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Department of Defense may privatize some military rail operations
Cool
In looking at the List provided by the Army, I noticed that many locations on the list do not have Rail access anymore or a connecting Rail Line
Wow, I thought Government efficiency was an oxymoron. Maybe there is hope after all. Unless of course a dozen or so of a Congressman’s constituents may lose their jobs or have the same jobs at lower pay, at which point wel’ll hear about the threat to national defense or some other such nonsense.
“In looking at the List provided by the Army, I noticed that many locations on the list do not have Rail access anymore or a connecting Rail Line”
Heck, some on the list don’t even exist as an Army post any more!
Another interesting and largely unknown fact is that there are still three viable Army Railway Battalions assigned to the United States Army Reserve (USAR) component of the United States Army! One in St. Louis, MO, one in Milwaukee, WI and one at Sunny Point, NC and each has “Detachments” of their higher HQs Railway Battalions respectively.
Where on the list does it describe which installations no longer have rail access?
The mission of the 3 USAR Battalions should not be confused with the mission of the day to day operations conducted on Army bases across the country, which are largely (if not exclusively) conducted by contractors or civilian Army employees. The Reserve component may train in conjunction with these employees, but their main purpose is to sustain railroad operations in war zones which might be critical to the war effort or for reconstruction efforts during occupation or post-war operations to restore a viable economy to these areas. It is a very unique and interesting operation.
Absolutely correct Mr. Smith. It never occurred to me that someone would not know that the mission between the two entities are completely separate but in this day and age, that was remiss on my part. Except for cross-training with the contractors for the most part that is. I know that a detachment from one of the Railway Battalions spent some time in Iraq early on in the Iraq War Fiasco (IWF). I remember that the then burgeoning insurgents would set IEDs under the rails if they saw an oncoming train loaded with U.S. MilVans when the Army tried to save money by experimenting with sending containers from Kuwait to Iraq on the Iraqi National Railways instead of Army truck convoys. Needless to say, the truck convoys won out as Uncle Sam didn’t want Soldiers on top of rail cars and each derailment resulted in both damage to the ;line and looting of the containers.