Soldiers place wooden "spanners" on a rail car so they can practice loading vehicles during a training session Tuesday on Yongsan Garrison, South Korea. (T.D. Flack / S&S)
Soldiers place wooden "spanners" on a rail car so they can practice loading vehicles during a training session Tuesday on Yongsan Garrison, South Korea. (T.D. Flack / S&S)
Sgt. 1st Class Anthony Payton, 2nd Infantry Division, uses hand signals to help a driver move a vehicle onto a rail car. (T.D. Flack / S&S)
Sergeant 1st Class Anthony Payton concentrates on his work. (T.D. Flack / S&S)
Sgt. 1st Class Darryl Harris, 7th U.S. Joint Multi-National Training Center, uses a hand signal to help a driver move a vehicle onto a rail car. (T.D. Flack / S&S)
Soldiers secure a vehicle to a rail car. (T.D. Flack / S&S)
YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — Twenty-nine soldiers from units across the Korean peninsula are in Seoul for a two-week course on moving equipment.
Capt. Dovia Williams, 8th Army, said the course is being taught on Yongsan Garrison by 8th Army’s G-4 Transportation Division for the first time, and the goal is to hold the training every six months.
Two instructors from the 7th U.S. Joint Multinational Training Command in Germany were at Yongsan to teach the 80-hour course, according to Williams.
Civilian instructor Willie Brown and Sgt. 1st Class Darryl Harris spent Tuesday teaching soldiers how to load vehicles safely onto rail cars for shipment.
Sgt. 1st Class Anthony Payton of the 2nd Infantry Division donned an orange safety vest and used a series of hand signals to direct Spc. Andrea Ratliff as she drove a Humvee onto the rail car.
“It was scary,” she said.
Ratliff, with the 498th Corps Support Battalion, explained that the key was to trust the person giving the hand signals because as she drove the vehicle onto the rail car, it felt to her that it might fall off.
“You can’t do things on your own,” Ratliff explained.
Once the vehicles were loaded, the soldiers worked to secure them to the rail cars.
Harris said the course’s goal is simple: to ensure students are properly trained when it comes time to move equipment by rail, air or sea.
