596th Transportation Brigade Beaumont (Beaumont, Texas)

 military, United States Army, container / transport / storage terminal, truck terminal

Home to 842nd Transportation Battalion, Beaumont, TX

The mission of the 596th Transportation Brigade is to safely provide ammunition terminal services to meet the nation's objectives. This responsibility includes the operation of both east and west coast ammo terminals at Military Ocean Terminal, Sunny Point (MOTSU), North Carolina and at Military Ocean Terminal Concord (MOTCO), California, respectively, though the Brigade is based at MOTSU.

In addition to serving its Defense Transportation System customers, the services and combatant commanders around the world, the 596th Transportation Brigade also coordinates and provides support to surface movements of Foreign Military Sales (FMS) munitions destined for US allies around the world. The Brigade is the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command's (SDDC) Center of Excellence for ammunition ocean terminal and distribution operations, and routinely coordinates ammunition surface movements with the Joint Munitions Command, the services, and combatant commanders on behalf of SDDC.

The 596th Transportation Brigade traces its history to the decision in the mid-1960s to place responsibility for terminal operations in the United States with the Military Traffic Management and Terminal Service. To assist with this, the 1302nd Major Port Command was established. On 1 October 1997, this unit was reflagged as the 596th Transportation Group (Terminal). This was in accord with a plan to rename all water terminals within what had become the Military Traffic Management Command (MTMC). The unit was placed under the operational control of the MTMC's Deployment Support Command (DSC).

The 596th Transportation Group (Terminal) initially operated MOTCO in Concord, California before moving to Beaumont, Texas on 1 June 1998. In its place, the 834th Transportation Battalion continued operations there.

The mission of the 596th Transportation Group (Terminal) was to synchronize Defense Transportation System surface cargo movements and provide Traffic Management and Single Port management for the Department of Defense in peace and crisis. The Group planned, coordinated, and accomplished the expeditious and economical movement and documentation of DOD sponsored cargo through terminals and facilities in Texas and the US Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and western Florida. The Group would deploy/redeploy US Forces as assigned by Commander, MTMC DSC. It would also advise and assist wartraced US Army Reserve units as assigned by Commander, MTMC DSC. The Group participated in Joint Chiefs of Staff exercises and was prepared to deploy military personnel and Emergency-Essential Civilians outside of the Continental United States.

Following the transfer to the Panama Canal Zone back to the Panamanian government in 1999, the US began to withdraw or inactivate its forces deployed there. The 596th Transportation Group's 955th Transportation Company was subsequently inactivated.

On 23 July 2001 it was announced that the Army had approved a sweeping reorganization of the Military Traffic Management Command that would make fundamental changes in the organization's structure, staffing and operations. All the changes were to be in effect by 30 June 2003. Implementation of the proposal was complete by 30 September 2001. As part of the changes, the 596th Transportation Group was inactivated on 20 September 2001. The Group's units were inactivated or reassigned.

In 2004, the MTMC was designated as the SDDC. On 15 June 2008, the Ammunition Terminal Group (Provisional) at MOTSU was redesignated as the 596th Transportation Group (Ammunition) (Provisional). The provisional unit was assigned the 834th Transportation Battalion, which had remained at MOTCO. On 1 October 2008, the 596th Transportation Group (Ammunition) was formally activated. The unit was subsequently redesignated as the 596th Transportation Brigade.

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