TRANSCOM assesses exercise at Lakehurst

Published July 31, 2015
By Staff Sgt. Gustavo Gonzalez and Loran Doane
621st Contingency Response Wing Public Affairs and 597th Transportation Brigade

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- A joint, multi-unit exercise was held here to test Joint Task Force - Port Opening capabilities July 18-24, involving nearly 160 service members.

Airmen and Soldiers came from Travis Air Force Base, California and Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia to work with the 621st Contingency Response Wing based here to participate in Exercise Turbo Distribution 15-7. Members of the Defense Logistics Agency also participated.

The exercise, designed to test the ability of the JTF-PO to deploy world-wide on a moment's notice to establish air cargo and distribution operations for medical aid, vehicles and a host of military equipment, requires the Army Rapid Port Opening Element and the Air Force's Contingency Response Wing to effectively mesh their capabilities.

"Anytime that you can practice what you go do in an operation with those that you would go do it with and train together, that's the value of this," said Col. Rhett Champagne, 821 CRG commander and JTF-PO commander for the exercise. "There are two [Contingency Response Groups] that will share the alert with three RPOEs, so we are going to see each other again and again over a two-year period. You see the same faces so when you actually go out on the field and work together, you know each other's tactics, techniques, procedures, processes."

Although the heat was extreme, it didn't create the hardship one would expect considering the heavy uniforms and battle gear the service members were wearing much of the time.

Within four hours of arrival, the forward node command post was set up, cargo began flowing into the airfield and exercise participants started receiving, sorting and loading the cargo onto flatbed trucks for transfer to the newly established forward node in order to prevent a "log jam" situation at the airfield -- a logistician's nightmare.

"Anytime you deploy someplace new, there will always be uncertainties which you can't plan for and which you must simply work through on the fly," said Maj. Anthony Freda, 690th Rapid Port Opening Element commander. "But what you can do is plan for the technical competence of your Soldiers in doing their job - that is within your power."

The U.S. Transportation Command created Exercise Turbo Distribution with the aim of building improved joint readiness and integration between all the transportation and logistics players. In this case, the RPOEs, CRGs, and the Defense Logistics Agency.

"The benefit to this exercise is that it provides the RPOEs the opportunity to train jointly in ways that otherwise would not be available," said Robert Merrifield, Surface Deployment Distribution Command JTF-PO exercise planner. "Either the units learn it here in a controlled environment, or during a real-world deployment. Those are the only two options."

Ultimately, what matters at the end of the end of the day is whether those being evaluated find the training useful and can build upon it to simplify future deployments while minimizing risk.

"This exercise was good training and gives us a final opportunity to evaluate and look at ourselves prior to entering the RPOE alert rotation in the next couple of months," said 1st Lt. Bryan Diffley, 690th RPOE platoon leader and forward node officer in charge. "I feel comfortable our Soldiers are up to the job should we be asked to deploy."