Courtesy Photo | Staff Sgt. Paul DeLong (right) of the 1st Battalion, 338th Regiment helps Spc. Marcos...... read more read more
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Fort McCoy, Wis., was established in 1909. This edition of Fort McCoy's history look-back focuses specifically back on what was going on at Fort McCoy in March 2003 during the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom on March 19, 2003.
20 Years Ago —
March 28, 2003: From the Fort McCoy Triad newspaper
TROOP COMMAND ASSISTS MOBILIZING SOLDIERS: Multi-unit structure provides variety of
support services — When mobilizing Soldiers at Fort McCoy need food, transportation, equipment repair, or anything else to prepare for deployment, the Fort McCoy Troop Command is there to help ensure Soldiers' and units' needs are met.
Command Sgt. Maj. Don Hobson of Troop Command said each mobilizing unit is assigned a mobilization assistance team to help them through the mobilizing process. Soldiers staffing Troop Command perform a wide variety of functions at Fort McCoy to support mobilization, deployment,
redeployment and demobilization; he said.
The 6015th Garrison Support Unit (GSU) of Forest Park, Ill., provides the command and control for Troop Command and supports Fort McCoy's mobilization needs as one of the U.S. Army's 15 power projection platforms. Upon deployment to Fort McCoy in January 2003, the 6015th GSU was redesignated the Troop Command Troop Command's mobilization mission also includes providing personnel from either the 6015th GSU or from other units attached to the Troop Command Support
Battalion to support all of the installation's garrison directorates to meet their mission requirements.
The directorates include the Directorate of Training, Mobilization and Security, the Directorate of Support Services, the Directorate of Community Activities and the Directorate of Business Services.
The Troop Command Support Battalion units that provide mobilization support are: the 7228th Medical Support Unit of Columbia, Mo.; the 1074th Transportation Company (Medium Truck) of North Platte, Neb.; the 107th Maintenance Company of Sparta, Wis., with detachments in Viroqua and Sussex; and the 417th General Support Company of Faribault, Minn.
“We're here to ensure the soldiers have everything they need to successfully complete their various missions,” Hobson said. “We prepare the force.”
The Troop Command helps set Soldier training schedules to ensure their Soldier skills, training missions, collective and individual training requirements and military occupational specialty skills are validated or on track to be validated, he said. Troop Command also works with other installation
training organizations, such as the 2nd Brigade, 85th Division (Training Support) and Regional Training Site-Medical, for example, to meet training needs. Hobson said the 2nd, 85th (TS) supports individual and collective training needs for soldiers, and RTS-Medical supports medical training needs.
One of the other important duties of Troop Command is to staff the Soldier Readiness Center (SRC), Hobson said.
Here, mobilized Soldiers have their paperwork double-checked and updated, as necessary, including finance, legal, medical and dental, personnel and family support. Family-support documents, such as the family care package, help ensure a servicemember's family members are taken care of during the deployment and through the Soldiers' redeployment and demobilization, he said.
Maj. Pamela Dowdy, the SRC officer in charge, said the key to good operations is customer service and being flexible. Some units come to the SRC with most of their paperwork in good order. Other L units need to have work done on their paperwork.
“I encourage the Soldiers here to look at each and every one of the Soldiers being processed through the SRC and salute them,” Dowdy said. “We need to give each individual special care and the utmost respect and ensure all the 'i's are dotted and the 't's are crossed. If I were sitting on the other side of the desk. I would want someone to do it right for me to ensure my family was taken care of.”
20 Years Ago —
March 28, 2003: From the Fort McCoy Triad newspaper
MOBILIZATION ASSISTANCE TEAM KEEPS UNIT TRAINING ON TRACK: The Fort McCoy Mobilization Assistance Team (MAT) serves as the central processing location to provide up-to-date information about the training status of units mobilizing at Fort McCoy, said Lt. Col. Jay Orbik.
Orbik is the Fort McCoy MAT Emergency Operations Center (EOC) officer in charge. He is a member of the 2nd Brigade, 85th Division (Training Support) (2nd, 85th [TS]). Orbik said the MAT EOC at Fort McCoy was activated in early January. The team produces a daily update of information that helps installation mobilization personnel determine whether a unit is ready to deploy.
Among the items addressed in the reports are personnel and logistics issues, as well as individual and collective tasks, he said.
“We provide the training information that everyone involved with the process needs to know to help determine whether a unit can be considered validated for deployment,” he said.
Sgt. 1st Class Cliff Gocha, the noncommissioned officer in charge of MAT Headquarters at McCoy, said the validation process starts at a unit's home station. When a unit aligned with the 2nd Brigade receives a mobilization alert, unit assistors (UAs) from the 2nd Brigade, go to home stations and do everything possible to help prepare a unit to successfully complete a mobilization.
The size of a mobilizing unit determines the number of assigned by the 2nd Brigade, he said.
Sgt. 1st Class Tim Werstein, a UA with the 1st Battalion, 338th Regiment of the 2nd, 85th (TS) at Fort McCoy, said the UAs help coordinate customer requests for day-to-day missions. For example, that may mean arranging for the use of the installation's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical confidence course to help mobilizing personnel ensure their protective masks fit and work properly.
Capt. Del Volpel, the commander of the 482nd Medical Logistics Detachment, said his unit was glad to have a UA ready to support his unit's training. The unit is an Army Reserve unit from Milwaukee.
“They'll (unit assistors) help arrange training and do anything they can do to help us accomplish our training (and increase our readiness),” Volpel said.
Staff Sgt. Scott Graham, the first sergeant of the 106th Quarry Team, an Army National Guard unit from Ashland, Wis., said he reports any problem he has to his UA. “They'll find out what is causing the
problem and find a solution for you,” he said. Any concerns the UAs cannot solve are passed onto the UA's liaison officers. In turn, concerns not solved at that level are presented during daily briefings.
In addition to input from the MAT liaison officers, the daily briefings about mobilization status of the units at Fort McCoy include input from representatives from other organizations, including Troop Command, the installation and the 2nd, 85th (TS), he said. The liaison officers have command and control of the unit assistors, with each liaison officer having 15 to 25 unit assistors under his control. Troop Command personnel are responsible for scheduling the training and other activities of the mobilizing units.
“The meetings serve as a forum to update the 2nd, 85th (TS) commander, Col. Michael L. Parker, about the status of the unit's mobilization process,” Orbik said. “It also gives visibility to the problems the units are having and starts the process to correct those problems.”
Orbik said it is important to solve these issues promptly and note how a problem is handled because if one unit encounters a problem it is likely another unit will encounter the same problem.
The solutions can range from giving advice to unit assistors to helping them schedule a range for training or arranging other school training. Orbik said the meetings have helped find equipment for units that no one thought would be available or to schedule training for units, for example.
The MAT EOC is scheduled to remain open throughout the mobilization, deployment, redeployment and demobilization process to assist Soldiers and units, he said.
20 Years Ago —
March 28, 2003: From the Fort McCoy Triad newspaper
COMBAT LIFESAVER COURSE TEACHES BASIC MEDICAL SKILLS: A number of soldiers going through the mobilization process at Fort McCoy are learning basic combat lifesaver procedures at a three-day course presented by the Regional Training Site (RTS)-Medical staff.
Darren Farquhar, an RTS-Medical staff member, said the course is offered to all Soldiers who do not have a medical military occupational specialty.
A recent class included postal, chemical, military police, and transportation personnel among others.
“This is basic care that Soldiers may utilize on the battlefield after an incident,” he said. “It's like a civilian first responder.”
The Soldiers learn about administering IV fluids, treatment of sucking wounds, and bandaging injuries, among other skills, he said.
The course was requested by the 2nd Brigade, 85th Division (Training Support) at Fort McCoy and was driven by feedback from mobilizing units. Farquhar said RTS-Medical has offered four such courses to
date.
Spc. Stefan Youngbrandt of the 327th Military Police Battalion; an Army Reserve unit from Arlington Heights, Ill., said the course reviewed much of the medical treatment information he received in basic training.
The course covered how to start an IV.
“This was more in-depth than what I had in basic training,” he said. “It will help us if we run into heatstroke cases and ensure we take all the actions we can to help our fellow Soldiers.”
Spc. Matthew Lapinski, a radio operator for the 708th Medical Company, an Army National Guard unit from Chicago, Ill., said he took the course because he wasn't familiar with a lot of the things instructed through the course. “If our medical folks needed treatment, I would be able to do it.”
Spc. Jamie Hasenfang of the 327th HHD said she took the course to be able to help Soldiers if she was on the scene before medics arrived. As many of the soldiers were, Hasenfang said she was afraid of administering IV fluids before the training.
“I took the sense of being afraid to become prepared and informed by taking this course,” she said. “I think I would be prepared if the situation arises to help other personnel, and I hopefully wouldn't hesitate.”
20 Years Ago —
March 28, 2003: From the Fort McCoy Triad newspaper
106TH QUARRY TEAM TRAINS ON NEW EQUIPMENT: Quarry support for a variety of engineering projects can be provided by members of the 106th Quarry Team, a Wisconsin Army
National Guard unit from Ashland.
Members of the unit went through their mobilization process at Fort McCoy in early March to prepare for their upcoming deployment.
Staff Sgt. Scott Graham, the 106th's first sergeant, said the training was familiarization (new) training for some while it was refresher training for others' and brought them back into the “swing of things.”
The 106th received the new equipment, called a crushing, screening and washing plant, last year. A commercial firm, Cedar Rapids Inc., of Cedar Rapids, Iowa- built the equipment specifically for military use.
“We've used the equipment through two annual-training sessions, and it works well,” Graham said. “We can use the (aggregate) product produced by the equipment for both vertical and horizontal
missions.”
Horizontal missions include building roads of any type of asphalt base to filling potholes. Graham said vertical missions include providing the material for concrete, which could be used to support building or construction projects.
Spc. Steve Desrosiers, an equipment operator, said the unit was using the training opportunity to ensure the equipment worked. During their training at Fort McCoy, unit members also participated in weapons qualifications and a number of classes, including Nuclear, Biological and Chemical training.
Pfc. William Bissell, a heavy equipment operator, said the Soldier Readiness Center took care of the unit member's personal affairs.
Bissell, who recently completed advanced individual training in his military occupational specialty, said he appreciated the opportunity to get familiar with the equipment. He said he had not seen the equipment before.
“The people who know a lot about the equipment, especially the NCOs, are helping those who don't know as much,” Bissell said.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System at https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base.
(Article compiled by the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office.)
| Date Taken: | 03.16.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 03.16.2023 12:39 |
| Story ID: | 440557 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 346 |
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