DRAWSKO POMORSKIE COMBAT TRAINING CENTER, Poland – Tucked away near the city of Konotop, the Drawsko Pomorskie Combat Training Center -- one of U.S. Army Garrison Poland's largest sites -- bustles with activity as units send their equipment home as the Defender 24 exercise comes to an end.
Approximately 2,000 pieces of shiny, clean equipment shipped from the United States and the United Kingdom to support Defender 24. And while those tanks and trucks built deterrence on NATO’s Eastern Flank – they also built up dirt, grime, and mud in the training fields of Poland and the Baltics. Now, with the exercise completed, the dirty job of cleaning that equipment becomes vital to send everything and everyone home.
One of the largest hurdles in shipping military equipment out of the country is ensuring the pieces of equipment are completely clean, meeting both stringent US and Polish environmental standards. DCTC has not only supported Defender by providing living accommodations and food for the duration of the exercise, but it also now supports the cleaning efforts with its brand-new motor pool.
“When it’s time to go home, they have everything they need right here,” said Master Sgt. Rodney Reynolds, the noncommissioned officer in charge of DCTC. “Instead of packing up and moving down to the port, or moving to another site, they can do it here where they’ve lived and worked. They know where everything is already, and it's more convenient for them.”
This convenience allows for a smoother transition from wash racks to deployment, ensuring that vehicles can be processed and moved quickly to meet tight schedules.
“We have one of three washing stations with agricultural wash and sand washing station in Poland -- and we’re the biggest,” said Lt. Col. Steven Thompson, the DCTC Garrison Support Element officer in charge.
Currently, DCTC has five permanent wash facilities that provide units with the ability to quickly wash and dry their equipment as they prepare to clear customs to send everything back to their home stations.
In preparation for Defender 24, two of the wash racks went down with limited ability to bring them back up in time. This coupled with a new mandate from customs, seemingly set DCTC up for failure as approximately 2,000 pieces of equipment were coming in a very short time.
“The Polish said, sir, we’re going to have to rebuild those pumps completely, and I thought, man, I’ve got this,” reminisced Thompson.
“I did some digging and found out there was an entity that did portable wash racks from the 21st Theater Sustainment Command,” said the Searcy, Arkansas native. He described the phone conversation that led to facilitating the needed capacity to handle the high volume of vehicles.
By the time Defender 24 wrapped up, all five of DCTC’s wash racks were back in order. The portable wash racks allocated by the 21st TSC worked in tandem to wash and dry all the pieces of equipment.
“These ag washes are vital to the movement of these [service members],” said Reynolds, a native of East Chicago, Indiana. He describes how the timetables can shift making the already tight timeline, tighter. The mix of permanent and portable washes provides the ability to handle large volumes of equipment.
“Now, I can watch the UK and the US vehicles simultaneously and get them out of here to meet their port times,” said Reynolds.
DCTC provides the wash rack capabilities to approximately 20,000 pieces or about of rolling stock across Europe annually, excluding exercises such as Defender 24.
The facility at DCTC considers environmental protections for the number of washings it does. Specifically designed to pull the dirty water runoff into gutter-like areas that have oil water separators built in.
“If you look carefully at the motor pool, it kind of tapers off. It has a center point and is like a roof on a house. The water will pull away from the center, and flow into the oil-separating ditches,” explains Thompson. “There’s an oil filtration system in there, for a lack of a better term, and separates the water and oil.
The washing operations at DCTC have proven to be a critical asset in maintaining the readiness and efficiency of military deployments. With the ability to handle large volumes of equipment and provide rapid, on-site washing capabilities, DCTC ensures that military vehicles are always ready for action. This capability not only supports immediate deployment needs but also enhances the overall operational effectiveness of the military forces stationed and transitioning through the DCTC.
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