper planning HN rail infrastructure and
operating capability remains a viable alternative for supporting deployed
troops. A similar conclusion was reached in an Engineer Corps after
action report on 1996 Bosnia operations. That report concluded "a
functioning rail line is an asset to any military force concerned with
supplying and reinforcing its forces." In early November 2004, three
months after taking command of MTMC's successor Surface Distribution and
Deployment Command (SDDC), BG Charles Fletcher hosted a Rail Summit Overview to
assess current rail capabilities and future rail requirements.
An early on Summit conclusion was that deployment
of traditional operating rail battalions under World War II doctrine was highly
unlikely. The conference did conclude that where available, the use of HN
rail capabilities could be a viable transportation alternative and an Army unit
designed to facilitate this did have a place in the force structure. This
would mean a dramatic change in the Army rail force structure from an
operations orientation to one of assessment, advisory, and contract
administration. Based on the initial IRR Tiger Team experience, various
additional after action reports, and other expert input; recommendations for
the proposed organizations capabilities, structure, and mission statement were
developed. This would began a ten year process to develop the rail
force structure and doctrine needed to support this mission under the Force
Design Update (FDU) process.
While this Summit did come to some basic
conclusions and recommendations, progress in moving the concept through the FDU
process made little progress. With a pending Total Army Analysis (TAA)
questioning the need for any Army rail force structure, LTG Jack C.
Stultz, Chief, Army Reserve, championed maintaining an Army rail
capability. As released in December 2008, TAA10 -15 maintained an Army
rail capability but reduced its authorized strength from over 500 to 150
positions.
With TAA allowances known, BG Edward F. Dorman
III, the Army Chief of Transportation, backed a rail advisory force structure
to be known as a Rail Support Center (RSC). By 2009 using lessons
learned and after action reports from the initial IRR Tiger Team, follow on
teams to include one headed by MAJ Scott Meyer in 2008, and numerous other
experts; the Office of Chief of Reserve Affairs (OCRA) of the Transportation
School, CASCOM's Force Development and other vested parties to
include SDDC and 757th Transportation Battalion began further evaluation
and staffing of the RSC. It would fall on the COL David T. Pollard,
as the OCRA, to begin the process of shepherding the RSC through the FDU.
During the process he would be succeeded by COL Larry McColpin and later COL
Dan Rivers. Critical in this process were Central Commands and Africa
Commands positive responses to a CASCOM "White Paper" inquiry if such
a capability was needed. The RSC would be a USAR asset with an authorized
strength of 150 (ultimately 184) personnel. Its mission: "To
provide rail network capacity and infrastructure assessments, perform rail mode
feasibility studies and advise on employment of rail capabilities, coordinate
rail and bridge safety assessments, perform and assist with rail planning,
coordinate use of host HN or contracted rail assets. Perform contracting
officer's representative (COR) duties to oversee contracts and provide quality
assurance of contracts." In this process, the RSC would be renamed
Expeditionary Rail Center (ERC) in line with evolving Army designations.
In the fall of 2010 a new 75 km rail line was
completed connecting Afghanistan with the Uzberkistan rail network. The
following October, the first of four scheduled USAR Afghan Rail Advisory Teams
(ARAT) was deployed to help US forces and Afghan authorities effectively
utilize this new rail transportation capability. One of the ARAT's
missions was to evaluate and further refine the ERC concept. The
ERC concept was approved by Headquarters DA with the unit scheduled to be
activated in September 2015.
