Military logistics-how material handling saves lives in combat

Army logistics: Material handling on a higher level

Many material handlers face challenges that can make the workday feel like a battle. You have to wrap pallets to prevent collapse, and you to negotiate obstacles carefully and quickly as you move your load across the warehouse floor-tasks the average person can’t understand if they’ve never worked in logistics. Now

military truck convoy
Photo courtesy US Marine Corps

You are no longer just figuring out a way to move materials while saving time and money. Now you have to do it in a way that will, if it works correctly, prevent men and women from getting killed. We’re talking seriously hostile territory.

We’ve all dealt with badly-built pallets….

Have you ever gotten a pallet to unload that had different types of products going to different places? Those who receive for food service operations or work in food warehouses know all too well how things get slowed down if the pallet is built wrong. Maybe a box of candy is crushed under a case of frozen potatoes. Maybe the frozen potatoes are scattered throughout the pallet and mixed in with dry goods that are unrelated to each other, to make matters worse. You mutter a few obscenities and then grumble out loud: “who is the *&^% who built this pallet?!?!”

Imagine that the people receiving the load are about to engage in a combat mission. Now imagine being a soldier in the field and your supplies arrive this way. You and your buddies won’t just be aggravated, you could honestly end up dead as a result. US Army Master Sergeant Wade Shoemaker explained in a recent article on the Defense Video and Information System website that that’s why rigging is such a specialized profession in the army. A load of supplies is never assembled by only one individual, Sergeant Shoemaker explains.

Who are Army logistics people and just how do they do it?

Army logistics people do more than just build pallets, a lot more. The people who do this job are known as riggers. What they do amounts to a lot more than staying behind to work in the warehouse. They learn special methods of assembling a bundle so that nothing is left to guessing by the soldiers who receive it. Every rigger works his or her way up from an entry-level position and learns the trade from start to finish.

How it works

First, the load has to be rigged in a way to withstand being dropped from an aircraft at high altitude. Rigging for airborne drop is just the beginning. It is imperative that the load be able to be disassembled in a safe and efficient manner. Air-drop is the normal method of load drop off; it eliminates risks of destruction in transit and helps soldiers avoid hostile situations that come with moving supplies slowly in ground convoys. Soldiers can expect a load to be assembled in a very specific manner, no matter builds the bundle. Those crucial seconds saved by efficient bundle building can save the life of many a soldier.