Unit mobilized for Texas duty

The Army Reserve’s 643rd Transportation Company, based in Spokane, is being mobilized in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom III, the unit’s commander said Friday.

The transportation control and documentation unit, which controls the movement of “anything that goes on or off a vessel” at U.S. military ports, will be stationed at Corpus Christi, Texas, sometime in early November after brief training at Fort Lawton, Wash., said Chief Warrant Officer Jack Berger, commander of the 643rd.

Eight of the small unit’s personnel have been in Kuwait since spring and 16 soldiers will go to Texas, leaving about a dozen soldiers in Spokane, Berger said. Most of the unit’s personnel are from the Spokane area, with a couple from Yakima and a couple more from Moscow, Idaho, he said.

“We have an outstanding unit, a lot of young soldiers who are college kids or kids right out of high school,” Berger said.

Berger, a former Army Special Forces soldier who has served “just about everywhere in Asia,” has a 26-year career in active duty and the Reserves. In civilian life, he works at home in Spokane as vice president for education at Golden State College in Visalia, Calif. Berger is married with four children – two in high school, one at Washington State University and another on a religious mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

At Fort Lawton, the 643rd is “marrying up” with the Army Reserve’s 1395th Transportation Terminal Brigade, he said.

Though the unit will be based at Corpus Christi, Berger said, its personnel will be split up to service all military ports in the continental United States.

Meanwhile, the Marine Reserve’s Battery P, 5th Battalion, of the 14th Marine Regiment, which was activated in July, is providing security at Al Asad Air Base in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq, said Capt. Matt Nation, the battery’s inspector-instructor.

The 150-Marine artillery unit, which is based in Spokane but has personnel from as far away as Montana and Seattle, is commanded by Maj. Patrick Coonrod. Battery P was organized into a security battalion and deployed on Aug. 25. At Al Asad, the unit is charged with internal security, patrol and escort duty.

“They are also part of a quick reaction force,” which can defend the base on a moment’s notice if it comes under attack, Nation said. “They’ve already had a couple of rocket attacks.”