CAMP ADDER, Iraq - Combat logistics patrol teams are normally comprised mostly of military police officers, trained from day one to perform the inherently dangerous mission of escorting supply trucks to and from locations throughout Iraq. However, one CLP team has proven that using several different ingredients can still add up to a recipe for success.
The 1451st Transportation Company, a National Guard unit based in Boone, N.C., has been deployed since February last year. When it came time to fill slots within the unit prior to shipping out, there were enough volunteers for every platoon, save one: 3rd Platoon.
"Basically, they needed bodies to complete the mission, so they just started pulling us from wherever they could," said 1st Lt. Jacob Siegel, 3rd Platoon leader.
The end result was a platoon made up of Soldiers from multiple job specialties – some of them fairly related to the task at hand, some of them not at all. Infantrymen and women, truck drivers, cooks, medics, military intelligence officers and more were all brought together to be retrained toward accomplishing a common goal.
"We're a bit of a hodgepodge," said Siegel, a military intelligence officer from Brooklyn, N.Y. "It's a whoever-you-could-find-to-do-it mission, but we do it well."
Initially, there were some difficulties – and even slight animosity – among the Soldiers due to their widely-varied backgrounds and the fact that some of them knew more about convoy operations than others, though these were both short-lived.
"The differences that we had to overcome by bringing all these different skills together was coming to the understanding that the mission is to get the convoy from A to B," said Staff Sgt. Rayfield Singletary, an infantryman from Lumberton, N.C., and assistant convoy commander of one of 3rd Platoon's three CLPs. "[However], it didn't take long for us to come together."
Sgt. Joshua Schmit, an Inactive Ready Reserve infantryman who had had been living with his wife and going to school in Germany prior to his deployment, also said there were some hindrances within the platoon at first, but they didn't affect the Soldiers much.
"We are doing kind of an [infantry] mission, and a lot of the guys initially had no clue about the weapons systems," said Schmit. "It started off really, really slow and we're still working on it, but we're getting there and everybody's clicking together and learning the job.
The Soldiers are now "all on the same sheet of music" and "have a real balance," said Singletary. They are picking up new information as they go and don't really have too many problems, he said. As of late January, the 1451st has driven almost 700,000 combined convoy miles.
Echoing the thoughts of several of his fellow Soldiers in 3rd Platoon, Staff Sgt. Lamar Horne, a military truck driver from Jacksonville, Fla., said having a group of Soldiers from several different military occupational specialties actually works to their advantage.
"We bring a lot of different talents and skill sets to the board, so we marry all these teams together to balance out our CLP," said Horne. "At this stage in the game, we've been doing a very good job. We're getting the missions conducted; we're delivering the goods.
"The group of guys I received in my CLP has really embraced the whole ‘teamwork and cohesion' concept," Horne continued. "The more cohesive we are, the better we are at accomplishing the mission. That's what has sustained us thus far in the fight."
To the casual observer who might get the chance to watch them do their job, the CLP teams of 3rd Platoon now appear skilled enough to be indistinguishable from a platoon stocked full of MPs, Horne said.
"It shows how well Soldiers are at retaining knowledge and that on-the-job training really works," said Schmit. "Be flexible. I guess that's the main message. You might be trained to be a cook, but one day [you're] kicking in doors in Baghdad."
"Soldiers in general are trained to fight and protect this country," said Singletary. "The only thing that actually changes is the mission, and the mission always consists of protection."