MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU AIR BASE, Romania - His eyes red and his short hair twisted from restless semi-sleep, the Soldier deplaned and stepped into the cold, windy Romanian night. "Cooler than Bagram," he thought as the wind swirled around him. Until then, he hadn't given much thought to logistics, and the only movement he cared about was the one he hoped would soon return him promptly to the States. But logistics and movement control suddenly loomed large in his life. "I hope these guys have a plan for getting us somewhere warm fast," he thought. "And now that I think of it, I need to download the three bags containing all my accumulated deployment belongings. Plus I'm getting hungry."
Temporary trepidation yielded to relief as the heated buses came within sight. Fortunately, somebody did think about logistics and movement - and long before his plane arrived. Due to precise coordination and planning by unheralded personnel he never met, the Soldier's immediate future included a comfortable ride, a clean, warm place to sleep and store gear, and a welcome trip to a nearby and full-service dining facility.
The Soldiers responsible for organizing and managing transit movements play a key role in the main mission of the MK Passenger Transit Center. Organized into "movement control teams," the Soldiers plan, monitor and execute personnel and cargo transportation throughout transiting troops' stay at MK.
"It's all about movement," said Capt. Adam K. Wright, commander of the 635th MCT, 39th Transportation Battalion, part of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command's 16th Sustainment Brigade. "Our philosophy is simple: just keep it moving!"
"In a nutshell, our mission is to get people - mainly Soldiers, Marines and Airmen - and their baggage - where they need to go," added Capt. Daniel W. Chandler, commander of the 165th MCT and a native of Coon Rapids, Minnesota. "All our coordination and planning are done to ensure the buses pick them up on schedule and get them to the right place on time - whether it's the DFAC, their lodging or the airfield."
MCT personnel, Chandler said, manage the shuttle system that moves Soldiers and Marines transiting into and out of major Operation Enduring Freedom hubs in Afghanistan - mainly the air bases at Bagram and Kandahar - to relevant facilities across MK. "Our most important goal is getting the right people and the right cargo to the right destination - getting all those 'deployers,' 'redeployers' and 'transitors' where they need to be as they flow through MK," added 1st Lt. Adam Teachey, a mobility officer with the 165th and native of Midlothian, Virginia.
Movement controllers coordinate with partners ranging from Sustainment Task Force 16 Soldiers who manage transit operations and 780th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron Airmen who operate the airfield and planes to Romanian air force and civilian airport managers, customs agents and Black Sea Area Support Team personnel to accomplish their mission, Chandler said. They also work closely with service and unit liaison personnel and leaders of transiting troops, all of whom figure prominently in managing timelines, schedules and equipment.
MCT Soldiers, the vast majority of them junior officers and mid-grade noncommissioned officers, also play a key role in preparing cargo as well as troops for major deployment and repatriation flights. "We have to ensure the cargo is properly secured and prepared for inventory," said Wright, a native of Freedom, Pennsylvania. "It has to be 100-percent right before it's loaded onto the aircraft."
MCT personnel oversee loading, configuration and wrapping of palletized gear. It's a "no-fail" mission. "If that cargo shifts during the flight, it could endanger the aircraft; so they need to precisely identify the center of balance, which helps identify its placement on the aircraft," Wright said.
Enlisted MCT Soldiers - transportation management coordinators by job specialty - accompany liaison officers and NCOs and local national support personnel to the airfield, where they monitor arrivals and departures, manage movement, organize cargo details and coordinate required support. Beside standard office equipment, radios, clipboards and computers, tools of their trade include rail-load kits, axes, saws, sledgehammers, ladders, forklifts and scales. Unit movement officers represent a broader range of backgrounds, with logisticians, unsurprisingly, comprising a disproportionate share. "Our officers tend to come from logistics and transportation branches," Wright said. "But honestly, as long as they have a good head on their shoulders it doesn't matter that much what their base branch is."
The frequency of flights arriving at unorthodox hours requires MTCs to maintain balanced day and night shifts. The teams provide "24-7" support to incoming transit missions.
Wright's Soldiers, based at the battalion's administrative hub at Kleber Kaserne in Kaiserslautern, Germany, relieve Chandler's troopers, part of the 1st Infantry Division's 541st Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 1st Sustainment Brigade, in early November.
The Fort Riley, Kansas-based 165th arrived in mid-February, shortly after the transit center opened. Due to their nine-month tenure, significantly longer than most tours at MK, 165th Soldiers developed into subject matter experts on the base, facilities and mission as well as mobility operations.
"We became the continuity as the main body of 16th Sustainment Brigade Soldiers rotated in and out," Chandler said with a smile. "We were working with someone different every couple months. The monotony of the routine and watching other rotations come and go gets old; but at the same time, you see the value in developing that subject-matter expertise and having continuity for the rest of the task force to draw on."
The outgoing movement controllers awarded high marks to the professional opportunities and facilities at MK.
"We were pleasantly surprised by the facilities at MK, which made for a more comfortable stay and definitely helped boost morale," Teachey said, noting the base features outstanding life support venues and good billeting as well as high-quality Morale, Welfare and Recreation-sponsored travel opportunities.
Nonetheless, many clicked their boots together in hopes of prompt return to Kansas by the end of October.
"The hardest thing for Soldiers is being away from their Families. Altogether, our Families had four babies while we were here - two of them mine," Chandler said with a laugh.
"This has been a great experience," Teachley added. "But I'm definitely ready to get back to Fort Riley and my family, and the U.S. for that matter. There's no place like home."
The Kaiserslautern team looked forward to a new mission and fresh opportunities, even if it meant eating Thanksgiving dinner with Marines in Romania.
"The mission is a little more focused here," Wright said. "We're accomplishing one main mission as a more or less complete team, rather than supporting several missions across Europe with a couple of guys at widely dispersed places. I see this as an ideal opportunity for professional development and team-building."
"I think this atmosphere is great for bringing everyone together and helping to build cohesion," added Sgt. Ryan Drew, a day shift transportation management coordinator and native of Springdale, Arkansas. "It also helps the Soldiers get a little taste of sacrifice. They'll develop a sense of pride from this. They're going to take ownership, and that's going to build confidence."
Combat-tested troops like Drew, an Operation Enduring Freedom veteran who noted "this isn't my first rodeo," expressed appreciation for the quality of life at MK. They also helped put the transit mission in perspective.
"The greatest thing for me is helping people get home," Drew said. "I've been there before a couple times, and I know the feeling - it's great being able to help them out and be part of sending them home."
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