U.S. Army soldiers of Fort Carson armored brigade load trains to send military equipment in Europe 10312161

Defence & Security News - United States
 
U.S. Army soldiers of Fort Carson armored brigade load trains to send military equipment in Europe
US. soldiers from 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, in Fort Carson, Colorado on the way to load trains with military equipment for a deployment in Europe. In fact, the rail-load operations here concluded nearly a week ahead of schedule in what is the first transportation step toward re-establishing a continuous presence of U.S. Army armored brigade combat teams in Europe.
     
US. soldiers from 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, in Fort Carson, Colorado on the way to load trains with military equipment for a deployment in Europe. In fact, the rail-load operations here concluded nearly a week ahead of schedule in what is the first transportation step toward re-establishing a continuous presence of U.S. Army armored brigade combat teams in Europe. U.S. soldiers with 68th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 4th Sustainment Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, provide fuel to vehicles from 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Inf. Div., during rail-load operations at Fort Carson, Colorado, Dec. 2, 2016.
     
The Iron Brigade, as 3rd ABCT is known, is deploying 4,000 Soldiers and its full set of equipment in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve on a nine-month rotation to bolster the collective defensive capability of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

“If anything this weather motivates our Soldiers to get the job done,” said Capt. Kenneth Kloeppel, the rail operations officer in charge for 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment. “Everyone is really pulling together today so we can finish before the first snowflake hits. Being a Colorado unit, snow brings out the best in us – the ‘harder’ times bring us closer together.”

That next stage will focus on loading Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicless, Paladin self-propelled artillery and the rest of 3rd Brigade’s equipment set onto sea vessels at Beaumont, Texas. Those ships are scheduled to arrive at the port of Bremerhaven, Germany, in early January.
 

From there the equipment will again be loaded onto trains or travel by convoys to sites in Poland where 3rd Brigade Soldiers will aggregate prior to further disbursing to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and southern Germany for partner training with NATO allies.

Supporting the movement is Fort Carson’s 4th Sustainment Brigade and 597th Transportation Brigade out of Fort Eustis, Virginia. The 21st Theater Sustainment Command and its 16th Sustainment Brigade is spearheading the logistics of moving the 3rd Brigade across Europe.