Soldiers from A Battery, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Air Defense Artillery trained on air and rail load operations April 8 at a Fort Sill Logistics and Readiness Center (LRC) warehouse.

The training ensured all Soldiers understood and could complete proper and safe procedures for loading and unloading cargo aircraft and rail cars.

Soldiers trained on palletizing bags and cargo, creating load plans for vehicles prior to shipping equipment, and common mistakes and how to avoid them. Rail specific training covered how to drive vehicles onto rail cars, ground guildance procedures, the order of loading vehicles onto rail cars and how to secure vehicles once in place.

For airborne operations, LRC personnel reminded the Soldiers of the importance of determining the weight of each vehicle and why it matters when loading cargo planes.

Each rail load team is comprised of a unit movement officer, an LRC civilian unit movement coordinator, and a driver and ground guide for each vehicle.

To ensure complete safety, several unit movement coordinators oversaw the training and are available to direct operations during real world rail load operations.

This training has proven to be of paramount importance over the past 18 months due to the battalion's rapid deployment to Turkey in January. Air and rail load training allows the battalion to become more self-sufficient with deployment procedures and enables Soldiers to better assist the Air Force during pre-deployment operations. A Battery now leads the battalion in air and rail load teams, with 35 Soldiers trained; accounting for over half of the battery certified in air and rail load operations.

When asked about the training experience, Sgt. Brandon Schoen said that the hands-on training for air load was an excellent learning tool for air operations; however, the Soldiers wished they would have had the opportunity for more training with loading rail cars.