Maj. Gen. Paul Hurley Jr, the commanding general of the 1st Sustainment Command (Theater) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was on post Nov. 1-3 to check on the renovation progress of his unit's future headquarters and to visit with his Soldiers already located on post.
Hurley said renovations are progressing and he's grateful for the support Fort Knox has provided the unit. Prior to the move, he said his command put several demands on supporting agencies in terms of how the headquarters is wired to make sure its personnel are able to stay connected in a secret from with the forward based elements. He said U.S. Installation Management Command and Garrison Command met all of their requirements.
Next summer, the command, also known 1st TSC Command, will officially uncase its colors on Fort Knox.
The 1st TSC is responsible for the logistics support to U.S. and coalition forces across the Middle East and Central Asian states. That's a region that includes 20 countries, about 550 million people and an area about 1 ? times the size of the United States.
"It's a very large and diverse region," explained Hurley. "At any one time 1st TSC Soldiers are operating out of nine countries.
"We also have a significant amount of Soldiers in Afghanistan. Those Soldiers are doing the same thing providing logistics support to the U.S. and coalition forces in the fight against the Taliban and (the Islamic State of Levant). In addition to that, we provide administrative support to the multinational force observers (who are) the peacekeepers in the Sinai in Egypt, and we've got Soldiers (who) are permanently in Qatar, Bahrain and several other countries in the region that are direct support of operations in the area."
Hurley added that 1st TSC is also responsible for theater security cooperation, which means the unit is building relationships with U.S. allies in the region through military-to-military contacts, meetings, seminars and conferences.
He pointed out that they also conduct military-to-military engagements and exercises that ensure the unit forges friendships in the regions.
"We are also building our partners' capacity and working with them on military skills that they find important, depending on who they are and the training they need," he said.
Although 1st TSC will be comprised of about 461 personnel at Fort Knox and include financial management and human resource center elements, the command oversees almost 10,000 Soldiers in the Middle East and Central Asian states.
A uniqueness of 1st TSC is that the unit normally has one-third of its Soldiers deployed at any one time, one-third recovering from a recent deployment and one-third preparing to deploy.
"We have a cycle that is constantly moving and that's just from the headquarters," said Hurley. "We have been perpetually stationed in the Middle East since 2007. The main command post is at Fort Bragg and that's moving to Fort Knox, but we have an operational command post in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, that's where we orchestrate all the sustainment support to U.S. and coalition forces across the region. If you add the U.S. as a nation we are in 10 different countries simultaneously, nine in the Middle East and the U.S.
"This is an amazing distinction between the 1st TSC and other units in the Army. For example, as the operations against ISIL began to expand there was much more of a need for logistics support, not only to U.S. forces in contact with the enemy, but to the Iraqi security forces, our allies in the country, Afghan National Forces and our allies in Afghanistan. We realized we couldn't do all of the execution and the planning with the team we had forward."
Because of this need a virtual world was developed that's actually in the fight on a day-to-day basis. They are the forward team that focuses on the near term --winning the current fight. Hurley added that the Fort Knox team is looking at what is the Iraqi security force going to look like in five to 10 years, and what is the Afghan National Security going to look like in five to 10 years.
"We have to actually start planning that now," he said. "What do we want our relationships to be with our key partners in the regions like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan. We have positive relationships in the regions. We had to figure out what we want that relationship to be. (We had) to start building on that relationship today or toward that vision, and that's what that headquarters element at Fort Knox is going to do."
Hurley added that when Soldiers enter the headquarters they have to literally check their phones in because phones can't be brought into the building. Once that's done Soldiers are virtually transported into another part of the world.
He pointed out that 1st TSC has a battle rhythm that will virtually connect Fort Knox to forward operations to make sure everything is synchronized and integrated.
"That intellectual effort starts with the headquarters that's going to be right here at Fort Knox," he said.
Although the unit's Soldiers will live here, intellectually they will be in the Middle East in the Central Asian states.
Hurley pointed out that there are two other active component sustainment commands in the Army. One is in Hawaii which takes care of the Pacific area and the other one is in Germany which takes care of Europe sustainment.
"The difference (between) us (and those units is) their entire headquarters is in the region," he said. "We have a forward operational command post, and the main command post stays here in (the continental U.S.) -- right here at Fort Knox, it's completely different."
When the Army decides to relocate a unit from one installation to another one, the unit is moved from the patch chart, they aren't in rotation for deployment, their responsibilities are taken away for a certain period of time, they are drawn down and they have an opportunity to build up on the new installation, explained Hurley. But, the 1st TSC is very different, he said. The 1st TSC is moving in stream while simultaneously supporting counter ISIL operations in Iraq and counter Taliban operations in Afghanistan and all the security operations.
Since the unit's mission is different, Hurley said its young noncommissioned officers and officers are assigned roles and responsibilities of each of those command posts so they don't have people in different parts of the world working on the same issue.
"We've created a battle rhythm that allows us to stay virtually connected 24 hours a day, seven days a week and our staffs here and staffs forward collaborate on solutions to sustainment problems in the current fight across the theater, and they do this in a virtual form," he said. "The human dimension allows us to successfully lead our way through this complexity. We have junior Soldiers, NCOs and junior officers who we have empowered."
Although there are only 40 advance party Soldiers at Fort Knox today, Hurley said they have a huge amount of responsibility. Those Soldiers are receiving all of the unit's incoming people to make sure they have a soft landing at Fort Knox and get fully integrated on the installation and the local community.
Hurley held a town hall with the 40 Soldiers while on post, impart about their experiences associated with the unit's move to Fort Knox. He asked them if they encountered any problems or issues while integrating on post and in the local community. He also asked if they were unhappy.
The Soldiers responded by saying they loved the installation and surrounding communities.
"The schools, this place has been fantastic," Hurley said. "(We) feel (like we are) part of the family."
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