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JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Washington (Oct. 14, 2021) – Soldiers from the 902nd Contracting Battalion Contracting Detachment B at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, provided contracting support and administration during a recent National Training Center rotation at Fort Irwin, California.
The 902nd CBN partnered its CONDET B forward contracting element with the 2nd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division Combat Team to support the brigade’s deployment training rotation.
FCE contracting Soldiers assisted 2/2 SBCT planners to identify multiple gaps requiring contract support prior to their departure for NTC Rotation 21-09. The FCE then accompanied the supported brigade to provide onsite contracting support as the brigade deployed for training into a high tempo operational contracting support environment.
The FCE solicited and awarded 11 contracts the month before the rotation started and provided contract administration for those contracts. Contracting Soldiers ensured all equipment was delivered to the brigade. Two of the original 11 contracts required new awards as the original vendors pulled out two days before execution. FCE Soldiers sought new vendors to get the contracts in place to meet the needs of the warfighter with no impact to the mission.
“The NTC provided the contracting team an opportunity to support the warfighter while refining our operational contracting skillset in a high OPTEMPO environment,” said Maj. Travers Doane, the CONDET B commander. “NTC rotations provide contracting organizations a challenging environment due to rapidly changing requirements from supported units. These types of challenges would be hard to replicate during normal home station business operations that, in turn, will really help us with challenging future requirements.”
The Stryker brigade’s mission dictated a need to modify the contracts within scope, as the unit’s requirements changed. One requirement change was the need to add more refrigeration trucks to an original contract because the on-base source supplementing them was not able to provide the full complement of trucks needed. The 2/2 SBCT also redeployed back to its home station three days earlier than originally planned, which required a period of performance dates and price modification. The additional contract needs called for maximum flexibility from the team to meet requirements by the supported unit. This enabled the brigade to continue its training as well as redeploy home according to its timeline.
The FCE obligated more than $734,000 for various life support, materials-handling equipment, transportation, and aviation fuel requirements -- supporting more than 5,000 warfighters across 26 locations in the Fort Irwin and Yermo, California, area with a cost savings of more than $40,000 during the course of the exercise. The FCE realized these savings by working with the contracting officer representatives to identify requirements that could be reduced at the end of the exercise based on the redeployment timeline. The tents, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and latrines contracts alone accounted for more than half of the total amount and allowed the 2/2 SBCT Soldiers to have some small comforts in the scorching Californian high desert.
“The MICC team allowed the 2-2 Stryker Brigade to execute more than $700,000 in contracted support during operations at NTC,” Capt. Joshua Bell, 2-2 SBCT finance officer, said. “The team was available at all times and worked long hours at night and over the weekends to secure support for requirements driven by real time operations on ground. Majors Doane, Timothy Roberts and Staff Sergeant John Reed were essential to the smooth and successful execution of our rotation.”
About the MICC
Headquartered at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, the Mission and Installation Contracting Command consists of about 1,500 military and civilian members who are responsible for contracting goods and services in support of Soldiers as well as readying trained contracting units for the operating force and contingency environment when called upon. As part of its mission, MICC contracts are vital in feeding more than 200,000 Soldiers every day, providing many daily base operations support services at installations, facilitate training in the preparation of more than 100,000 conventional force members annually, training more than 500,000 students each year, and maintaining more than 14.4 million acres of land and 170,000 structures.
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