Exercising reception, staging, and onward movement in Korea

By Capt. Matthew VogeleApril 28, 2016

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A transportation management coordinator Soldier from the 665th Movement Control Team makes adjustments to a Portable Deployment Kit interrogator installed on his crew's humvee. The interrogator is used to provide in-transit visibility of radio freque... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

In the summer of 2015, the 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command (ESC) partnered with the Republic of Korea (ROK) Army's 2nd Operational Command (2OC) for a combined exercise. The exercise focused on validating the units' ability to perform intratheater reception, staging, and onward movement (RSO), which is a key task in providing continuous forward support to U.S. Forces Korea during contingencies in the Korean theater of operations (KTO).

Integral to the task of RSO in a combined theater is the function of movement control, which was executed by the ESC's support operations mobility section, the U.S. Army Materiel Support Command-Korea, the 25th Transportation Battalion (Movement Control), and the allied or host-nation movement control structure.

INTRATHEATER RSO

Elements of the 498th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, the 94th Military Police Battalion, and ROK Army military police from the 2OC conducted a combined convoy operation that simulated intratheater RSO between the Busan Storage Center and Camp Casey.

Intratheater RSO is the movement of personnel, equipment, vehicles, and materiel within and throughout a theater distribution network. Intratheater RSO is doctrinally different from intertheater RSO, which is the strategic deployment or redeployment of forces into or out of a theater of operation. A unit deploying into a theater of operation transports most of its equipment aboard a maritime vessel. Upon arrival, the equipment is discharged from the vessel and prepared for additional movement by road or railway.

For the combined exercise, containers and equipment were loaded onto vehicles at the Port of Busan and transported 350 miles north to their destination at Camp Casey, located just 15 miles from the Demilitarized Zone.

The KTO offers a unique and invaluable opportunity for the 19th ESC to exercise combined movement control functions with an allied host nation to determine best practices for intratheater RSO.

South Korea is roughly the size of Indiana and has a population of more than 51 million people. Population density, congestion, and mountainous terrain, which covers 70 percent of the country, are some of the greatest challenges for combined and joint sustainment support.

ROUTE SYNCHRONIZATION

Army Techniques Publication 4-16, Movement Control, replaced Field Manual 4-01.30, Movement Control, as part of the Army's Doctrine 2015 initiative. One important change was the replacement of the term "highway regulation" with "route synchronization." This change emphasizes the importance of executing a commander's movement priorities at all levels of theater movement control.

Combined route synchronization at the tactical level is executed by a movement control team (MCT) and was one of the key tasks validated during the exercise. A movement control battalion (MCB) has four MCTs and one headquarters and headquarters detachment. Each MCT has four crews that consist of at least two military occupational specialty 88N (transportation management coordinator) Soldiers and one noncommissioned officer. All crews are grouped in pairs to form sections, which are led by a section sergeant and platoon leader.

Each crew is assigned one M1151 humvee with a Movement Tracking System and Portable Deployment Kit. Crews from the 138th, 517th, 662nd, and 665th MCTs occupied four convoy support centers and three checkpoints along the 350-mile route during the exercise. The placement of MCT crews at convoy support centers or other checkpoints serves three key movement control and route synchronization functions.

First, the MCT executes the theater movement plan as dictated and approved by the ESC and combined theater movement control elements. Each crew validates convoy schedules to ensure priority movements are given precedence along main supply routes or alternate supply routes.

Second, the MCT crew controls routing. The crew can halt, delay, or divert movements if a node's status changes, if a route is congested, or if a shipment is needed elsewhere.

Third, the crew performs in-transit visibility. The crew reports a convoy serial's arrival and departure times to theater movement planners and uses the Movement Tracking System and the Portable Deployment Kit to track convoys and high-profile sustainment movements.

Route synchronization played a vital role during the exercise in assisting each convoy to successfully reach its destination at Camp Casey. The exercise validated the 19th ESC's ability to perform combined theater movement control and intratheater RSO.

COMBINED MOVEMENT CONTROL

In a theater distribution network, an MCB is the principle organization under a sustainment brigade or ESC that is responsible for executing a theater movement plan. In other words, the MCB manages and supervises the movement of equipment, units, and materiel throughout a battle space. This task becomes even more challenging in a combined environment and may require movement coordination with not only a host nation but also allied forces.

The 2OC's 32nd MCB is the ROK Army force equivalent of the 25th Transportation Battalion, which is the 19th ESC's MCB. The structure and mission of ROK Army MCBs parallel those of U.S. Army MCBs. Both comprise MCTs and are responsible for providing area movement control to a designated field army. During armistice and contingency operations in the KTO, MCTs from the 25th Transportation Battalion co-locate with ROK Army MCTs to form combined movement control teams (CMCTs) and combined movement control centers (CMCCs).

CMCTs provide area support to divisional units and coordinate with CMCCs at the field army level. CMCCs assist in the allocation of available lift assets, coordinate with adjacent ROK Army CMCCs to regulate movements, and report to movement control elements at the ESC and U.S.-ROK Combined Forces Command levels.

There are three ROK field armies and one ROK capital defense command, and each is assigned an ROK Army MCB. Other movement control elements that are involved in the combined and joint structure but did not participate in the RSO exercise include a combined air mobility division, combined seaport command center, joint movement control center, and combined transportation movement cell.

These combined movement control elements consist of both U.S. Army and ROK Army personnel and fall under the ROK Transportation Command. Each ROK Army MCB (the 31st, 32nd, 33rd, and 35th MCBs) also falls directly under the ROK Transportation Command. This combined and joint structure is the foundation of continual forward support during RSO. The integration of these movement control elements provided the ESC commander with visibility of deploying personnel and their equipment.

Critical information requirements were used to accurately communicate the status and array of forces to the geographic combatant commander. During the exercise, the 665th MCT, stationed at Camp Carroll, co-located with elements of 32nd MCB in Daegu to establish a CMCC. The CMCC acted as a conduit between the ROK Army and the 19th ESC for combined movement control.

Other key planning considerations included allocating and staging vehicles at the Busan Storage Center, determining the location of convoy support centers, gaining convoy highway clearance request approval from the ROK Transportation Command, establishing and following combined ROK-U.S. military police escort procedures, and determining the field location of the transportation movement control element. The exercise was a proof of concept for the ESC's ability to provide RSO support in a combined environment for rotational forces deploying to the KTO.

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Capt. Matthew Vogele is the commander of B Company, 82nd Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He holds a master's degree in transportation and logistics management from the American Military University.

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This article was published in the May-June 2016 issue of Army Sustainment magazine.

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