Photo By Scott Sturkol | Members of the Fort McCoy rail operations team move railcars July 8, 2024, for a rail...... read more read more
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Fort McCoy’s rail operations support team steamed into action once again in late June and early July to support the return of more than 800 pieces of equipment and vehicles belonging to the Wisconsin National Guard’s 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team in the post’s second large rail movement of the year.
Fort McCoy first supported a rail movement in May to move the same 800-plus pieces of equipment on dozens of railcars, which made their way to the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Johnson, La., for a rotation of training for the 32nd.
All along, Fort McCoy’s personnel has worked in step with unit movement coordinators for the 32nd, who have conducted the loading and off-loading of the equipment with the railcars, said Warrant Officer 1 Eric Frank with the Wisconsin National Guard who has coordinated the rail movements for the 32nd.
The last of the equipment was offloaded on July 9 on the second rail movement, Frank said. And overall, he said it was not only a historic rail movement for the Wisconsin National Guard but also well done.
“This was the largest rail movement with civilian linehaul the Wisconsin National Guard has ever done,” Frank said in May when the movement of the 800-plus pieces of equipment and vehicles started.
Frank noted how his team of Soldiers did meticulous planning for the entire operation.
“Putting each and every single piece of equipment on the railcar takes consideration of length, width, height, and all of the dimensions,” he said. “Certain rail cars can only handle certain pieces of equipment.”
And at the end, Frank said the overall movement plan “went very well.”
“As a brigade, we learned a lot and can definitely improve on a few things, but it went well,” Frank said.
As far as the Fort McCoy rail operations support team goes, that team that is staffed by people working with the Fort McCoy Logistics Readiness Center (LRC) Transportation Division and contractors partnering with LRC. These people operated locomotives to move railcars in place for loading, they worked with the 32nd and their representative service members to load railcars and move cargo, and much more, said Installation Transportation Officer Douglas “Terry” Altman, with the LRC.
Specific people supporting the rail movement included Altman, Matthew Fenik, unit movement coordinator; Clint Kurth, transportation assistant; and Dennis Diercks, transportation assistant. With the EAGLE contractor supporting the rail team is John Cobb, supervisor; William Peters, locomotive engineer/conductor; Douglas White, locomotive engineer; and Daniel Schiffer, rail brakeman/switchman.
Fort McCoy is also known to be one of the few places in the Army to operate Army-owned locomotives. The red Army locomotives in use at Fort McCoy are General Motors EMD GP-9 locomotives that weigh 120 tons; stand 15 feet, 4 inches tall; and have 1,750 horsepower.
Peters drives those locomotives in each movement. In a previous news article, it showed how he mentioned how much he enjoys doing his job as he’s worked in the rail industry for more than half a century — 41 years with Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway and 10 at Fort McCoy as a contractor working in partnership with Fort McCoy LRC.
“It all started in Southern Iowa on Burlington Northern,” Peters said. And later in his career he was driving long trains from La Crosse, Wis., to Chicago on a regular basis. Peters now only drives the locomotive on Fort McCoy, but when the rail movements happen it’s a busy time, he said, and he “enjoys it.”
Frank also said he was glad his team was able to do their record rail movement through Fort McCoy.
“I feel like it’s one of the best places you can do it,” Frank said. “It’s the only site for rail for military in the state of Wisconsin.”
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. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: | 07.09.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 07.09.2024 17:25 |
| Story ID: | 475798 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 434 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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