1st Battalion 22nd Infantry Movement Operations Jan 2008

1st Battalion 22nd Infantry

Raider Brigade Movement Operations January 2008

Raider Brigade movement officers send equipment forward for deployment

Lessons learned at NTC help brigade

Spc. David Hodge

1st BCT PAO, 4th Inf. Div.

January 26, 2008

FORT HOOD, Texas –Specially trained Soldiers, known as unit movement officers,
are working long hours through the month of January to ensure that their equipment is ready to go
with the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, during its upcoming deployment to Iraq.

The movement operations conducted at Fort Hood’s Deployment Ready Reaction Field and Rail Operations Center
mark the beginning of the Raider Brigade’s third deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“This is the first stage of the deployment process for the 1st BCT,” said 1st Lt. Daniel Hoffman, unit movement officer
and executive officer, Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 1st Special Troops Battalion, 1st BCT.

FORT HOOD, Texas -- Units from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, load M1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks
and M88 Recovery Vehicles onto rail cars at Fort Hood's Rail Operations Center, Jan. 26.
The Soldiers of the Raider Brigade Combat Team are working throughout the month of January conducting movement operations
to Port Beaumont, Texas, as the brigade prepares to embark upon its third deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Brent Williams, 1st BCT PAO, 4th Inf. Div.)

The UMO’s responsibilities for moving the equipment starts by on-the-job training,
learning to use the proper documentation forms, loading and bracing containers, and vehicle movement operations.

The officers-in-charge of the unit movement operations are continually tracking deployment
and equipment lists to assure that every piece of equipment is safely moved to Iraq.

Hoffman, who has been a UMO for different units since 2005, is the officer-in-charge of movement operations
for the HHD, Renegade Company, 1st STB.

“Our UMO operations went well,” said Hoffman, who hails from North Glenn, Colo.

The company worked twelve-hour days through the weekend to accomplish all its objectives
and lent a hand with additional pieces of equipment from other units, he added.

The movement operations began by moving vehicles from the DRRF to the railroad loading area
to be put onto rail cars, after which the military equipment traveled to Port Beaumont, Texas,
to be loaded onto a ship and transported to Kuwait.

Due to the number of tracks available, Soldiers remain on call to move the brigade’s equipment
and to prevent delays because rail operations cannot move forward until the trains are ready to be loaded, said Hoffman.

FORT HOOD, Texas -- Pfc. Patrick Mosley, light wheeled mechanic assigned to Company B, 4th Support Battalion,
1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, affixes a military shipping label to the driver's side
of his M1078 Light Medium Tactical Vehicle, Jan. 26, while conducting movement operations
at Fort Hood's Deployment Ready Reaction Field. Soldiers of the Raider Brigade Combat Team are packing,
line-hauling and rail loading equipment to be moved to Port Beaumont, Texas,
in preparation for the brigade's third deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Brent Williams, 1st BCT PAO, 4th Inf. Div.)

“Nobody likes working on the weekend, but we know that we have a mission to accomplish
by getting the vehicles on the train,” said Sgt. 1st Class Troy Johnson, a platoon sergeant from Lino Lakes, Minn.,
and assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st BCT.

Movement operations have been easier for Raider Brigade Soldiers
in comparison to the move to the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif. in August 2007.

“We learned a lot of things from movement operations at NTC, and we are using those lessons learned
for these movement operations,” said 1st Lt. Nate Wilson, executive officer, Co. C, 1-22 Inf. Regt., 1st BCT.

“Everybody seems to be pretty motivated because we’ve been expecting this for awhile,”
added Wilson, who claims Fairfax, Va. as home.

Others were heartbroken when asked to give up their armored vehicles.

Saying goodbye to the “firepower of freedom” is hard for some combat-arms Soldiers to cope with,
said 1st Lt. Michael Roscoe, a platoon leader assigned to Battery A, 4th Battalion, 42nd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st BCT.

“I didn’t imagine it would be this hard (to give up my guns),” Roscoe said.
“I’ll see them in Kuwait though, in a few months, I’ll be happy then.”

The Raider Brigade will take its combat experience and lessons learned
to join Multi-National Division-Baghdad and the 4th Inf. Div. in early March.

FORT HOOD, Texas --
Sgt. Juan Zermenoreynosa, an armor crewmember assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment,
1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, ground guides an M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank onto a rail car
at the rail head loading area, Jan. 26, during movement operations on Fort Hood. Soldiers of the Raider Brigade Combat Team,
working with their unit movement officers, worked tirelessly to pack, prepare and line-haul the equipment
and shipping containers the 1st BCT will need to accomplish its mission in Iraq.
The movement operations will be the last major effort from the brigade before it deploys in early March.
(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Brent Williams, 1st BCT PAO, 4th Inf. Div.)

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