841st Transport Battalion Data?

[kalos72]

Hey all...

Anyone have any data or orbat for this unit or this type of unit by chance?

[boogiedowndonovan]

I dont have any detailed information, I assume you already checked globalsecurity.org?

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/841transbn.htm

[kalos72]

Yeppers...just looking for more detail if possible.

[Legbreaker]

The 841st Transport Battalion is one of the four battalions of the 597th Transportation Brigade. This formation is in turn subordinate to the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC), which itself is subordinate to US Army Materiel Command (AMC).

AMC is shown with a strength of 1,830 (Active), 423 (Reserve), and 56,617 (Civilian). Note the relatively small proportion of military personnel to civilians in the very, very large organisation. (My guess is the majority of the military personnel are found at Battalion and Brigade level so for the purposes of a TOE for the 841st, the Civilians can be ignored for the most part).

Although I'm unable to dredge up anything specific to the 841st, or even the 597th Brigade, some information is available for similar Corps level transport units. FM 54-30, Chapter 5 may be of some help http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/54-30/ch52.htm#s5

The best I can find relates to the Marines however: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/usmc/to/support It's not perfect, and may not even be all that accurate, but should at least get you started. If you need more info, why not contact the unit directly and ask what their TOE was back in the 90's?

[Graebarde]

841 is a terminal service battalion. Their function is loading/unloading ships at a port or LOTS operation. (LOTS is "Logistics over the shore" such as was the case at Normandy in WW2. They are the stevedore/longshoremen of the army. The battalion would have a HHC which does the planning etc, and from what I read it does not have subbordinate units per se. In the 'old days' this battalion would have attached units, and if a similar unit were deployed to the theater could have units such as:

Terminal service companys which do the actual grunt work and operate the MHE at the port.

Boat companies which operate tugs, lighters and landing craft to assist in the operations.

Truck companies which help clear the ports in theater, though most truck companies are usually assigned to a motor transport battalion.

Within CONUS, much of the stevedore positions are usually filled with civilians, while the HQ would have a mix of military and civilian. In theater, depending on how 'hot' it is and such, the battalion would be staffed with military though the acutal grunt work MIGHT be done by locals they would be supervised by military.

Add on: On further reading I get the impression that ALL these SDDC brigades and battalions are really MOVEMENT CONTROL organizations more than the acutal physical port operation battalions. ie: The 'sister' organization in the Gulf region only has a handful of personnel and is tasked with documentation.

The type of work the stevedore does today is much different than it was nearly 40 years ago when I taught stevedores and traffic managers at the T-school. Not a lot of break bulk movement today with containerization and RO-RO operations the norm.