3-409th OC/T's plan with support partners

By Capt. Brian WoodSeptember 24, 2018

3-409th OC/T's plan with support partners
1 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – 3rd Brigade Support Battalion, 409th Regiment Senior Enlisted Advisor, Command Sgt. Maj. Richard Carullo (right), discusses 1182nd Deployment and Distribution Support Battalion Transportation Movement Team Leader, Capt. Nikki Kibe's (left) plan on ho... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
3-409th OC/T's plan with support partners
2 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – 1182nd Deployment and Distribution Support Battalion S3, Maj. Christopher Quantock (standing, right) discusses the course of action development phase to the unit staff. Quantock is responsible for the overall planning of the unit's mission. (U.S. Arm... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
3-409th BSB OC/T's plan with support partners
3 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – 1182nd DDSB Commander, Lt. Col. Charley Fairbanks, center, receives a course of action analysis brief from the staff in preparation for their mission. This brief discusses the conditions and resources required, the necessary combat power required, an... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

Charleston, South Carolina -- While many Soldiers enjoy spending their September weekends watching football or enjoying the last warm days of summer, the men and women of the 1182nd Deployment and Distribution Support Battalion have other commitments. The battalion is stationed at Joint Base Charleston, outside North Charleston, South Carolina, and during their latest drill weekend they are hard at work planning for upcoming missions.

The 1182nd is a United States Army Reserve unit trained to assist military sea ports in uploading and downloading containers, vehicles, and equipment from contracted cargo ships. Their expertise allows the Army and other government agencies to transport equipment across oceans in a timely manner and support the warfighter. In the next few months, the 1182nd will participate in an important mission requiring significant planning.

"This next mission of ours is a highly significant event. Not only are we supporting the rotation of a regional command asset, this mission will be in the eyes of the Department of Defense and Army Sustainment Command," said Lt. Col. Charley Fairbanks, the 1182nd DDSB commander. "The ultimate goal is to make the battalion more ready in terms of going to war."

Currently the staff of the 1182nd is actively engaged in the military decision making process to determine how they will accomplish a hasty download of a strategic cargo ship with over 1,000 containers in a significantly abbreviated timeline. Normally the unit has up to a year to plan their logistics and resource everything required; this time they only have three and a half months.

To assist in this process, observer coach/trainers from the 3-409th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Cavalry Multi-Functional Training Brigade at Fort Knox spent a weekend with the 1182nd. The 3-409th team sat down with all members of the 1182nd staff and encouraged out-of-the-box thinking, extensive analysis, and education on the MDMP process.

"As a senior non-commissioned officer, I am providing injects and questions to the enlisted leadership that will be responsible for training the Soldiers before the mission," said Command Sgt. Maj. Richard Carullo, the senior enlisted advisor of 3-409th BSB. "These engagements are beneficial to the Soldiers of the 1182nd because it's not just reading a manual or going over a PowerPoint. The visit also gives the staff members an outside perspective of how they are doing in terms of planning, and what improvements can be made before time runs out."

The MDMP is a proven concept that the Department of the Army teaches to leaders of all units so they can study a mission or requirement, conduct thorough and proper analysis, and issue educated courses of action to their commander. The commander can then decide what direction to take the unit, and the staff receives guidance on how to continue their planning. The MDMP is vital to the successful execution of military missions. With such a short timeline, the commander of the 1182nd DDSB must motivate his staff to not waste any time with this process.

In an active duty unit, the staff has the ability to meet every day and provide updates to each other and discuss their analysis. For the Reservists, they only see each other once a month. This complicates the process immensely, as they must squeeze an abbreviated timeline into a drill weekend.

"Having feedback from the OC/T's is instrumental in our planning process, we can discuss ideas that we may not have thought of, and get their opinion on where to improve ourselves and the staff as a whole," said 1182nd Transportation Movement Team Leader Capt. Nikki Kibe.

At the end of the weekend the OC/T's said they were pleased with the progress made by the 1182nd. Though many challenges lay ahead for the staff members, they now have even more tools and resources to reach out to in the next upcoming months.