Busy MTMC battalion finds time for training - Brief Article

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

In a busy work schedule, it is sometimes hard to find time for training--but members of the 839th Transportation Battalion have solved that problem.

For the third year in a row, members of the unit met at the battalion's Livorno, Italy, headquarters for a range of training classes.

The success of the training required planning and commitment.

For one thing, the battalion is busy. Its members have made more than a dozen deployments to the Balkans in the past two years.

There is more: You have to consider the geography.

The battalion's subordinate elements include the 953rd Transportation Co., Piraeus, Greece, and the MTMC Azores Detachment, Lajes Field, Azores.

"Contingency operations often call for 839th members to leave their home stations in Italy, Greece and the Azores, and come together to open and operate pons in faraway locations," said Staff Sgt. Gloria Green.

"By first meeting and training together in Italy, unit members get a chance to develop teamwork in a more controlled environment."

The training, from Oct. 23 to 27, included such subjects as force protection, equal opportunity, the Army Physical Fitness Test, and qualification on the 9mm-pistol range.

"We accomplished 90 percent of our annual mandatory training requirements during the week," said Lt. Col. Gary Stanley, Commander.

The training week culminated in the annual 12-kilometer run from Camp Darby to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which attracts American military and civilians from all over Italy. For the third consecutive year, the 839th won the Commander's Trophy for having 100 percent unit participation.

This year, the 7.4-mile run was accomplished in the rain.

"Unit members were ecstatic about the award and the training week in general," said Stanley. "It was an opportunity not only for quality training, but also to build relationships that will carry over when we meet again at a remote port site."

Unit members were ecstatic about the award and the training week in general.

This year's training included a terrain walk to Elba Island, the site where Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled.

The journey to Elba included a ride on an ocean ferry.

"Some of the unit members were struck by the irony of a ship-loading unit actually sailing on a ship," said Sgt. 1st Class Frank Price. The battalion's 41 members include military, civilian and local national employees.

Maj. Daniel Miller
Operations Officer
839th Transportation Battalion