Photo By Staff Sgt. Michael Selvage | Soldiers assigned to the 495th Movement Control Team, 49th Movement Control Battalion,...... read more read more
BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – Soldiers assigned to the 495th Movement Control Team, 49th Movement Control Battalion, 10th Sustainment Brigade, have the responsibility of tracking every cargo truck that rolls in and out of their assigned entry control point, here.
The team of less than 20 Soldiers ensures the trucks are processed, put into the tracking system and the customers are informed when their cargo has arrived and is ready for pick up.
“The reason our mission is so important is because we provide the in-transit visibility of all cargo and trucks that come through the ECP, which provides commanders asset visibility on their equipment,” said Capt. Justin Hoskins, a Dayton, Ohio native, commander of the 495th MCT. “They have an idea of what trucks are on post and which have already left.”
The team handles more than 150 trucks each day, which consist of National Afghan Trucking vehicles and civilian contractors.
The process used to account for the trucks and equipment is called in-gating and out-gating.
In-gating and out-gating operations involve taking the transportation movement requests, supply classification, container numbers from the truck drivers and logging them into the system to provide visibility for the customers here, said Hoskins. This process allows cargo to be properly sorted and ensures it successfully arrives at the final destination.
When trucks go through to be processed by the team, it is known as a “push.”
“There are normally two pushes every day,” said Spc. Linda Adams, a Fayetteville, North Carolina native, transportation management coordinator assigned to the 495th MCT. “Each push consists of about 70-85 trucks.”
Adams said, it only takes a few minutes to process each truck during a push.
Since taking over the inbound yard in June, the team has processed more than 10,000 trucks.
The 495th MCT and 515th MCT together run the NAT yard, which is where the local nationals are staged until the customers come and receive their cargo.
The team also provides retrograde support by receiving the equipment from outlying forward operating bases which is then redirected to their final destinations.
Efficient retrograde of equipment allows remaining forces to be agile on the battlefield.
Although some may say that a team of less than 20 Soldiers seems a bit too small for the mission at hand that has not been the case.
“My Soldiers are doing an outstanding job,” said Hoskins. “They have been able to do their mission fluidly and are able to accomplish the mission without any shortfalls.”
| Date Taken: | 09.09.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 09.12.2014 08:30 |
| Story ID: | 141906 |
| Location: | BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AF |
| Hometown: | PATILLAS, PR |
| Hometown: | DAYTON, OHIO, US |
| Hometown: | FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, US |
| Hometown: | FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 323 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Movement control is the name, Tracking trucks is the game, by SSG Michael Selvage, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
