MTMC supports Marine Corps exercise on the Adriatic coast - Military Traffic Management Command facilitates beach landing in Croatia - Brief Article

Translog: Journal of Military Transportation Management, March-April, 2001 by Dan Miller, Sam Miller

The residents of Rijeka, Croatia, have seen numerous peacekeeping missions come and go through their port in the past three years.

However, a joint Military Traffic Management Command and U.S. Marine Corps operation brought residents out into the streets high above the port to watch.

The operation was reported on local broadcast news reports and made the front page of the Croatian national newspaper.

Residents long accustomed to U.S. Army equipment coming ashore at the picturesque Port of Rijeka now saw Marine Corps equipment coming right up the beach in the middle of their city.

The Marine equipment came from a three-ship formation carrying the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Originally, the USS Saipan, USS Austin and USS Ashland were bound for a training exercise in Southwest Asia.

When the operation was switched to the Adriatic Sea, MTMC moved fast.

First ashore at Rijeka were veteran transporters of the 839th Transportation Battalion, Livorno, Italy, who have conducted more than a dozen operations in Rijeka in the past year.

In our first Logistics Over The Shore exercise, the 839th developed a discharge coming over the beach instead of onto a pier.

JardoAgent, MTMC's port services con tractor, prepared a beach along a downtown shoreline for the landing.

The goal was for equipment to be offloaded to small landing craft utility vessels. Upon reaching shore, the equipment was to be moved hastily off the beach.

And that is exactly what happened.

In the early morning hours of Nov. 9, the Navy ships edged into Rijeka harbor.

All day long, Marine Corps equipment rolled ashore. Four landing craft kept a constant flow of equipment coming to the beach. It was very dynamic and exciting to be part of the deployment.

At its peak, there were three landing craft discharging on the beach, several amphibious craft entering the beach, two Landing Craft Air Cushioned hovering in the distance, and several helicopters flying overhead.

In all, we moved about 180 pieces of equipment, including giant M-1 Abrams tanks.

The Marines road-marched most of their vehicles to the Slunj exercise training area. The 14th Transportation Battalion's, Movement Control Team coordinated road clearances, line haul for the tracked and oversized vehicles, and bus transportation for the Marines.

MTMC staged and loaded some equipment that had to move by commercial track.

"This exercise was an outstanding training opportunity," said Lt. Col. Gary Stanley, Commander. "It reconfirms we have the ability to react to almost any plausible contingency operation in the Adriatic."

Two weeks later, Nov. 20-23, we returned the bulk of the equipment back to the Navy ships in a reverse operation.

The amphibious group departed for Rota, Spain, its six-month deployment at an end.

Our 839th Battalion members went home, too--back to Livorno. However, we know we'll be back in Rijeka soon, for the next loading or discharge.

Maj. Dan Miler and
Capt. Sam Miller
839th Transportation Battalion