Soldiers with the 902nd Engineer Company (Vertical), 15th Engineer Battalion, 18th Engineer Brigade, 21st Theater Sustainment Command, build a roof during a construction project at the MK Air Base Passenger Transit Center on Jan. 14, 2014.
(Photo by Staff Sgt. Warren W. Wright Jr.)
Ministry of Defense and MK airport
also participated, providing their
perspectives on current and emerging planning factors. The site visit
allowed planners to facilitate shared
understanding across the supported
and supporting commands.
One month later, senior USAREUR staff officers conducted a site
visit focused on processes and capabilities. The visiting USAREUR engineer and logistician analyzed the
existing capability and the processes required to receive, integrate, and
process passengers for movement.
After returning to USAREUR
headquarters, they issued detailed
guidance to the OPT during COA
development.
Deploying personnel would arrive
on commercial aircraft at a transit
center, where their baggage would
be downloaded, separated, and palletized based on their final location
in theater.
Redeploying personnel, who made
up the bulk of personnel transitioning through MK, would arrive with
baggage requiring customs clearance before it could be loaded onto
commercial aircraft. All personnel,
deploying and redeploying, would
require clearance through Romanian
immigration.
Course of Action Development
As planners developed the operational approach to attaining IOC,
four lines of effort became clear.
To meet its lead agent responsibil-
ities, USAREUR must house, feed,
care for, and move all inbound and
outbound personnel. However, the
problem set existed in an environment with fiscal constraints, sequestration, competing global missions,
and a focus on an expeditionary
footprint.
The commanding general of USAREUR provided guidance directing
planners to ensure MK did not mirror
the transit center at Manas in terms
of large numbers of personnel and extensive infrastructure. This refined the
planning effort and eliminated any dialogue on capabilities beyond the four
lines of effort. (See Figure 1.)
House. Existing facilities at MK
would house about 70 percent of
the transient population. Planners
SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 2014 $