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thedrifter
05-30-03, 07:04 PM
May 2003

Outfitting the Operating Force

MPF Equips Marines for Operation Iraqi Freedom

By DAVID VERGUN
Associate Editor

"First to Fight" is the mantra of the Marine Corps.

Backing up that claim are Marine expeditionary units aboard amphibious ready groups cruising the seven seas year-round, ready at a moment's notice to go into harm's way or to provide humanitarian assistance.

But occasionally, a larger force of Marines is needed. Such was the case during Desert Storm, Operation Restore Hope (Somalia), and now, Operation Iraqi Freedom. Beginning in January 2003, I Marine Expeditionary Force--comprised of approximately 34,000 Marines, primarily from Camp Pendleton, Calif., and augumented by additional Marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C.--was ordered to Kuwait by U.S. Central Command. They arrived in Kuwait aboard civilian and military aircraft ... minus their vehicles and equipment.

No combat gear?

There simply was too much of it to be airlifted and it would not all fit into the U.S. Navy's amphibious warfare ships.

Fortunately, three squadrons of ships, totaling 15 Maritime Prepositioning Force (MPF) ships, were prepositioned in the Mediterranean Sea, Diego Garcia (in the Indian Ocean), and Guam (in the Pacific Ocean). Each vessel carried approximately 15 M1A1 tanks, 28 amphibious assault vehicles, 153 Humvees (high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles), 100 MTVR (medium tactical vehicle replacement) seven-ton trucks, two mechanized landing craft, eight 155mm howitzers, and 550 containers filled with vast quantities of spare parts, ammunition, medical supplies, food, vehicles, and other sustainment materiel. Each squadron can support a Marine brigade (17,300 Marines and Sailors) for 30 days.

In preparation for Operation Iraqi Freedom, two squadrons of MPF ships were ordered to the Kuwaiti port of Ash Shu'aybah. From 16 January to 4 February, 11 MPF ships were offloaded in record time, according to Col. Allen Coulter, commanding officer of Blount Island Command (BIC) in Jacksonville, Fla.--the Marine Corps logistics unit that manages the MPF program.

"Vessels that are normally offloaded in a week were offloaded in as little as 48 hours. And equally important," Coulter continued, "the condition and readiness of the equipment after being on ship for many months was approaching 99 percent operational. It is a tremendous success story and it validates our maintenance procedures and the Marine Corps' investment in good, reliable equipment."

During Desert Storm, the MPF concept--which grew out of the Cold War in the 1970s--proved its worth, but there were some hard lessons to be learned. Lt. Col. Paul Turner, director of logistics at BIC, was the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade MPF officer at the Port of Al Jubayl, Saudi Arabia, during Operation Desert Shield from September to October 1990. He saw what could best be described as a mess of scattered supplies pier side being sorted by Marines. The process was "agonizingly slow, tedious, and disorderly," he said. "Not our finest moment."

In the dozen intervening years, Turner and other logisticians have worked to improve MPF logistics. Logistics exercises were conducted with the operating forces to test and to validate new ideas. However, it was difficult if not impossible to recreate realistic offload scenarios. "An entire MPF offload is far too costly," Turner said. "We simulated offloads by jotting down container numbers instead of pulling them out of the holds with the ships' cranes and opening them up. We then scanned the NSNs [national stock numbers] into the database for manipulation. As for the operating forces, they were eager to employ equipment rather than practicing the mechanics of offloading the ships and determining the distribution and accountability of the equipment. Operation Iraqi Freedom has provided the first true test of MPF logistics since the Gulf War."

Turner and others at BIC provided to Sea Power their candid assessment of lessons learned during Iraqi Freedom. Although some of the following insights may seem minor and insignificant, the success or failure of an operation can hinge on smooth logistical throughput.

Shark Cages

Storage and transportation frames (STFs) and smaller vehicle storage and transportation frames (V-STFs)--both of which resemble shark cages--were employed in large quantities for the first time. Five STFs fit snugly inside a standard 8-by-8-by-20-foot ISO (International Organization for Standardization) container and one V-STF fits in the back of a Humvee. "They were a big success," Turner said. STFs replaced the traditional wooden boxes of the Gulf War era, "eliminating the need for Marines to tear apart the blocking and bracing lumber."

Additionally, each STF is fitted with adjustable shelves that can be manipulated in various ways to accommodate different-size items. STFs can be retrieved from containers with extendable forklifts or pulled out by tow straps. Once offloaded, STF/V-STFs can be folded flat and later reused. "Each of these little advantages adds up when time is of the essence," he explained.

"Unit commanders were unanimous in their praise of STFs," said Maj. Christopher Clark, deputy director of logistics at BIC--who assisted the operating forces in the offload--referring to after-action reports. "However, all agreed that more time could be saved by unit loading."

Unit loading involves loading each truck, howitzer, and tank with collateral equipment--tents, nets, tool kits, and additional equipment--specific to its unit. Loading during Iraqi Freedom was by MSC (major subordinate command), not specific unit. Every container, vehicle, and STF/V-STF was tagged by the following MSC designators: GCE (ground combat element), ACE (aviation combat element), CSSE (combat service support element), CE (command element), or tags relating to fleet hospital or Seabees units. "Gear from one unit in the GCE, for example, was mixed with gear destined for another unit in the GCE and it all had to be sorted and assigned to individual units by the GCE's logisticians before it was ready to be issued," Clark said.

All agreed, however, that STFs were superb and that unit loading is a good idea for the future and will provide a much-needed improvement over the current methods.

continued

thedrifter
05-30-03, 07:05 PM
Scanning the Force <br />
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Databases and scanned labels worked as advertised but not flawlessly, Clark said, noting that &quot;exact location of equipment is critically important to obtaining a clear...