by Sergeant First Class Taylor T. Njagu and Chief Warrant Officer (W-2) Rodney B. Sims
It was 30 December 1995. Lumbering along at 3 miles per hour, two U.S. tank platoons—the vanguard of what would be a flood of 20,000 troops and their armored machines—crossed the Sava River into Bosnia over a just-completed pontoon bridge. Engineers had constructed the 2,043-foot span from 63 individual pieces—the longest pontoon bridge the Army had built since World War II. Nearly all of the 20,000 American soldiers taking part in the 60,000-man North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) peace-enforcing mission had to cross the Sava River to reach Tuzla, Bosnia. As the first troops crept over the bridge, hundreds of local people turned out to watch.
The key to the success of this historic undertaking was the logistics support provided by Combat Equipment Group-Europe (CEG-E), which expediently provided all components needed to construct the bridge. CEG-E continues to be instrumental in building and maintaining Army readiness throughout the world despite massive troop reductions and major organizational realignments.
CEG-E History
CEG-E was established in April 1964 as the 7th U.S. Army Combined Arms Maintenance Group. It was renamed the U.S. Army Europe Augmentation Readiness Group in May 1965 and received its current name in October 1970. CEG-E's mission in those days was to store, maintain, and issue equipment to units from the continental United States (CONUS) deploying in support of the European General Defense Plan (GDP). This plan was tested annually during Return of Forces to Germany (REFORGER) exercises.
In REFORGER, forces deployed from CONUS to CEG-E sites, where they drew their forward-deployed equipment, called pre-positioned organizational materiel configured to unit sets (POMCUS). Units would train in their GDP locations or in other exercises and return the equipment to CEG-E sites, called combat equipment companies, where the equipment was maintained and stored for the next REFORGER exercise or the next implementation of the GDP. U.S. Army Europe (USAREUR) and the 21st Support Command (now the 21st Theater Support Command) provided command and control of CEG-E and its POMCUS assets.
At the conclusion of the Cold War, CEG-E's mission changed drastically as the Army transitioned to a primarily CONUS-based power projection strategy. Many of the POMCUS sets in CEG-E were disassembled, and much of the equipment from inactivated units in USAREUR was sent to CEG-E. POMCUS became known as Army Pre-positioned Stocks (APS). Excess equipment was upgraded to like-new condition for redistribution to APS sites worldwide. CEG-E retained three generic brigade sets that no longer were aligned with specific units.
As a result of the Army's transition to a power
projection force, control of CEG-E was transferred
from USAREUR to the Army Materiel Command (AMC) in 1995. CEG-E assets were removed from the control
of the theater commander and placed under Department
of the Army control. In turn, AMC delegated
responsibility for CEG-E to the Industrial Operations
Command (now the Operations Support Command). A new
subordinate organization, the Army War Reserve
Support Command (now the Army Field Support
Command), was created in October 1996 to command and
control all APS sets worldwide. As an AMC organization, CEG-E adopted the automated logistics systems used by
the Army's wholesale system, providing the same
advantages of worldwide visibility available to stateside
depots. At the time of this reorganization, CEG-E
consisted of a group headquarters, seven combat
equipment companies responsible for ammunition stocks, and
an Army war reserve storage facility for the NATO
Composite Force.
The map shows the locations of APS sites that CEG-E supports throughout the world.
Since the start of equipment redistribution in 1991, CEG-E has improved the readiness of all APS sets worldwide while maintaining three APS-2 (Europe) brigade sets, undergoing a major downsizing, and supplying equipment for several Army contingency missions. CEG-E's first and largest redistribution mission was in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Since then, CEG-E has provided 23,500 pieces of equipment to support operations in Bosnia and Kosovo and has issued over 45,000 pieces of equipment to APS-3 (afloat) sets on seven large, medium-speed, roll-on-roll-off (LMSR) ships and other APS-3 vessels. CEG-E also has improved the readiness of other APS sets by issuing over 15,000 pieces of equipment to APS-4 (Northeast Asia) and more than 13,000 to APS-5 (Southwest Asia).
CEG-E Today
Today, CEG_E's mission continues to be driven by the Army's force projection strategy that involves redistributing excess equipment to fill authorized shortages in APS sets. Instead of being primarily a European-based logistics provider, CEG_E's mission has evolved into an extension of the Army's wholesale logistics system.
To make this evolution work, CEG-E fielded the Army War Reserve Deployment System (AWRDS), a Windows-based automated information system that tracks accountability, inventory, and transfer of pre-positioned stocks from the Field Support Command to using units. AWRDS also provides worldwide asset visibility and accountability, allowing the warfighter access to information before equipment is drawn. In addition to AWRDS, CEG-E also uses the Standard Depot System, which is an automated accountability system developed by the Army Communications-Electronics Command's (CECOM's) Industrial Logistics Systems Center, to connect national inventory control points with CEG-E equipment data bases, thus standardizing the logistics management of materiel worldwide. (The Computer Sciences Corporation now provides software sustainment and is modernizing the functionality of the Standard Depot System for CECOM.)
CEG-E is completing its fifth year of equipment redistribution, and much of the previously excess material has been shipped out, reducing the storage capacity needed in the old REFORGER days. As a result of this, the Quadrennial Review cuts, and budgetary constraints, CEG-E, under the direction of the Department of the Army, began another major organizational restructuring. The intent of this restructuring was to strike a balance between newly established mission requirements and the necessary manpower levels. As a result of these changes, the 16th Combat Equipment Company, Zutendaal, Belgium; the 20th Combat Equipment Company, Coevorden, The Netherlands; the 22d Combat Equipment Company, Eygelshoven, The Netherlands; and the Combat Equipment Battalion-Northwest, in Coevorden, were inactivated in 1999.
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A Minnesota Army National Guard soldier and a Norwegian soldier guide an M577 command carrier as it is loaded onto a flatbed trailer for transport to a training area. |
A diverse, multinational, multicomponent CEG-E work force, which numbered more than 5,000 at its peak, is now about 1,350. In spite of downsizing, CEG-E continues to perform several essential missions. It receives, accounts for, repairs, stores, configures, and provides pre-positioned equipment and supplies in support of Allied and U.S. forces. CEG-E still performs operator, unit-level, and direct support maintenance on pre-positioned equipment. This includes preserving the equipment and processing it for storage in one of the four remaining facilities—two in The Netherlands, one in Italy, and one in Luxembourg. CEG-E also operates a supply support activity that supports subordinate organizations with all classes of supply. The Group headquarters now is collocated with the supply support activity in Eygelshoven.
Another vital CEG-E mission is storing and maintaining operational project stocks. Operational project stocks are contingency stocks reserved for the initial troop build-up in a theater of operations. Operational project stocks consist of hundreds of miscellaneous line items, including wheeled vehicles; nuclear, biological, and chemical defense equipment; battledress uniforms; boots; parachutes; fuel pipeline equipment; ski equipment; bridging; boats; and many other items. It also manages and maintains two pre-configured 10,000-soldier sets of chemical defense equipment in support of Kosovo and Bosnia for short-notice shipment, manages equipment stored in Norway for a Minnesota Army National Guard field artillery battalion, and stores Air Force early-entry equipment in Luxembourg.
CEG-E continues to support redistribution missions to enhance the readiness of APS-3 and APS-5. The redistribution work load planned for fiscal years 2000 and 2001 includes 15,142 pieces of equipment, of which 1,071 pieces are rolling stock and 14,071 are non-rolling stock, in support of APS-3. CEG-E also is providing 4,560 pieces of equipment for a division base project for APS-5 and is preparing APS-5 equipment for locations in Kuwait and Qatar. For the European theater, CEG-E is tasked with preparing 12,121 separate items of equipment in support of Army operations in Kosovo.
Clearly, CEG-E's mission constitutes a vital link between the Army Field Support Command's force projection strategy and the warfighter for present and future battlefields. The CEG-E team is proud of its past accomplishments and is committed to maintaining that same standard of excellence as we move into the 21st century. ALOG
Sergeant First Class Taylor T. Njagu is a materiel management noncommissioned officer for Combat Equipment Base-Brunssum, The Netherlands. He has a master's degree in human relations and is a graduate of the Quartermaster Advanced Noncommissioned Officer Course.
Chief Warrant Officer (W-2) Rodney B. Sims is the property book officer for the 214th Field Artillery Brigade at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He was the accountable property book officer for Combat Equipment Base-Brunssum, The Netherlands, when this article was written. He has an associate's degree in general studies and is working toward a bachelor's degree in business management. He is a graduate of the Quartermaster Warrant Officer Basic Course.