Soldiers with the Wisconsin National Guard’s 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT) conduct a rail movement May 16, 2024, that includes more than 800 pieces of equipment on nearly 200 railcars at the railyard at Fort McCoy, Wis.

Warrant Officer 1 Eric Frank with the 32nd IBCT who helped plan the movement, said this was “the largest rail movement with civilian linehaul the Wisconsin National Guard has ever done.”

The 32nd is completing the operation to move the vehicles and equipment for a future training rotation.

Unit movement officers with the 32nd coordinated the plans to complete the movement.

Fort McCoy’s Logistics Readiness Center Transportation Division and associated rail operations team personnel supported the effort.

Frank also said members with the Fort McCoy rail operations team were helpful in getting the work completed.

“They have been very supportive and (answered) any questions we have,” Frank said. “They have provided us with a lot of their rail tools, their spanners, and even their personnel to help supervise and to make sure we’re doing the right thing. The transportation officer and the LRC (Logistics Readiness Center) here has been a great help to us.”

Frank said the 32nd’s rail effort also demonstrates the “immense” capability that rail provides to Army.

“It’s probably one of the biggest capabilities that within the continental United States to get our equipment down to the ports of embarkation, to put them on an airplane or put them on a ship,” Frank said. “They could take the most amount of equipment. … (For example) we are sending … roughly 800 pieces of equipment on close to 200 rail cars … in one mass movement … so it’s pretty big.”

Frank said once the training rotation is complete, then all the equipment will return to Fort McCoy for unloading in a similar movement.

Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.

The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.

Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System at https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”