Getting ready for deployment is a job that doesn't end just because a Soldier's gear is packed.
Once personal items are loaded and sealed in containers, operators at Campbell Rail Operations Facility use a Hyster container handler to lift the heavy boxes of items onto the rails, in addition to the vehicles and weaponry readied for the long haul.
"It's an ongoing time frame," said 1st Lt. Andrea Gonzalez with 626th Sustainment Brigade Medic Company. "Officially, on paper it takes two weeks."
Even though they won't be gone until January, 3rd Brigade Combat Team has been making moves toward deployment for several months now and Gonzalez is helping the team get ready for what will be her first deployment.
"It's a mounting anxiety," Gonzalez said. "But I think it's like that wherever you go."
Having been accustomed to military life growing up with both her brother and father serving, she said her biggest worry is her mother.
"I get constant reminders from her," she said. "They watch the news and I don't...but I'm well aware of what we're getting into."
One thing that has helped prepare her has been her conversations with other Soldiers who have already deployed.
And now on her first trip, Gonzalez is helping to ensure that rail operations run smoothly. Once all the gear is loaded into containers, Soldiers will not see those personal items for about four more months.
Gonzalez stresses the importance of Soldiers knowing what they will need in Afghanistan, but also what they will need to keep before they get there.
When someone packs an important item before they should, the Coast Guard has to be called out to identify the correct container and then dig the item out.
Specialist James Barton said that the getting ready process has not been that bad, and that he has managed to keep his shipped and on-person items separate.
"The process is not bad, we've been doing a lot of training for eight or nine months," Barton said. "We still get weekends off."
Gonzalez loves her job with Rail Ops and said her favorite aspect is that preparations are a joint military operation where all branches of the armed forces come together to make it happen.
In sum, 3rd BCT is waiting in the wings to send off a shipment of 966 total pieces that will soon leave for Bagram, Afghanistan followed by approximately 3,500 Soldiers.
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Miguel Castro is in charge of overseeing the whole plan and all the movement for deployment.
The line haul is another part of the process that includes the loading and shipment of sensitive items such as weapons and weapon systems, Castro said.
Some of the containers will even contain smaller vehicles.
It also includes the commander's critical items, which includes anything a commander may need to begin operations.
Getting ready was not difficult, Castro said, "The hardest thing was the time frame that we had."
"We had to come from [Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Polk, La.] and plan all the movement in less than two weeks," Castro said. "So we had to unpack and then repack for Afghanistan."
Some items will be shipped to Portsmouth, Va., while others will be moved to Charleston, S.C. From those points, the end destination is Afghanistan.
Because of the mountainous territory, Castro said "The only speedbump for Afghanistan is that it's a transportation nightmare when we get there."
This makes all the difference between Iraq and Afghanistan, "So from here we have to plan it right," Castro said.
"Now we have to take smaller containers so they can go to those different places."
Still more difficult than the technical aspects of planning a deployment is the separation from Family, Castro said.
"It's just hard on the Family," he said. "We just got back in November and I leave [again] in December."
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