39th Transportation Battalion directs support for Iraqi theater

Courtesy Photo | The 39th Transportation Battalion oversees sustainment pushes, such as the one pictured, into Iraq, supplying food, materiel and whatever else forward troops need at their forward operating base.  

03.14.2007

Courtesy Story

40th Public Affairs Detachment

By Sgt. Thomas L. Day
40th Public Affairs Detachment

KUWAIT— The 39th Transportation Battalion, an active duty support unit based in Germany, deployed to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, carries their unit history with their unit crest.

The unit insignia honors the outfit's World War II service in the Pacific theater, commemorating the 39th's support of the Allies in the Burma campaign. A snow-capped mountain recalls the mountain roads the unit traversed to supply forward Allied troops. In the foreground is a palm tree, remembering the more temperate climates the 39th encountered when they moved inland toward central Burma.

The unit motto is scrolled across in black letters: "We'll Carry You."

And the 39th has been doing just that ever since, supplying troops in 13 different campaigns in Vietnam and supporting American troops in Iraq since July of 2006.

Along with 49th Movement Control Battalion, a similar unit that operates in Iraq, the 39th has supplied the entire Iraq theater.

"Between us two, we oversee all movement in Iraq," said Command Sgt. Maj. Ishmael Rodriguez, the 39th's top enlisted Soldier.

The 39th has carried more than three million Soldiers and contractors into Iraq since arriving in theater.

Maj. Brian Smith, the highway traffic division chief, and Maj. Robert Rouse, the 39th Movement Control Battalion support operations officer, coordinates the constant movement of 39th assets into Iraq.

"The main piece of my job is that I'm a contract representative for KBR," said Rouse, referring to Kellogg, Brown and Root, a Halliburton subsidiary. "They provide a majority, about 90 percent, of the support in theater."

Approximately 200 contracted employees from KBR work under the 39th Movement Control Battalion, according to Smith. The contractors primarily perform port and administrative duties for the 39th.

"We're seamless in our organization, the only difference is they wear civilian clothes," Rouse said. "There's no us versus them mentality. They are 39th personnel, period."

Enlisted Soldiers like Pfc. Adam Fultz monitor the massive volume of convoys moving north into Iraq – 30-50 a week, according to Fultz.

"Everything from food, water, construction materials for Multinational Corps-Iraq ...we push fuel up there," said Fultz, a Springfield, Ohio, native.

Rouse and Smith work in an office at Camp Arifjan, where they sit under a flat-screen television with a map of Kuwait and Iraq. The screen reports where the 39th vehicles are going in what Smith calls "near real time."

The system is equipped with the Movement Tracking System, which reports convoy status five to 15 minutes after the movement. "It allows us in real time (to know) where convoys are, so we can deconflict movement," Smith said.

The MTS recently averted a disaster when an accident was reported less than a mile from an American compound in Kuwait. Smith was quickly able to direct the convoy to an alternate route, avoiding "a bigger traffic jam than we already had."

Soon, with the addition of Blue Force Tracker (BFT), the 39th's convoy reports will become even faster, reporting convoy movements deep inside Iraq in as fast as three minutes.

• Date Taken: 03.14.2007
• Date Posted: 03.14.2007 09:50
• Story ID: 9443