10th Mountain Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team conducts movement while facing polar vortex
Staff Sgt. Michael Reinsch
10th Mountain Division Public Affairs
FORT DRUM, N.Y. (Feb. 5, 2019) – Soldiers of 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (LI), launched their rail load operations Jan. 22 in preparation for their deployment to the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk, Louisiana. Weather conditions played a major role throughout the mission. The unit fought through a polar vortex where wind chills reached -30 degrees, intermittent whiteout conditions affected visibility, and constant ice made roads treacherous.
Performing railhead operations can be dangerous, as injuries and even death are possible. The danger is exacerbated by the winter conditions that often pelt northern New York.
“The spectrum of winter conditions -- we had everything,” Kelley said. “The coldest it got on us was -30 degrees, which froze all the rail cars. It was like skating at The Gardens in Boston.”
“It is already a high-risk operation. We did our risk assessments. We mitigated to the best of our ability, but every year across the Army, people get killed doing railhead operations,”
A Soldier from 10th Mountain Division (LI) uses a torch to melt the ice buildup on a chain that connects a vehicle to the railhead car at Fort Drum, New York. (U.S. Army Photo by
Staff Sgt. Michael Reinsch)
Kelley said. “Luckily, we only had one injury. He was doing all the right things. He was wearing all of his protective gear. He just slipped.”
The Soldier suffered a minor injury, but if it were not for all of the safeties doing their part and if he had not worn his protective gear, it could have been worse, Kelley said. What would prevent, or at least lessen the possibility of injuries, is if the railhead were updated.
Over the years, 10th Mountain Division has been striving to improve the aging railhead to remain relevant for future operations and ensure the unit is ready to deploy at a moment’s notice.
“Our railhead is very difficult to work on because it is very limiting compared to other railheads that I’ve worked on at other installations,” Kelley said. “You can only have a single train in at a time. It’s a single load point. It’s a single exit point. It’s kind of antiquated in comparison to other railhead operations.”
Kelley said that a larger, more up-to-date railhead would make the operation safer as well as more efficient. This sentiment was echoed by one of the platoon sergeants who worked on the loading operation.
“When the snow melted a little and then re-froze, it made moving some of the vehicles difficult,” said Sgt. 1st Class Charles Kohut, platoon sergeant for 3rd Platoon, D Company, 1-87 Infantry. “The slush would build up, some of the ice just got way too slick and some of the vehicles were almost sliding off the cars. We would throw down some salt to melt the ice, but it was too cold and wouldn’t melt or would just turn it into more slush.”
Working out in the cold can be a difficult task, but one factor that has to be taken into consideration when conducting such a large operation like this is Soldiers being injured from exposure.
“On top of everything, we had a problem with guys staying warm,” Kohut said. “They’re on top of those trucks in the minus-degree winds, gloves getting soaked from snow and ice. We had to rotate them out to get warm for three to five minutes before they had to come back. The closest building for them to get warm in was a little less than a mile walk.”
This year, all deployment duties were executed in extreme cold conditions with continuous snowfall all week. However, the lake-effect snow, blizzard conditions and a state of emergency being declared in Jefferson County, New York, due to the “Winter Vortex” didn’t stop the mission.
“We executed the mission with the equipment we had on hand, and I’m very happy with the results,” Kelley said. “It just took a little longer than I had originally wanted.”
Despite known limitations about the railhead, Soldiers were determined to load all gear and equipment in a timely manner. Soldiers teamed up with civilian employees for their assistance and railroad expertise. They had a successful outload, with approximately 1,000 pieces of equipment loaded in 72 hours.
Even though the Soldiers and civilian workforce came together in a monumental way to accomplish such a difficult task, Kelley does still have his concerns.
“We are on a 96-hour call, so we have to be able to push the entire brigade combat team out of here to fight a real-life war in 96 hours,” Kelley said. “The type of railhead and the weather did have an impact on us being able to hit that deadline.”
For all of the Soldiers out braving the cold, there was a simple solution to the problem.
“I have seen railhead operations before, and they have gone much faster,” Kohut said. “It was just the weather and the old facilities that slowed us down. If we had a facility that was indoors, it would have been much faster.”
In addition to the rail yard portion of the movement, there is another aspect to the deployment to a training area: the line haul. Most of the line-haul portion of the operation is taken care of by civilians who drive military equipment to their destination. Since there was a state of emergency called for the county Fort Drum is located in, most of the trucks tasked to haul the equipment couldn’t make it in until after the emergency was lifted.
On top of the state of emergency, the amount of snow made it difficult to move equipment and load it once the trucks were able to move.
With the cold days of preparing equipment for transportation behind them, Soldiers of 1st BCT can concentrate on perfecting their profession through the rigorous training at JRTC.