NÜRNBERG, Germany -- A convoy of 10 U.S. Army vehicles drove off an airplane and across the airfield at Albrecht Durer Airport May 16, just two weeks after it was announced Soldiers would deploy from Fort Carson, Colorado to Germany for an emergency deployment readiness exercise.
With very short notice, 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division sent Soldiers to Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, to participate in the exercise, which tests the deployment, reception, staging and onward movement, and integration of units coming to Europe.
"It's really an Army directed, FORSCOM directed mission to show that the Army can, at any point and at any time in a unit's life cycle, can deploy very rapidly," said Lt. Col. Bo Dennis, commander, 2-12 Infantry Battalion. "In the case of our battalion, we received the mission to deploy two weeks ago, so over the course of two weeks we mobilized all of our battalion's equipment, and over 600 personnel to execute this mission.
Short-notice coordination for the deployment had to happen on both ends to make sure the Soldiers and equipment were brought into Germany quickly and without any hiccups.
"The ability for us to project forces into the European theater within a week is impressive," said Capt. Daniel Beatty, commander 624th Movement Control Team, 39th Movement Control Battalion, 16th Sustainment Brigade. "The fact that we were, on short notice, able to get four C-5s (Super Galaxy airplanes) to land here at a commercial airport and get them into theater quickly is a deterring effort for anybody in the theater."
Having the Soldiers moved efficiently through the reception and staging portions is key to demonstrating the ability to deploy rapidly and put forces into play on the battlefield.
"When we talk about speed of assembly, it really begins at the entry points; at the airports, at the railheads, at the seaports," Beatty said. "The 16th Sustainment Brigade has been leading the effort and trying to ensure a smooth flow of troops and equipment into the theater. We are the ones that liaison with civilian elements, with the commercial enterprise to ensure that all of that equipment and the (personnel) force flow happens seamlessly."
The behind the scenes work in bringing the Soldiers into theater has paid off for the unit now that they have arrived.
"It's a great exercise," Dennis said. "Excellent in terms of exercising the systems that we have at the battalion, and also the brigade and division level, to make sure that we can in fact go anywhere in the world in a short notice type environment."
While at the training area, the 2-12 Infantry Battalion Soldiers will conduct platoon level training and live fire exercises.
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