New facility to enhance deployment ops

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Michael Voss
  • Ramstein Public Affairs
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany --  Since late 2005, Ramstein's Joint Mobility Processing Center has served as the hub for deployment operations originating or terminating here. Recently, the JMPC facility was demolished, to give way to a new facility -- the Installation Deployment Readiness Center.

Although the JMPC run by the 86th Logistics Readiness Squadron and manned with representatives for several organizations like legal and medical has served as a model of deployment efficiency for nations throughout Europe, the IDRC, scheduled for completion December 2010, will include significant improvements.

Expected to deploy and redeploy over thousands of military members throughout the Kaiserslautern Military Community, the IDRC will be a key hub for overseas and stateside deployers. The new $24 million military construction project will consolidate seven Air Force work-centers including: war readiness, the weapons vault, logistics plans, personal readiness, small port operations, support agreements, traffic management function and passenger booking.

"The JMPC was the 'Gateway to the Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom,' deploying and redeploying up to eight thousand Air Expeditionary Force deployers a year," said Chief Master Sgt. William Nivison, 86th Logistics Readiness Squadron Deployment and Distribution Flight superintendent.

Servicemembers who deployed through the JMPC received mobility bags in one building, weapons in a different building and eventually came back to the JMPC for final processing.

"The way things were in the JMPC, individuals or units deploying needed to make several stops around base in order to get everything they need to deploy," said Chief Nivison, a 23-year Air Force veteran.

The new facility is going to have all these stops under one roof. Personnel who worked in the JMPC and will work in the IDRC when completed, will have the same mission, process deploying passengers and cargo, ensuring everybody and everything deploying from or redeploying to Ramstein is properly processed, accounted for and configured for air or ground transportation.

The 86th LRS, in conjunction with the Army who ensures movement of troops and supplies from their consolidation point on Rhine Ordnance Barracks, will operate out of the IDRC facility. In total, 70 military and civilian employees will operate out of the center, including the United Services Organization, who will offer amenities to deploying members.

"What used to take us six to eight hours in processing in the JMPC will take under four in the IDRC," said Senior Master Sgt. Wayne Harker, 86th LRS Deployment Flight superintendent. "The impact to the individual deployer of consolidating deployment capabilities is expected to cut processing time by 50 percent. It will be significantly faster and more convenient for our customers."

The new facility, combined with the teamwork that characterized normal operations at the JMPC, will ensure Ramstein can continue to meet its deployment requirements and support the requirements of other services and NATO partners for years to come.

"Upon completion, the newly constructed IDRC will be more apt to accomplish its mission of readying the Force by training, equipping, enabling and maintaining oversight of the entire KMC's transiting forces and their warfighting assets while providing the means to deploy and recover U.S. and international forces and their weapon systems in support of any contingency operation," Chief Nivison said.