JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. –
Its five o'clock in the morning and the sun has not yet broken the horizon. The only sound that can be heard at Fort Eustis' 3rd Port is the U.S. Army Vessel Hobkirk being loaded with Joint Task Force Civil Support vehicles.
The partnership between JTF-CS and the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary) was substantiated during the annual Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore exercise, Aug. 14.
The exercise involved loading and unloading ships without the benefit of a fixed port facility, and evaluated how equipment and supplies are moved ashore when port facilities are nonexistent, damaged or too primitive for ships to off-load their cargo at a pier.
One by one, Service members loaded JTF-CS response vehicles onto USAV Hobkirk and secured them in place. Once the vehicles were ready, the 174-foot-vessel commenced the four-and-a-half-hour-journey to Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia.
After completing transit along the James River where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean, the USAV Hobkirk arrived at the 80-foot-long Trident Pier at Fort Story.
The causeway modular sections of this type of pier can be used so a ship or vessel can load or offload equipment or personnel when the permanent pier had been damaged from a man-made or natural disaster. This is extremely important to a unit like JTF-CS, who may be called to respond after chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear disaster.
Once the vessel was tied securely to the pier, JTF-CS members safely drove their vehicles from the vessel's ramp and down the portable pier.
"Participating in this exercise validates our ability to deploy to an incident response by sea," said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Brian Knowles, JTF-CS operations division chief. "During a disaster, the roads could be blocked or damaged and traveling by sea might be the best way. We showed that we can do that."
Additional information about JTF-CS and Defense CBRN Response Force capabilities can be found at
www.jtfcs.northcom.mil/JTFCS.aspx.