“Cocooned” helicopters from the Army’s 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), to include Apache, Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters, are stored Thursday on one of six decks of the USNS Bob Hope. (Sandra Jontz / S&S)
“Cocooned” helicopters from the Army’s 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), to include Apache, Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters, are stored Thursday on one of six decks of the USNS Bob Hope. (Sandra Jontz / S&S)
Humvees from the Army's 101st Airborne Division wait to be loaded onto the transport vessel USNS Dahl. (Sandra Jontz / S&S)
Pfc. Ben Eggers, 25, had to “cocoon,” or shrink-wrap, helicopters before the aircraft could be loaded on to transport vehicles heading for the Persian Gulf. (Sandra Jontz / S&S)
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It’s crunch time for soldiers of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division, who, on orders to deploy to the Middle East, have worked double time to ship out their helicopters and equipment from Blount Island, Fla., to the Persian Gulf.
Crews on Thursday loaded the decks of transporters USNS Bob Hope and USNS Dahl, anchored at the Blount Island port terminal, with a portion of the air assault division’s supply of vehicles and 275 helicopters.
Key to the arrangement was ensuring that all of the division’s 75 Apache attack helicopters make it out on the first two ships of what will be roughly five or six needed to get the entire division overseas, said Brig. Gen. Edward Sinclair, assistant division commander of the 101st, stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky.
Loading two Large Medium Speed Roll-on Roll-off vessels, or LMSRs, simultaneously proved “a very challenging thing to say the least, but it’s going pretty smoothly,” Sinclair said.
It started off rough.
Soldiers from the division’s 8th Battalion had to work in pouring, cold rain last week to get equipment ready to go — mainly “cocooning” the helicopters — shrink-wrapping them in plastic.
“Moving a helicopter is like moving an egg: it’s easily damaged and you have to be very careful,” said Col. Tom E. Thompson, chief of staff for the Army’s Military Traffic Management Command.
“When we got started, it was disheartening,” said Pfc. Ben Eggers, 25. “It was cold, it was rough, it was miserable, but we got it done. It really was about teamwork. We each found a niche, something we were good at, and we got busy. But we worked every day for six days, 12 hours a day.”
He’s ready for this deployment.
“I’m ready to get it on,” said the engine mechanic. “I don’t want to see that next Sept. 11, where we’ll be measuring [casualties] in the millions instead of the thousands. I’d rather we go and do something about it now.”
His buddy, Spc. Randy Payne, 20, wasn’t as gung-ho.
“I’m a little nervous. I admit that. I don’t know what to expect. My family is scared, too. But I’m a little excited about it. Everyone who gets to defend U.S. freedom has got something to be proud of.”
It’ll take about three weeks for the vessels to reach the Persian Gulf. The Dahl was set to sail Friday; the Bob Hope on Saturday.
The majority of the 20,000 air-assault soldiers of the 101st will be flying over in the next few weeks. Some will travel on the ships to maintain the equipment and provide force protection.
The use of the $298-million apiece LMSRs directly is linked to the experienced failures of the Persian Gulf War, in which the Army was too slow getting there and when they did, didn’t have access to some equipment, Thompson said.
Following the war, the Navy and Army teamed up to develop and buy larger vessels that now accommodate 2½ times more cargo and travel almost twice as fast.
But they’re still not quite fast enough, Thompson said.
“Speed is where we’re headed, and that’s part of the transformation,” he said. “Ideally, it would be, ‘beam me up, Scotty.’”
While owned by the Navy, the Navy Military Sealift Command contracts civilians to operate the inventory of 18 transport vessels. The Navy has 170 noncombatant ships crewed by civilians, spokeswoman Marge Holtz said.
