Warriors in Peace Operations - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

One piece of frustrated cargo defined the term. The
Armor Launched Vehicle Bridges were too large to get to
Bosnia by rail. Although Brigadier General James P.
O’Neal, the ADC-S, had suggested months before that we
send such cargo by barge, that idea had been dismissed by
someone up the chain outside the division. Instead, there
was insistence we send everything by rail. The bottom line
was that the bridges could not be shipped there in time for
use during the river crossing. We argued with several
people at corps and 21st TAACOM about disassembling the
bridges for shipment. We insisted we could not do it and get
them reassembled in time to meet the requirements. We
ended up shipping six bridges, I believe, by C-17 cargo
aircraft.
Another difficult issue we had to deal with almost
immediately was determining priority for movement of
cargo and units by air from Ramstein Air Base. There was a
board process for determining priority for air. However,
there was a difference between USAREUR movement board
decisions and priorities on the airfield. The Division G-3,
Lieutenant Colonel Ed Kane, sent Major Tom Muir, the G-3
Air, to Ramstein to represent the Task Force and to ensure
our priorities were executed. It was a constant struggle.
Part of the problem was the requirement that everything be
done on JOPES; however, the lowest-level JOPES terminal
was in Heidelberg at corps Headquarters. The primary
JOPES operator, Mr. Oliphant, was almost a one-man
show. Moreover, units were responsible for filling out
JOPES worksheets so that he could input information from
them into the computer. As movements changed, it required
a stream of officers going to Heidelberg to sit down with Mr.
Oliphant to update JOPES input. This was very disruptive
for units trying to deploy. The next problem was what was
happening on the ground at Ramstein. Sometimes, Air
Force personnel would load lower-priority pallets before the
higher-priority pallets. Muir’s efforts were invaluable as he
helped get critical items flown to Tuzla in the early days.
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