688th Rapid Port Opening Element conducts Rapid Deployment Exercise

By Julie A KelemenJuly 14, 2021

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JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, VA – The 688th Rapid Port Opening Element conducted a no-notice deployment readiness exercise at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va. June 13 -14.

In the exercise scenario, the Soldiers worked with members of the U.S. Air Force and observers from the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command and were challenged with the task of deploying to South America in under 36 hours in a hurricane relief scenario.

In a real world mission, these Soldiers would be the first forces on the ground to support geographic combatant commanders during initial phases of a humanitarian or contingency operations.

The 688th RPOE deployed to Liberia in September 2014 as part of Operation United Assistance to support the containment of the Ebola virus outbreak in western Africa and in January 2010 supported relief efforts following a catastrophic 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti.

Learn more about the RPOE at www.army.mil/standto/archive/2017/01/10.

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