Rail to the National Training Center

FORT STEWART, Georgia -- Soldiers from 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division have been loading tracked and wheeled vehicles onto rail cars over the last two weeks at Fort Stewart, Georgia in preparation for the brigade's rotation to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California later this month.

Loading and chaining down the vehicles onto the rail cars is one of the last steps before the brigade departs for California, where they will download the equipment and rapidly build combat power.

In total the brigade will send over 1,000 pieces of equipment by rail to Fort Irwin, to include Abrams Main Battle Tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles.

"Safety is our biggest concern here for both the Soldier and the equipment," said 1st Lt. Scott Filbert, a platoon leader with Company A, 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment and the officer-in-charge for the railhead operations. "We want to make sure our equipment gets to its destination safely and securely, so we have teams placing at least 16 tie-down chains on each piece of equipment."

Though there are some differences in the procedures and standards, the brigade received significant experience in conducting rail operations over the last two years while in Europe as the Regionally Allocated Force for U.S. European Command.

"I've done this multiple times and it feels great when the trains start moving with the vehicles and our equipment gets to where it's going so we can train," said Sgt. Ruben Casiano, an infantryman from Co. A, 1st Bn., 64th Arm. Rgmt. "Being able to quickly load our equipment and get it to its destination shows that we are one of the most powerful Armies in the world."

This is the first time the brigade will be using its home station fleet since their last NTC rotation in the fall of 2014.

"It means a good deal more to have our own vehicles, because here we are bringing vehicles that we have trained in and crews are comfortable with," said Filbert. "This alone makes us a better fighting force."

The brigade will arrive at the National Training Center at the end of March and is expected to return to Fort Stewart in late April.

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