Logistics Team Proves Value of Boots-on-Ground during Balikatan '10

By H. Sam Samuelson, U.S. Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Yokosuka

April 15, 2010 - YOKOSUKA, Japan (NNS) -- A "boots-on-ground" enlisted Logistics Response Team from U.S. Fleet and Industrial Supply Center (FISC), Yokosuka, Japan, returned from the Republic of the Philippines recently demonstrating the value of small, forward-serving logistics teams supporting ships anywhere in the western pacific.

Three enlisted Logistics Specialists and a U.S. Marine Aviation Supply Specialist established a Logistics Response Team, or "LRT," at Clark Air Base in Luzon, to support ships of the USS Essex (LHD 2) Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG), participating in Exercise Balikatan 2010.

Like a "micro-FISC," the LRT provided the Essex ESG, including USS Denver (LPD-9) and USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49), with full, local, expeditious logistics support that ensured the ships' and embarked Marines' full operational capability throughout the exercise.

"All the supplies, the stores, repair equipment and the mail arriving from around the globe: we're the local logistics who made sure it all got into the hands of the operators who needed it, or – in the case of the mail – the Sailors who read it," said Logistics Specialist First Class (SW) Mariel Gatbonton.

According to Gatbonton and fellow LRT member Marine Staff Sergeant Allan Cayabyab, more often than not, getting cargo aboard ships via helicopter includes a harrowing coordination of staging, time, and brute human effort.

"We have about a fifteen-minute window to get the cargo loaded onto the 'helo' when it arrives at the airfield," Cayabyab said, adding that the pilots keep the rotors turning at idle during the loading process. "And, whatever is staged has to be loaded fast; if there are no trucks or forklifts, we assemble a working party and muscle it into the aircraft. We understand the pilots don't want to expend too much fuel idling."

Recognizing their role as the bottom line for the ships' supplies, often including essential repair parts and equipment, Cayabyab said, "We're the last mile."

FISCs around the world are embracing upgraded Naval Supply Systems Command paradigms known as "alignment" and "global logistics support." These concepts, heralded by the headquarters Commander, Fleet and Industrial Supply Centers in San Diego, more closely aligns the Fleet Industrial Supply network with the various fleets around the world.

In the case of FISC Yokosuka, that means surging LRTs virtually anywhere in the U.S. 7th Fleet Area of Responsibility, ensuring ships receive local, friendly FISC support no matter where they operate, providing what they need, where they need it, on time and on location.

"I can tell you, even while we were supporting Balikatan, there was no ship or unit near us that we were not able to assist with logistics support," Gatbonton said.

"The LRT concept is, in reality, the most efficient, on-scene way to maintain logistics support for our fellow shipmates and their ships," he said.

With logistics coordination in place, the USS Essex ESG completed the full compliment of Balikatan training goals and achievements, including exercising interoperability with the armed forces of the Philippines and participating in numerous humanitarian aid projects by both Sailors and U.S. Marines with the embarked 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Balikatan 2010 was in fact planned to improve interoperability, increase readiness and improve professional relationships between the United States and the Philippines. The 10-day, bilateral exercise involved ground, air and naval integration training with the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

FISC Yokosuka, one of seven supply centers under Commander, Fleet and Industrial Supply Centers (COMFISCS), is the Western Pacific region's largest Navy logistics command, includes more than 20 detachments, fuel terminals and sites from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to Guam, from Misawa, Japan to Sydney, Australia.

COMFISCS comprises more than 6,400 military and civilian logistics professionals operating as a single cohesive team providing global logistics services from more than 200 locations worldwide. A component of the Naval Supply Systems Command, headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pa., COMFISCS is part of a worldwide logistics network of more than 25,000 military and civilian personnel providing combat capability through logistics.