'Four Corners' Expedites Redeployment Process

By Pfc. Thomas Day, USA
Special to American Forces Press Service

CAMP VICTORY, Kuwait, Jan. 21, 2004 – One of the first tasks for soldiers crossing into Kuwait on their way home is to turn over all equipment that won't be going with them.

At camps throughout Kuwait used by the 101st Airborne Division, that potentially cumbersome process has been organized and expedited with a streamlined system called "Four Corners."

A group of UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, wrapped in plastic to protect them from corrosion during the trip back to the United States, waits to get loaded onto the USNS Benavidez at a Kuwait City harbor. Photo by Pfc. Thomas Day, USA
(Click photo for screen-resolution image); high-resolution image available.

"It prepares them for redeployment by getting rid of all the equipment they don't need," said Maj. Kevin Berry, whose unit, the 356th Quartermaster Battalion, took control of the Four Corners operations at the beginning of the year. "The whole reason we have Four Corners is so all redeploying units can turn in their supplies so they can be reissued in theater."

The coalition's giant recycling bin is collecting ammunition, field rations, cots, body armor, chemical protective equipment, barrier materials and repair products. These will be reissued to units on their way into Iraq for the second wave of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Berry said it typically takes about 30 minutes to unload a vehicle and calibrate all its equipment.

Recently, no unit has appreciated the speedy system as much as the 101st, which is in the middle of redeployment operations after a nearly one-year combat tour.

"There's a lot of excess stuff coming from the units from up north," said Staff Sgt. Reginal Brooks, a supply noncommissioned officer with the division. "It's a great help to the units to have one designated point to download."

The division's 1st Brigade is moving through Four Corners at Camp Arifjan; more units will unload equipment both there and here in coming weeks.

Officials pointed out that name comes from a similar type operation at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif.

(Army Pfc. Thomas Day is assigned to the 40th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment.)

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	Soldiers from the 8th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, disassemble the rudders from a CH-47 Chinook before the helicopter is wrapped in plastic and loaded onto a ship at a Kuwait City harbor. Photo by Pfc. Thomas Day, USA


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	Elements of the 187th Infantry Regiment cross into Kuwait for redeployment. Photo by Pfc. Thomas Day, USA

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CAMP VICTORY, Kuwait, Jan. 21, 2004 – One of the first tasks for soldiers crossing into Kuwait on their way home is to turn over all equipment that won't be going with them.

At camps throughout Kuwait used by the 101st Airborne Division, that potentially cumbersome process has been organized and expedited with a streamlined system called "Four Corners."

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101st Airborne Division troops heading home, ping!
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