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thedrifter
02-19-04, 06:19 AM
Issue Date: February 23, 2004

Marines pull gear out of Cold War storage

By Gordon Lubold
Times staff writer

STUTTGART, Germany — Tons of Marine Corps materiel stored in Norwegian caves during the Cold War is being dusted off for duty in the hot combat zones of Iraq.
In March, Marine Forces Europe will begin shipping an undisclosed number of vehicles, ammunition and food supplies from Norway to support I Marine Expeditionary Force’s deployment in Iraq, said Lt. Col. Joseph Rizzo, the command’s operations officer.

That shipment will be coupled with about 1,000 Marines from 1st Force Service Support Group from Camp Pendleton, Calif., and vehicles and other equipment already arriving in Kuwait.

The prepositioning program is a legacy of the Cold War, when NATO nations prepared for a potential Soviet invasion from the alliance’s northern flank. Six climate-controlled caves began operating as storage facilities in 1988 after a four-year construction effort.

The caves contain about 7,000 tons of ammunition, 1,000 wheeled vehicles and 40,000 cases of rations — enough to support 13,000 Marines for up to 30 days.

The shipment from Norway will represent one of the largest deployments of the vehicle fleet there since the land-based prepositioning program first opened for business, Rizzo said.

The Marine Corps also is sending equipment on Maritime Prepositioning Force ships. Elements of the 1st Force Service Support Group, based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., already have begun offloading equipment in Kuwait, according to Marine Corps reports.

At a Kuwaiti naval port, Brigade Service Support Group 1 began offloading vehicles and supplies from MPF ships Feb. 8. Other equipment is being shipped over directly from the Corps’ U.S. bases by air and sea, the report said. Much of that gear will be staged at Camp Udari in western Kuwait.

The gear that has been stored in Norway hasn’t just been sitting there. Some has been used for various operations and exercises over the years, including one in Africa last year. The Humvees, 5-ton trucks, amphibious assault vehicles and other gear also are rotated with other Marine Corps equipment stocks. It’s all maintained by Norwegians.

“The gear that is prepositioned in Norway is as good or better than that we would pull out of stocks in Albany or Barstow,” Rizzo said, referring to the Corps two big logistics bases in Georgia and California.

Although Norway and the United States split the $17 million annual operating costs, critics have complained the prepositioning program is too costly and its benefits are overestimated.

But Rizzo said that, in many cases, gear can be shipped more quickly from Norway than from the United States. For example, he said a cargo ship can make it to the Persian Gulf from Norway in 24 days versus 34 days from the East Coast of the United States.

There also are cost savings, Rizzo said. Although a plan to ship gear from Norway to Afghanistan in 2001 was canceled because the mission ended sooner than expected, Rizzo said it would have saved $15 million and cut 3,100 flying hours in Air Force transport planes.

The use of the prepositioning equipment will be the centerpiece Marine Forces Europe’s contribution to the second phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom, but the command also will provide medical and combat evacuation support for units headed to Iraq.

“We’re the seam between the force provider and the force user,” Rizzo said. “We make sure there are no hiccups on that seam.”


http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-2635837.php


Sempers,

Roger
:marine: