| With solid plan, 371st-run FOB sustains infiltration from Mother Nature |
FOB SUSTAINER, Camp Grayling, Mich.—Luck can be a matter of perception. An almost surreal thunderstorm that hit northern Michigan late June 12 and continued into the early hours of Friday the 13th, was preceded by a beautiful, yet dangerous lightning display that served as a harbinger of what was to come, both good and bad. Weather forecasts in the early afternoon June 12 indicated a severe storm was headed to Camp Grayling sometime later that day or early June13—and while one cannot fully prepare for what might happen or the damage it may cause, you can make a plan to maximize safety while mitigating human injury and damage to equipment. And with the real potential of severe oncoming weather, preparing a FOB evacuation plan—which might otherwise have been a training exercise scenario conducted during a typical annual training period—quickly became a necessary real-world mission. "Part of our doctrinal mission is to run FOB operations," said Lt. Col. Randall Shears, 371st Special Troops Battalion commander and FOB Sustainer mayor (a mayor's cell implements rules and guidelines and organizes logistical issues for the FOB). "One of the tasks that we have is to prepare an evacuation plan (for the FOB). Our training cycle got sped up quite a bit, but we got the opportunity to exercise the staff using MDMP (Military Decision Making Process), making sure we had the plan fully in place." With a solid evacuation plan that could be executed in a minimal amount of time, there was no hesitation by 371st Sustainment Brigade (Rear) leadership in sounding the evacuation horn June 12, with the storm still an estimated 1 1/2 hours out. At 9:10 p.m. June 12, brigade leadership received a tornado warning with potential 54 mph winds. Just five minutes later, the decision was made to evacuate the FOB and at 9:20 p.m., the evacuation horn was sounded. Nearly 475 Soldiers mounted about 100 vehicles and proceeded to evacuate Forward Operating Base Sustainer, which took a little more than an hour to execute. About 15 minutes before the storm began, the last element of vehicles exited the FOB. "I saw a lot of orderly movement out there. Soldiers stayed safe," Shears said of the evacuation convoys. "The communication was also good. I think at any point in time I was able to reach out and touch somebody." Then came the storm's heavy rains, which, for the next few hours, pelted the earth with a heavy dosage of Mother Nature's wrath. Some might consider the bravest Soldiers to be those who actually stayed at the FOB during the storm. Shears and nearly 20 other Soldiers remained through the night to maintain operations, including communications, limited electrical power and custody of sensitive items. First Sgt. Jeff Lewis, acting 371st STB command sergeant major, was one of the key personnel who stayed behind. "We did the right thing by getting the troops out of here," Lewis said. Whether key leaders manned the TOCs through the height of the storm at the FOB, or NCOs and officers led their Soldiers safely and expediently from the FOB to the Camp Grayling cantonment area, Shears said the teamwork was evident. "There was a lot of camaraderie out there between the units," Shears said. “Everyone ends up being a Soldier and working together. (And) luck played a big part in it through everything." So it may be viewed as bad luck that a violent storm hit Camp Grayling, but good luck in that that no one was injured and there was a minimal amount of damage to the FOB. But as it has been said, good luck is simply good planning. "The evacuation went exactly as planned," said Lt. Col. Maria Kelly, 371st Sustainment Brigade rear detachment commander. "What really made this go well was the planning from throughout the day." Kelly said the brigade leadership and staff pieced together a plan during the day and then briefed all the resident units on the FOB. When it came time to execute the plan, the troops were ready to do it. "It was safe. We got all the Soldiers back without incident," said Sgt. Maj. Chris Manella, operations sergeant major for the 437th Military Police Battalion, which evacuated about 120 Soldiers from the FOB. "During the day, there was a plan implemented. Most of the battalions had input on how best to implement it." Tents and structures on the FOB sustained minimal damage. Initial assessments by the brigade staff had 12 tents down, mostly in the sleeping area. "We lost the female (MP Soldier) tent. It crashed into the senior NCO tent," Manella said. "It (the evacuation) potentially saved lives because there were no people in that tent." About 20 portable toilets were knocked over and would need to be set back up. Some of the mess area was disrupted, including the dishwashing tent. A sizable portion of the FOB was still pocked with standing water in low-lying areas the next morning. Most unit tactical operation centers (TOCs) were unharmed, except for a couple antennas that were dislodged or blown over. "It's really clear that everyone did a good job of putting the tents in the ground," Kelly said. While the majority of the FOB remained intact, not everyone was so lucky. The mobile clinic tent operated by 285th Medical Company, filled with various essential medical supplies, was flattened by the early morning storm, which scattered items such IV bags, rubber gloves, bandages and enemas about. "That was probably the hardest hit area, near the ECP (the FOB Sustainer entry control point, near the 285th tent)," Shears said. As the partly cloudy, blue skies offered calm later in the morning June 13, Shears said the plan for the FOB—including medical operations—was to be fully operational by the end of the day. |
