Movement Control Teams

In the Army, most companies are about 150 people, depending on the type of unit. There is at least one exception to this: the Movement Control Team (MCT) -- they've got less than two dozen. It's just a captain, two lieutenants, and a bunch of 88N enlisted soldiers.

As traffic planners, these units deconflict convoy routes. They were really important in the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom, when convoys of hundreds of vehicles criss-crossed the country to resupply the advancing front-line units.

Although there's not really a garrison mission for them in the continental U.S., they're important here in Korea as go-betweens for the U.S. and Korean armies. When a unit goes to a firing range, they have to bring ammunition with them, which requires a clearance number. The MCTs talk to the Korean army, and they process the request. Heaven help the unit who has an accident with an explosives-laden military vehicle that doesn't have a clearance number -- that's international incident material if I've ever heard any.

One of the problems with MCTs, though, is that you don't have any job specialists -- everyone's an 88N movement planner. That means no mechanics for your vehicles, no supply personnel to requisition your pencils, no arms room guy, and no cooks. You have to sign a lot of support agreements with other units.

For the captain in charge of the MCT, there's the question, "Does this count as a branch-qualifying experience?" In the past, the branch answer was "No, your company command has to be 50+ people to count." That made "Transportation Officer" (even now it's not called "Company Commander") among the least desirable positions in logistics -- you'd have this "command" that wasn't really a command.

As a result, people would move units and among the first questions you'd get from your new boss would be, "Have you already had command?" They'd have to answer, "Yes, but..." and then make this long explanation. Battalion commanders wouldn't want to give them another, second command, but these captains couldn't advance without them.

That's changed, at least. I spoke with my branch manager recently, and his explanation was that if your ORB line said "Commander" and that it was for 12+ months, it would count as branch-qualifying. Of course, your OER would also have to state your position title as "Commander" too, or else you'd have some trouble getting your S-1 to edit that line.

In my opinion, commanding an MCT has some distinct advantages. First, the unit is so small, it probably wouldn't get tapped for various details to support large exercises. Second, there's only so much trouble a couple dozen enlisted soldiers can get into. I would imagine the amount of soldier issues would be few, at least compared with a regular-sized unit.

Finally, it's an office unit. As a commander, you don't have to plan big field exercises or worry about motor pool maintenance. As long as your people know how to do their regular jobs, you're good!

Maybe this is naïve, but I think I'd rather like command of an MCT. As a Transportation officer, I've worked with 88M truck drivers and 88H cargo handlers, so working with 88Ns would be a natural progression. Of course, any company command would be nice, and you can't be picky about this sort of thing, but staying in Transportation would be particularly so.