Nearly 100 civilians and military personnel spent today unloading the largest shipment of armor equipment to arrive at Ft. Benning's Ochille Railhead from Fort Knox.
"The army has always trained as it fought," Logistics Director Curtis Grover said. "And now that we have brought the armor here we can how have a combined arms with the infantry and armor together to create more fire on the battlefield."
The shipment is considered the most significant in terms of the variety of vehicles delivered.
"Every infantry and army officer will be trained here at Ft. Benning, Georgia. By October we will train 51% of the United States army," Grover said.
Drivers transported about 70 vehicles, which included Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and Stryker vehicles to maintenance stations.
"It's actually fun being in them and driving them," Staff Sgt. David Flores said. "The training side of them gets repetitive, but being inside and actually driving and shooting the bradleys or the tanks, that's what makes the army fun."
Safety is one of the main priorities at the rail station at Ft. Benning and there's a safety team on site at all times. One of the main issues is the heat. Solider's make sure there are ice towels on hand, just in case it gets too hot.
"You got a lot of heat radiating out just from the engines being in the back," safety specialist Tim Messer said. "You don't want to be standing within approximately 5-6 feet behind them because that obviously radiates a lot of heat."
With today's shipment, the armor school move is about 70% complete.
Grover says there are under 100 days to go.
Training on the tanks is set to begin October first.
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