An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Home : News : Article View
NEWS | June 10, 2016

Military units in Tacoma train jointly for natural disaster

By Spc. Adeline Witherspoon 5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

TACOMA, Wash. - Soldiers assigned to 11th Transportation Battalion, 7th Transportation Brigade in conjunction with the Washington National Guard, Army Reserve, Navy and Coast Guard kicked off Joint Logistics Over the Shore in Tacoma, Wash., June 6.

The exercise is designed to establish port operations on a bare beach in order to supply emergency resources to neighboring communities in the event that the Port of Tacoma is damaged by a natural disaster, such as an earthquake.

JLOTS vessels can be deployed in order to temporarily establish facilities at Jenson Point on Vashon Island, Wash.

“In this particular case, it’s a very extreme set of problems that allows us to plan and to learn in the event of a disaster,” said Rick Wallace, the volunteer president of Vashon Be Prepared and logistics controller for the JLOTS exercise.

The participating Soldiers have spent months preparing for the JLOTS exercise.

“Providing disaster relief is such a vital mission,” said Spc. Christopher Barrientos-Bland, 331st Modular Causeway Company, 11th Transportaton Battalion, 7th Transportation Brigade, a seaman aboard the floating modular causeway. “If an earthquake hits or a tsunami, we’re going to be the ones who get the call, and we can deliver these supplies in the blink of an eye.”

The floating causeways are flat and light enough to be maneuvered by a small crew to create a makeshift pier in the shallow waters.

“All these different pieces you see, we had to preform Preventative Maintenance Checks and Services on them,” said Spc. Sheri Fernando, a watercraft engineer assigned to 331st MCS. “Along with the boats, we needed to make sure all of them were good to go and make sure the engine and electrical equipment are up to standard.”

One of the benefits of the floating modular causeway is the relatively low manpower necessary to assemble and transport the equipment.

“We can break it down into parts, put it on trains and even on planes if we need to,” said Barrientos-Bland. “We can move it anywhere. Ten of us brought this to Washington. We all loaded it up onto the train and built it in under six days before the other units arrived.”

The training exercise allowed the U.S. Transportation Command, the state of Washington and supporting military units to better prepare for future relief operations.

“If you think about the Cascadia earthquake, it happens every 400-500 years, historically, so the last time was a little over 300 years ago,” said Wallace. “What I saw today was the culmination of years of work, and this is a way for us to learn how to work together. It’s a collaboration between the local community and the military.”

 

 

Related Articles
Left to right, West Virginia Army National Guard Sgt. Michael Atik, Qatari Emiri Land Forces soldier Sultan Saleh Al-Mrri and West Virginia Army National Guard Solider of the Year Spc. Dominic Starry pose for a photo in Umm Salal Muhammed, Qatar, Feb. 5, 2025. The West Virginia Army National Guard hosted its annual Best Warrior Competition in partnership with Qatar Armed Forces Feb. 2-5, 2025, at the National Service Academy in Doha, Qatar.
West Virginia, DC Guard Compete in Qatar for Best Warrior
By Officer Candidate Ayden Norcross, | Feb. 7, 2025
UMM SALAL MUHAMMED, Qatar - Sixty-five service members from the West Virginia and District of Columbia National Guard traveled 7,000 miles to Qatar’s National Service Academy for the 2025 Best Warrior Competition.Qatar and...

Members of the Bulgarian Defense Ministry and the Tennessee Air National Guard pose for a photo after Bulgaria took delivery of its first batch of F-16 “Fighting Falcon” aircraft at Lockheed Martin’s Greenville, South Carolina, site, Jan. 31, 2025. Tennessee and Bulgaria have been partners in the Department of Defense National Guard Bureau State Partnership Program since 1993.
Tennessee National Guard Supports Bulgaria’s F-16 Acquisition
By Tech. Sgt. Darrell Hamm, | Feb. 7, 2025
GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Bulgarian Air Force received its first batch of F-16 “Fighting Falcon” aircraft at Lockheed Martin’s production facility Jan. 31, marking a milestone in its efforts to modernize its military as a NATO...

A U.S. Air Force Airman assigned to the 146th Airlift Wing marshals a C-130H Hercules at the Combat Readiness and Training Center, Gulfport, Mississippi, Feb. 5, 2025. Exercise Sentry South-Southern Strike is a joint military training focusing on contingency response operations, agile combat employment, aeromedical evacuation, maritime training, specialized fueling operations and strategic airlift and airdrops.
Air Guard Conducts Sentry South-Southern Strike Exercise
By Senior Airman Shardae McAfee, | Feb. 7, 2025
GULFPORT, Miss. – Approximately 500 service members from the Active, Guard and Reserve components of the U.S. military participated in exercise Sentry South-Southern Strike 2025 at the Gulfport Combat Readiness Training...