Logistics Readiness Center earns Deployment Excellence Award

Maj. Gen. Kevin G. O'Connell, commanding general of the United States Army Sustainment Command, visited with the staff of the Logistic Readiness Center at Fort Riley June 25 to congratulate and present staff with coins for earning the army-wide Deployment Excellence Award.

"Congratulations -- we are proud of you," O'Connell told the staff before congratulating each of them personally.

Logistic Readiness Center- Fort Riley's Installation Transportation Officer, Scot Bird, explained what the award means to him and his personnel.

"It demonstrates our capabilities as a power projection platform and tells us that we are doing things effectively and efficiently in accordance with the Senior Commanders guidance for deployment operations," he said. "It shows me that we have the commitment and dedication to excellence not only from our civilian workforce but the soldiers as well supporting the deployment operations of the First Infantry Division."

This award is no stranger to the walls of LRC-Fort Riley. Since the first time they competed in 2008, they received the prestigious award in 2008, 2011, 2012, were a runner-up in 2013, and won it again for their work in 2014.

"It means a lot to me and it means a lot to the LRC-Riley personnel who work here that we were recognized for what we have been doing," Bird said.

What they have been doing is moving thousands of soldiers and tons of equipment all over the world.

From Dec. 1, 2013 through Nov. 30, 2014 the LRC-Riley staff deployed and redeployed more than 23,000 personnel. This involved planning, coordinating and scheduling more than 500 commercial buses, 70 commercial and military aircraft, all of which played a major role in the deployment process of personnel and equipment to and from Joint Readiness Training Center, National Training Center and several theaters of operations.

"It's not just us that won this award," said Freight Chief Scott Arcuri. "It is a team effort that kicked out over 1,500 railcars during the timeframe, "primarily over a two month span", more than 800 commercial trucks delivered and redelivered cargo and equipment, and more than 1,000 deployment containers on and off the installation to support the war fighter."

Bird said, it is Arcuri and Unit Movement Supervisor Matthew Holloway, and their personnel who pull the operations together. When the initial plan about moving troops starts, Holloway and his team start the backward planning, then the information is passed on to Arcuri and his team.

It's like a fine tuned orchestra "and I'm the maestro," Bird said. "We have deployed stuff out of here in less 72 hours -- with no notice. It goes back to the people working for Scott and Matt."

At one point last year, they had rail cars coming in, loading outgoing railcars, and had a unit returning simultaneously.

"It was like revolving door," Bird said.

While they have the logistics figured out, they don't always have Mother Nature on board with their plans. They all agree the biggest challenge to the job is the weather.

"Especially for our rail or truck operations," Arcuri said. "If it's all snowed in or lightning and thundering that puts a damper on things."

Such was the case as they were trying to get troops to the JRTC in Fort Polk, LA., which was happening at the same time as NTC in California.

"We flew the soldiers to NTC and we bused them to JRTC and during this is when the snow storm and the ice storm hit to the south of us," Bird recalled.

Their job doesn't end when the troops get on the bus and pull out; they have to track them 24/7 until they arrive at their destination. For the JRTC trip, 400 railcars loaded with unit equipment headed south, at the same time 3,500 soldiers were loaded onto 72 commercial buses -- every three hours six buses with 300 soldiers departed Fort Riley.

Heading the opposite direction were 3,400 personnel loaded onto 28 aircraft and 600 railcars loaded with unit equipment and cargo were sent to NTC.

Their professionalism and ability is what earned them the award -- but Bird, Holloway and Arcui have their sights set a little higher.

"The Deployment Excellence Award is the holy grail, but there is one more plateau we need to achieve -- and that is becoming the Best of the Best in deployments," Bird said.

He offered his congratulations to the people at the Air Defense Artillery unit at Fort Bliss, Texas, who earned it this year, but said he has his sights set on the top award, which has so far barely eluded them. Twice they came within grasp, losing only by .25 of a point one time and .35 the next.

"We have not yet figured out how to crack the code -- but we'll try again next year," Bird said.

The bottom line for the LRC-Fort Riley "is the professionalism and dedication of my personnel to mission accomplished. Couple that with the dedication of the Soldiers on Fort Riley, it has been a team effort to accomplish this mission for deployment, which stands for excellence," Bird said.