Photo By Ebony Gay | The 8th Battalion, 108th Regiment, 2nd Transportation Brigade of the 94th Training...... read more read more
FORT BLISS, Texas — Preparation to depart downrange is no simple task. Still, the Army Reserve Soldiers assigned to the 8th Battalion, 108th Regiment, 2nd Transportation Brigade of the 94th Training Division (Force Sustainment) received the reins to assist in the mobilization process during the CONUS Replacement Center (CRC) transfer of authority ceremony held here on September 20, 2019.
Replacing the 9th Battalion, 108th Regiment, 1st Quartermaster Brigade, 94th TD-FS, the 8th Battalion’s mission will consist of receiving, processing, equipping and conducting theater specific training for military personnel not traveling with their assigned units, Department of the Army Civilians, and contractors deploying to and redeploying from theaters of operations.
“Our mission is a mobilization platform for individuals,” said Lt. Col. Daniel Justus, the outgoing CRC Commander. “We are the only CONUS replacement center in the Army, so we mobilize all over the world.”
The 8th Battalion, based in Jackson, Ms., will be serving at the only multiple-component CRC site that funnels approximately 18,000 individuals through at any given time, seven days a week, including holidays.
“I think it’s vitally important to our nation’s security that we’re able to get these individuals mobilized to theater,” said Lt. Col. David Roys, the incoming CRC Commander. “The responsibility all falls on us to get these individuals downrange and to get these people back home.”
While the CRC is a site to ensure Soldiers, Civilians, and contractors have completed all the required training before deployment, the same level of importance is placed on those returning from overseas.
“It is also important is being able to help those returning from a deployment and either get them home or get them the care that they need when they return from theater,” Roys said.
The CRC staff are the last personnel Soldiers, and Civilian contractors see when they deploy, and the first they see when they redeploy.
As instructors under the 94th TD-FS, the experience and skillsets the 8th Battalion Soldiers bring to the CRC include training, teaching, coaching, and mentoring individuals to facilitate issues that some may encounter, such as those that occur during the mobilization and demobilization process.
“We bring to the table the experience of juggling multiple careers that benefited us in many assets; we worked as trainers mobilizing soldiers, civilians, and contractors throughout the world,” said Justus. “Our mission consisted of training different types of classes.”
Justus has devoted the last year of his life to the CRC Commander role and now passes the leadership baton to Roys.
“I was excited when I got the word that I was going to be the battalion commander and that we had this mission,” said Roys, who will be working side-by-side Soldiers in the active duty, National Guard and Reserve components.
While this is the first time Roys has served as a battalion commander, he has worked 23 years for the federal government, including his current position as a program analyst for the Federal Aviation Administration in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
He plans to approach his position with the intent of improving the process wherever possible, and to ensure his staff represents the CRC and the 94th TD-FS well.
“My goal is to find something we can improve on even though we are the eighth rotation,” Roys said. “I’m going to try and find those areas that we can improve on and make this a better process for all involved.”
With the CRC mission in the more than capable hands of the 8th Battalion, those mobilizing or demobilizing should rest assured they will be properly trained before heading overseas or taken care of once returning to the States.
| Date Taken: | 01.02.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 01.02.2020 16:09 |
| Story ID: | 358135 |
| Location: | FORT BLISS, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 424 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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