Do any current/former Unit Movement Officers (UMO) have any advice and guidance? I'm going to school soon.

CW3(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 23 Apr 2016 08:10:50 -0400

Response by SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL made Apr 23 at 2016 8:26 AM

SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL — Sat, 23 Apr 2016 08:26:23 -0400

CW3(P) Private RallyPoint Member congrads. I would also look at this link MILSUITE and post as well.
https://login.milsuite.mil/?goto=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.milsuite.mil%3A443%2F

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W0y0MrFrwc

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Response by Capt Tom Brown made Apr 23 at 2016 9:44 AM

Capt Tom Brown — Sat, 23 Apr 2016 09:44:41 -0400

CW3(P) Private RallyPoint Member Sounds extremely challenging esp in this day and age. Is this a full time specialty or an additional duty for someone, and at what unit level would you expect to end up at as their UMO based on your formal schooling? Best wishes.

Response by CPT Joseph K Murdock made Apr 23 at 2016 3:30 PM

CPT Joseph K Murdock — Sat, 23 Apr 2016 15:30:18 -0400

I will respond this evening as I was a UMO of a HBCT to NTC and a tank company to Kuwait. I will paint the picture for you.

Response by SFC Marcus Belt made Apr 23 at 2016 5:52 PM

SFC Marcus Belt — Sat, 23 Apr 2016 17:52:51 -0400

Chief,

I was a UMO for PATRIOT Battery from CPL through SGT and I was a BCT alternate as an SSG and SFC and offer a few key points.

1. Make sure your commander has scrubbed his deployment equipment lists. Depending on how long it's been since anyone's done it, your UIC may be requesting strategic lift for equipment you no longer have on the commander's PB. And of course, the opposite is true: you may have vital pieces of equipment that aren't listed, and as such, not scheduled for strategic lift.

2. Property Book (PB) scrub - This goes along with my first point. Make sure the equipment lists are reconciled to the PB. And make sure that no one prior to you taking the job has done the "hasty expedient" and dumped a bunch of other units' equipment on your list for a prior deployment. Without knowing what kind of unit you're in, I can only offer my own experience. I was in an Airborne BCT, so when we deployed a battalion, ALL the deployment attachments would get added to the deploying battalions equipment lists, which is fine...but after the deployment, that list has to be scrubbed back to what is organic to your unit.

Both of these tasks can me very time consuming, but I've always found the civilians who do movement to be very helpful. The other point to consider is that the commander has to be FULLY aware of his/her movement status, and if it's not GTG, you have to know how to fix it. In my time doing movement, those are really the only two issues I've ever seen.

But I've seen them every time I've assumed the duties.

Response by Capt Tom Brown made Apr 25 at 2016 6:02 PM

Capt Tom Brown — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 18:02:06 -0400

CW3(P) Private RallyPoint Member Can't help but wonder if they will be teaching you how to load Army units onto USN or MSC ships? In the MC we learned the basics of loading a BN onto Navy Amphibious ships but that was basically all at the time. We learned nothing about loading onto ground transportation of any kine. It was basically load everything into CONEX boxes and hoist all,or drive all vehicles or SP equipment and weapons,l onto flat-bed trucks for movement to the amphib base or airfield. It all seemed more like a chinese fire drill than anything organized at the time but somehow it worked and all arrived at the same place overseas.

Response by CPT Joseph K Murdock made Apr 26 at 2016 4:45 PM

CPT Joseph K Murdock — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 16:45:04 -0400

THANK YOU CARLOS

Rule #1 Kiss the butts of the people working at DOL Logistics, they will help you and give you insight as they constantly move equipment, vehicles, and personnel.

Please understand if I use generalities as I have not done this in 15 years.
- You will be given a Movement Book and its like small SOPs within one big SOP
It must be validated every year. And it shows the training, coordination, validation, and how to do
perform actions necessary for movement.
It tells you how to coordinate for air, ground, and rail transportation
It shows you how to coordinate for movement classes pallet building and rail loading details.
It is imperative that all units who are deploying put into the DOL Logistics Deployment Equipment
List database as those stats orders the planes and trains.
If you are in charge of moving a rail load to NTC always have unit POCs available as drivers and
assistant drivers tend to disappear. Have recovery vehicles.
Air movement requires fire mechanisms to removed sometime, MREs ordered, baggage and
palletizing details.
I would create a list of phone numbers.
You would need to work with the S-4 on what is available at the deployment site. When I deployed
to Kuwiat we just needed to bring NVGs and Tanker Helmets so that was easy.

I will be here if you have further questions.