[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 162 (Thursday, October 19, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1982]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO MISSOURI NATIONAL GUARD

                                 ______


                            HON. IKE SKELTON

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 19, 1995

  Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, today I pay tribute to the Missouri 
National Guard in recognition of their great feat of transporting tons 
of military equipment from the Port of Balboa on the Pacific side of 
the Panama Canal to Jefferson City, MO. The following is the fact sheet 
for the project:

Seagoing Barges Move Military Equipment from the Port of Balboa, Panama

       Late 1994.--The Missouri National Guard, in cooperation 
     with the 102nd Army Reserve Command, ships over 340 pieces of 
     military equipment to Panama for a Jan.-May 1995 exercise 
     that was part of the ongoing nation building program in the 
     US Southern Command theater. The equipment ranged from giant 
     earthscrapers to light trucks, collected at Fort Leonard Wood 
     and Camp Crowder, MO and loaded onto railcars and shipped to 
     Beaumont, TX. It was unloaded there and then loaded onto a 
     ship for the trip to Panama. Four high dollar items, UH-1 
     ``Huey'' helicopters, were flown by C-5 ``Galaxy'' from 
     Whiteman AFB to avoid potential rail movement and 
     transloading damage.
       February, 1995.--Changes at Fort Leonard Wood made it 
     impossible to plan on the fort as a return site. Regardless, 
     the gear had to eventually come to National Guard 
     headquarters along the Missouri River in central Missouri for 
     maintenance after five months in Panama, and there is no rail 
     yard there. Guard officials begin discussing barge movement 
     with military transportation and sealift planners. The idea 
     of shipment by seagoing barge became a plan and a contract 
     was let.
       June, 1995.--At the port of Balboa on the Pacific side of 
     Panama two 400 by 100 foot barges are loaded with all 
     equipment, including the helicopters (protected by plastic 
     shrink wrap), towed through the canal and up to the Gulf of 
     Mexico to New Orleans, then pushed up the Mississippi and 
     Missouri Rivers and in mid-July unloaded at a temporary wharf 
     less than half mile from the Guard's maintenance shops. The 
     helicopters are unwrapped and flown straight from the barge 
     deck two miles to their maintenance facility.
       The Results.--With four handlings en route to Panama, there 
     was damage to numerous items of equipment, including 
     significant damage to vehicle windshields. With the equipment 
     handled only twice on the return (by its ``owners'' both 
     times) damage was almost zero. Personnel injury risk exposure 
     was cut in half, and the offload was completed in the 
     Missouri River bottoms with daytime highs in the mid to upper 
     90s without a single injury or heat casualty among the 
     soldiers.
       The move demonstrated the ability of an inland location to 
     serve as a power projection platform for direct overseas 
     movement or receipt of equipment in situations where seagoing 
     barges can be used effectively as a means of filling 
     shortfalls in current lift capability. The move avoided the 
     costs associated with intermediate transloading operations, 
     including avoiding personnel injury risk exposures and 
     potentially significant equipment damage.

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