Flagship Sill: a power projection platform for 100-plus years

FA Journal, March-June, 2004 by Colonel G. Keith

Because of the favorable rail access, Fort Sill can deploy forces to a variety of seaports. The port at Beaumont, Texas, outside of Houston, is often the primary port. Transit time to Beaumont is about 30 to 36 hours. East coast ports, such as Charleston, South Carolina, and Jacksonville, Florida, are equally accessible by rail. Trains coming from Fort Sill arrive at the east coast ports in about five days. Trains traveling to the west coast ports, such as to Long Beach, California, take little more time than it takes to reach Beaumont. Fort Sill can efficiently deploy forces to (or redeploy them from) the Balkans, Northeast Asia or Southwest Asia.

The Transportation Command and port authorities consistently give units moved by Fort Sill via rail high marks for the way the equipment arrives in port. During OIF deployments, no rail cars were rejected or had to be reworked for any reason at any port. The Directorate of Logistics' (DOL's) philosophy is that all equipment being transported by rail to a port will leave Fort Sill 100 percent ready for sealift to avoid causing a "domino effect" delay of the combat mission.

* Logistical Support--Fort Sill has the logistical facilities to accommodate loading and off loading large numbers of equipment rapidly or pull maintenance on that equipment, as necessary. To support rail operations, the installation has an unparalleled railhead with eight independent loading points and an expansive marshalling area. The new railhead has nearly tripled the throughput of railcars from 104 to 340 cars per day.

The facility has cut the time it takes to out load by two-thirds. A battalion-sized unit can load equipment and tie it down on 100 cars simultaneously in six hours. The process use to take 18 hours. With the increased railcar throughput, today. Fort Sill can out load an entire brigade in 18 to 24 hours.

In one case, a multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS) battalion was able to out load on 84 rail cars within two hours with only tie downs needed to complete the process.

Collocated with the railhead, the marshalling area can hold approximately 550 pieces of equipment in a ready-to-load state. The layout of the area facilitates an efficient out load as units don't have to cross their own paths during the process. The design also allows units to marshal behind units in the process of loading.

Because of these state-of-the-art rail facilities, Fort Sill can out load units as efficiently and effectively as any power projection platform in the Army.

Fort Sill DOL's Maintenance Division has processed more than 100 vehicles per week to bring deploying units' equipment up to standard--inspected and road tested. The philosophy is that all equipment deploying from Fort Sill will be fully mission capable to ensure units are combat ready as they disembark in theater.

In one case, an RC unit's 145 vehicles arrived by rail with 120 of the vehicles not mission capable. Fort Sill's DOL Team worked thousands of overtime hours to get the vehicles off loaded, brought up to mechanical standard and out loaded on railcars in seven days--tasks that usually take weeks.