YOKOHAMA, Japan -- Army Field Support Battalion-Northeast Asia exercised their ability to issue Army Prepositioned Stocks 4 watercraft to 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary) during Exercise Pacific Reach 2015, which was held in May.
The Army has more than 100 watercraft manned by Soldiers. Some of that capability resides in the Asian pacific, as part of APS-4. As the caretakers for APS-4, AFSBn-NEA issues the watercraft to Army Mariners in time of contingency or during exercises.
"The main purpose of Pacific Reach is to validate the issue of APS-4 equipment in support of regional exercises," said Lt. Col. Christopher Noe, commander, AFSBn-NEA.
"It allows us to validate our issue process, equipment readiness, and the ability of Soldiers to deploy from the continental United States to overseas locations, draw APS-4 equipment, and then put that equipment into action."
Doug Workman, AFSBn-NEA site lead at Yokohama North Dock, talked about the complexity of operations.
"In a contingency, we would need to issue this equipment very rapidly," he said.
"Pacific Reach helps us validate that. In fact, the coming together of multiple units from both the active and reserve component to inventory, sea trial, and receive more than 20 pieces of APS-4 watercraft makes this special and challenging at the same time."
This year, Pacific Reach coincided with Exercise Combined/Joint Logistics over the Shore (C/JLOTS)-15, which occurred on the west coast of the Republic of Korea in late June. C/JLOTS is a United States Transportation Command and United States Pacific Command sponsored event held every two years in Korea. It tests the combined and joint capability of the U.S. and ROK Armed Forces to conduct logistics operations over the shore in an austere environment.
Due to large variations in tides at the exercise area, AFSBn-NEA issued more than 1,800 feet of modular causeway to 7th TB(X), completing the longest Trident Pier ever constructed.
"C/JLOTS is really the culmination of many months of hard work and dedication across the combined and joint community," said Noe.
"Although the issue of APS-4 watercraft is a small portion at the front end of C/JLOTS, we recognize the importance we play in giving flexibility to the combatant commander by being able to get this equipment out the door to conduct this exercise, and if need be, during a contingency."
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