WHEELER ARMY AIRFIELD, Hawaii -- The 599th Transportation Brigade will soon have a completely revitalized way of doing business.
Leaders from the 1394th Trans. Bde., a U.S. Army Reserve unit headquartered at Camp Pendleton, Calif., met with 599th leaders here Jan 25-27 to make plans to work closely together for terminal operations throughout the Pacific under the total force integration concept.
"The 599th is committed to increasing the readiness posture of strategic transportation terminal throughout the U.S. Pacific Command area of operations," said Col. James Smith, 599th commander. "We are seeking opportunities to integrate our reserve component sister brigade into our operations. In addition to increased readiness for both brigades, the total force integration paradigm strengthens our active and reserve component partnership efforts."
Air Force Maj. Amanda Shumaker, 599th plans chief, explained the total force integration concept.
"This concept has active and reserve units work together to increase the reserve brigade's readiness and enhance both brigades' capabilities," Shumaker said. "The 1394th is officially aligned to us through [Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command]."
Scott Matthews, 599th deputy director of operations, further explained the concept.
"Under total force integration, active duty and reserves integrate and synchronize their lines of effort. The 1394th is supposed to come in if we deploy forward. In order to do that, they need to be integrated into our day-to-day operations," he said.
Col. Steven McLaughlin, 1394thcommander, said the two brigades made good progress during their meetings.
""Our goal was to develop a relationship with the 599th to further total force integration opportunities working with the active component, and lay the ground work for future training opportunities," he said. "In that we did better than expected. We came up with a firm foundation that will develop into something bigger."
"We were able to lay out 2016-2018 missions and augmentation opportunities, as well as capstone training events like Ulchi Freedom Guardian and Key Resolve," Matthews said.
"We identified every move we will have, and every mission is an opportunity for them to participate," he continued.
Although initial meetings exceeded expectations, the two units are not yet at a point at which they can begin integrated operations.
"Before we can begin working port operations, we have a list of due-outs," said Shumaker. "We worked on a tentative long range calendar. We are not yet sure how much we can accomplish in fiscal year 2016, because the budget has already been planned, but we will figure out a way to do missions together soon."
McLaughlin agreed.
"Now we have to make it a reality," he said. "We just have to make sure we have all the pieces in place such as funding and logistics. Once we understand how the system works we can execute."
Matthews said the next phase of planning would begin soon.
"They will let us know what they can support in a couple of weeks," Matthews said. "We also plan to have three 1394th personnel at (Exercise) Key Resolve, one in the Joint Movement Control Center and two in the Combined Seaport Coordination Center."
The 1394th command sergeant major, Command Sgt. Maj. George Luedtke, said the 1394th will be busy getting ready to work with the 599th.
"We have to identify the right Soldiers and units to get out there and provide that support," Luedtke said. "Having real world missions to focus on will help us do that."
Luedtke said the new partnership will be good for 1394th morale.
"We are a reserve unit, so by law, they are only required to do 14 days of annual training plus one drill a month, but they can volunteer. I know I'm going to have a huge amount of people putting their hands up for this," he said.
"The opportunities for our Soldiers to plan and support your real-world missions will be huge. This shows the relevance of the reserve as an operational force. This one will be a great tool for recruiting and retention.
"Soldiers don't come into the Army to not work. Every time Soldiers come back after operating equipment they are extremely happy. We just have to get them back in the seat," he added.
Once logistics and funding issues are worked through and Soldiers are identified, the two brigades plan to work into a full partnership slowly.
"We will want to do a proof of principle," Leudtke said. "We plan to begin small with a four-person team, then eight, then 16. Eventually we plan to send a whole expeditionary terminal operation section of 41 personnel for a large unit move."
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