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

tied up with A/DACGS, CSCs, EAGLE EXPRESS, and CR
mail deliveries, its headquarters and a majority of assets
were not available to deploy. What the 181st TB lacked, and
what the 28th TB had, were line-haul, medium truck
companies and trailer transfer units. The logical decision
was to give the 181st TB what it needed, and that is what we
did.
Colonel Kubiszewski knew the moment he gave me the
assignment that I would not like the arrangement. It is not
that I had anything against the 181st TB or its commander,
Lieutenant Colonel Roger Moore. In fact, the battalions had
a good working and social relationship. Both battalions
were located in Mannheim, Germany, and it was not
unusual to have soldiers or NCOs serve back-to-back
assignments in each battalion. But like most commanders, I
felt that I alone could best take care of MY soldiers. And all
of us in the battalion were itching to go to Bosnia and be part
of the game—not just support it from afar. The bottom-line
was that the 70th TC and 260th TTD came under the
operational control of the 181st TB and deployed via their
own means on December 11, 1995. As a matter of history,
this convoy was the first U.S. military convoy to depart for
the Balkans in support of OJE.
I vowed to the soldiers and the families of these two units
that I would soon be there to command them again. With the
help of our brigade commander, that vow was fulfilled
sooner than I thought.
Preparing the two units for deployment was an
experience worth discussing. When we received the
September notice to deploy them, the accompanying
instructions directed that the 70th TC would draw from
Combat Equipment Group, Europe (CEGE) sites the
Palletized Load System (PLS) equipment. Since the PLS
was not organic to the battalion, few drivers were licensed to
operate it. As a result, a crash familiarization and licensing
program was conducted.
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