7th Sustainment Brigade conducts JLOTS Fall Trident

Photo by 1st Lt. Andrea Whitaker

JLOTS Fall Trident

Col. Stephen Farmen, (right, center) Army chief of transportation, is briefed by Capt. Kristina Shelton, (left, foreground) 331st Transportation Company (Causeway), 24th Transportation Battalion, 7th Sustainment Brigade, on the construction and placement of the trident pier floating causeway during the brigade’s annual Joint Logistics Over The Shore training exercise, dubbed Fall Trident. This was the first time Farmen witnessed the JLOTS event.

Posted:

Friday, October 7, 2011 6:00 am

7th Sustainment Brigade Public Affairs |0 comments

Soldiers of the 7th Sustainment Brigade spent the week of Sept. 25 to 30 taking part in the Joint Logistics Over The Shore training exercise Fall Trident. The 11th Transportation Battalion located at Fort Story, spearheaded the exercise with elements of the 10th and 24th transportation battalions, providing support by way of watercraft operations and the fielding of the new Harbormaster Command and Control Center.

Col. Stephen Farmen, Army chief of transportation, conducted site visits to Forts Story and Eustis to see firsthand the brigade’s unique water logistics capability.

Standing on the floating causeway pier at Story’s Utah Beach, Farmen addressed key leaders by stating how the Army’s modernization of equipment, and equipment upgrades, will result in the Army having an even higher caliber of well-trained expeditionary force prepared and ready to support any mission, anywhere.

The brigade’s mission revolves around providing logistical support anywhere, at any time, in any environment with Fall Trident providing real-world training for the unit’s water logistical capability that is used around the globe in support of military, disaster relief and humanitarian operations.

While JLOTS activities were ongoing at Story, at Eustis, the 24th Trans. Bn.’s 492nd Trans. Company (Harbormaster) was fielding the new Harbormaster Command and Control Center. According to Lt. Col. Layton Dunbar, 24th Trans. Bn. commander, a key advantage of the HCCC is its visual capability.

“We have been working over the course of several months with the project manager for the HCCC and had a good idea of what the capabilities of the new system were,” said Dunbar. “It wasn’t until we actually placed the HCCC into operation in a Logistics Over The Shore environment that we came to the realization of how important some of its capabilities are to a transportation battalion, and most importantly, to the combatant commander. Asset and resource visibility is at our fingertips and the capability to command and control our LOTS/JLOTS assets are now resident within the 492nd Harbormaster Detachment.”

The brigade conducts JLOTS training annually at a variety of locations to include Morocco, California, and North Carolina, working in tandem with the Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard. At any given time, the brigade has 500 or more Soldiers deployed around the world supporting various mission.