LRC-Benning keeps infantry, armor, basic training on schedule

FORT BENNING, Ga. -- It's the home of the Maneuver Center of Excellence, the 75th Ranger Regiment and units of the 3rd Infantry Division. Fort Benning takes pride in being the premier center where those interested in the professions of Infantry and Armor are trained.

Fort Benning, Georgia, the sixth largest installation in the U.S., is located in the west-central area of the state outside of Columbus, next to Alabama.

It is here where the Logistics Readiness Center-Benning carries out the logistics missions necessary to keep this heavily forested 183,000-acre installation running, along with two other camps in northern Georgia and Florida.

"I've got great people who work for me that know their business, so they know their jobs, and they have great relationships with our customers. So it is a very diverse mission," explained David Shepherd, director, LRC-Benning.

LRC-Benning is one of the 70-plus LRCs worldwide that are aligned under the U.S. Army Sustainment Command. This LRC reports to the 406th Army Field Support Brigade, headquartered at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

ASC is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command, the Army's premier provider of materiel readiness -- technology, acquisition support, materiel development, logistics power projection and sustainment -- to the total force.

Fort Benning has nearly 21,000 Soldiers in training daily in 86 courses.

LRC-Benning supports them and others, in part, through:

-- Serving 13.3 million meals and issuing 2.6 million gallons of fuel annually

-- Laundering 1.3 million items and processing 34,000 materiel release orders annually

-- And, repairing 17,500 pieces of equipment and issuing nearly 84 million rounds of ammunition annually

"We have the U.S. Army Airborne School here, so we issue a lot of fuel to support the Airborne school as they do their jumps. They're required to do so many jumps per cycle," said Gary Glenn, LRC Supply and Services division chief.

"The training requirement here is very large on a daily basis because you have constant training for the Armor and Infantry Soldiers that come here for basic and AIT (Advanced Individual Training)," Glenn said.

The food service program is not just providing food for Benning's Soldiers, but also one of health and safety with 1 million meals served monthly.

"Each meal is a new challenge because in food service, you're not just serving but you're developing, you're dealing something, you're dealing with an item and so many things can go wrong," said James Jenkins, LRC Food Service program manager. "You have to be concerned about the health of the Soldier."

The main challenge, he said, is everything has to be done over and over, three times daily. "You may have heard the saying 'You're only as good as your last meal,'" Jenkins said.

With customer evaluations showing 95 percent positive comments, along with mandatory inspections, awards and accolades, Jenkins said he is confident that the 15 operating dining facilities on Benning are some of the best in the Army.

However, not all meals eaten by Soldiers are in a dining facility. At Fort Benning, they're also in the form of a Meals, Ready to Eat package, or MRE.

"In a year's time, we issue out over 2.2 million MREs and that's for just their training, and we also have MREs in reserve for when they deploy," said Joanne Oliver, LRC Supply Subsistence Management Office accountable officer.

Whether it's providing ice during hot, humid summer days for training or providing special MREs designed for those with religious preferences, the SSMO employees know what they're doing, for whom, and why.

"They're (employees) aware of our service members and the dedication they give to this country. So we want to make sure everything that they do, we're able to back them up and support them to make their lives easier," Oliver said.

And once the troops are fed, they often have to get back to and from a training area.

"We move approximately 6,000 troops a day and if you multiply that by 365 we're talking about 2 million passengers," said Derrick Candler, LRC transportation officer. "And it's just mainly trying to support everyone simultaneously. That is a real difficult task.

"The good thing about this is that we have dedicated people and those people they know what it's all about. They're there to support the Soldier and their families," he said.

At Benning, 80-passenger troop carriers are used to transport trainees. These carriers, versus a standard 44-passenger bus, saves the Army fuel, reduces emissions and requires less drivers, Candler said, all of which saves money.

Additionally, Candler said Fort Benning was the first Army installation to install a Compressed Natural Gas station. CNG -- methane stored at high pressure -- is an alternate to petroleum-based fuels, is cheaper, and better for the environment, he said.

While only several vehicles are currently using CNG in the fleet, the number will rise in the future based on a presidential executive order to reduce petroleum-based fuels, Candler said.

Another mission of LRC-Benning is running the Clothing Initial Issue Point facility and the Central Issue Facility. CIIP issues the Army Combat Uniform and the Army Service Uniform or "dress" uniform to recruits along with accessories. CIF issues organizational clothing and individual equipment to all Soldiers for training and deployments.

"Generally, Fort Benning averages about 25,000 recruits annually that we support at the CIIP facility," said Michael Walker, LRC CIIP responsible officer.

"Uniforms are required to fit professionally and they are trained on that process and we make sure that each Soldier gets issued those items the first time coming through for the best fit that's possible," Walker said.

A daily average of $9 million in stock is at the CIIP and about $124 million in stock with 900,000 transactions done annually at the CIF, where Walker is also the accountable officer.

Some of the uniforms issued to recruits are recycled through LRC-Benning's Supply Support Activity because not all recruits graduate, said Peter Itugbu, SSA accountable officer.

A "reclamation sale" is held monthly where Soldiers can come and buy uniforms at a heavily discounted price of 40 to 50 percent and sometimes more, Itugbu explained.

"The majority of them are in A-condition and very few are B. Most of the uniforms the Soldiers (recruits) have used maybe a couple weeks," he said. The uniforms cannot be reissued because they are used.

Itugbu said he believes that Fort Benning is one of two installations that have reclamation sales, saving Soldiers, and ultimately their families, money.

And then there is the mission of maintenance.

"We see everything from floor buffers to 40-ton cranes, to tanks, to Bradleys, backhoes, graders, dozers, we see just about everything that they have on this installation including commercial off-the-shelf items," said Thaddous Kelly, LRC Materiel Maintenance officer.

"Unlike most organizations or installations, you won't see an armor profession, or an infantry profession on one installation," he said. "This is the first time it's ever been done [placing them at the same installation] … resulting in the diversity of equipment that we see."

While the mission is huge, the LRC-Benning workforce takes pride in knowing their work directly supports Soldiers, who in turn safeguard them.

"Our employees understand that and they understand how critical it is to provide support to their training because that Soldier is going to leave Fort Benning and go to a formation in our Army. The next week they may be deployed into a combat zone," said Shepherd, LRC-Benning director.

"So it is critical that they get their training that they need while they're here and our support that is critical because there's not a training event on this post that LRC-Benning doesn't support," he said.