BNSF News

BNSF Delivers Old Soldiers to Final Resting Place

2008-11-13

It saddened some to see BNSF transport 84 soldiers to their final resting place after years of dedication to the U.S. military.

“Those old soldiers fought long and hard for many years,” said Lt. Col. Dwight Davis, 16th Special Operations Squadron, Detachment 1, commander, U.S. Air Force. “They began fighting in 1961 and saw their last battle with U.S. Marines during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.”

The “old soldiers” Davis was referring to are actually decommissioned M-60 battle tanks, which left an army depot in Anniston, Ala., on a BNSF train headed for the remote Melrose Bombing Range, just north of BNSF’s terminal in Clovis, N.M.

Airmen practice shooting land targets on the range, so when Range Operations Officer Johnny Rogers heard about the decommissioned tanks, he knew they’d be great target practice for his aircraft troops. In fact, Rogers said they would provide “a sense of realism” at the range and would outlast the current targets they were using.

As they had before, the military logistics team immediately called BNSF’s Industrial Products team and Account Manager John Pinard to see how BNSF could help with the move.

“Transporting equipment for the military has always been, and continues to be, an important part of BNSF’s business,” Pinard said. “While the military uses rail for many moves, the tendency is to use rail only where there is direct-rail service. Otherwise military personnel tend to gravitate toward trucks. With BNSF Logistics, we are creating a new product, one that delivers a ‘door-to-door’ solution, with all services needed included. As we educate the military customers more and more about the partnership with our BNSF Logistics team and our capabilities, they realize railroads, particularly BNSF, can provide a packaged transportation service, at a better price, more efficiently, greener and with better security than trucking companies.”

Pinard partnered with Justin Hewitt, BNSF Logistics, whose team is experienced in packaging transportation solutions.

“We provide BNSF customers with cost-effective, comprehensive transportation solutions when, in a case like this, the railroad alone does not have rail that reaches its facility, like the bombing range in New Mexico,” Hewitt said. “For this move, we transported the tanks primarily by rail, then used specialty trailers to move the tanks to the bombing range, and then we provided powerfully built cranes to pull the tanks off trailers and set them in place.”

The military requires a high level of security to transport any of its equipment, old or new, from one location to another. An added benefit that BNSF can provide is the Resource Protection team. In Clovis, the team is led by Joe Fiola, senior special agent, Resource Protection, whose team was able to fill the security requirements.

“Really, the BNSF operating team in Clovis deserves special recognition for making this project a success,” Pinard said. “They were able to coordinate the receipt of the traffic and move it on their local to a remote offload/transload site. This added level of service made the entire project possible, which otherwise would have gone over the road. The Clovis team focused on the military and logistical requirements to ensure the safe and timely delivery of the tanks.”

Military personnel, the Industrial Products team and BNSF Logistics thank all employees at Clovis for making this move a success, including the following:

• Rick Smith, terminal superintendent
• Eddie Taylor, trainmaster
• Mark Bryant, terminal manager
• Dennis Dutton, director
• The entire Transportation team

Once the tanks are set in place, military personnel in each armed aircraft will open fire with cannons to help perfect their air combat tactics. And because of their nearly 60-ton bulk, these old tanks are expected to come out of retirement and serve another four to five years at the range.

"The tanks will enable us to re-create combat scenarios," Davis said. "We should have full use of them by next summer."

Photos are courtesy of the U.S. Air Force.

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