# (A new) Home on the range: JRTC

/ Published Feb. 20, 2024
BATTLE CREEK, Mich., 
Wayne Fariss describes himself as a “junk hound.”

But the former cotton farmer and environmentalist doesn’t collect junk. What he does is acquire and creatively deploy used and excess equipment from the Defense Logistics Agency to improve the learning experience of soldiers who visit the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Johnson in Louisiana.

“I’ll reuse anything,” Fariss said. “You just have to have a creative mindset.”

The JRTC offers 250,000 forested acres with 500 miles of trails that rotating Army units navigate to try and outmaneuver an adversary during weeks-long pre-deployment capstone exercise visits. Fariss’ role is to develop and manage that acreage with a 13-person range operations crew that does everything from clearing forest to wrangling wild horses to mitigating the suffocating clouds of trail dust that convoys stir up.

“We’re a graduation exercise,” Fariss said. “When they’re done with us, they should be shelf-ready to fight anywhere in the world.”

                Floating medium girder bridge sets received from DLA Disposition Services offer a low-cost, low-maintenance solution to the restoration of a 500-mile trail system at Fort Johnson’s Joint Readiness Training Center in Louisiana. The JRTC is more than halfway toward its goal of installing 14 repurposed bridges and saving an estimated $14 million by using excess military stock.                            230906-D-GV919-1435                            Floating medium girder bridge sets received from DLA Disposition Services offer a low-cost, low-maintenance solution to the restoration of a 500-mile trail system at Fort Johnson’s Joint Readiness Training Center in Louisiana. The JRTC is more than halfway toward its goal of installing 14 repurposed bridges and saving an estimated $14 million by using excess military stock.            SHARE IMAGE:Download ImageImage DetailsPhoto By: Jake JoyVIRIN: 230906-D-GV919-1435For him, the ability to screen DLA Disposition Services excess property stock for no-cost equipment and materials allows range operations to stretch budget dollars and meet the frequently evolving requirements of JRTC leadership. Tools and toolboxes for maintenance crews, fences and gates for “no-go” areas, square tubing for fabricated villages, gurney holders for stretchers repurposed as sawhorses – Fariss will find a use for nearly any item.

“Just look through [DLA’s online excess equipment inventory], you never know what you might find,” Fariss said. “DLA is awfully affordable – free is good.”

His big ongoing reutilization effort is saving the Army an estimated $14 million and has helped broaden the maneuverability options available to troops.

During the Global War on Terror years, JRTC’s training box was configured to be very “road-centric,” Fariss said. Troops would essentially drive from village to village on hardened surfaces, and the vast trail network atrophied from lack of use. As the Defense Department began to refocus on the Indo-Pacific region, planners once again needed to provide more maneuvering routes to simulate the battlefield decisions unit leaders would be forced to make when major infrastructure is compromised during a large-scale conflict.

                Joint Readiness Training Center’s Wayne Fariss conducts a routine evaluation on a M104 Wolverine heavy assault bridge at Fort Johnson in Louisiana in 2023. The bridge, which can handle 70-ton vehicles, came from DLA Disposition Services used stock and provides a permanent solution to a creek crossing known to overflow its banks several times each year.                            230906-D-GV919-1469                            Joint Readiness Training Center’s Wayne Fariss conducts a routine evaluation on a M104 Wolverine heavy assault bridge at Fort Johnson in Louisiana in 2023. The bridge, which can handle 70-ton vehicles, came from DLA Disposition Services used stock and provides a permanent solution to a creek crossing known to overflow its banks several times each year.            SHARE IMAGE:Download ImageImage DetailsPhoto By: Jake JoyVIRIN: 230906-D-GV919-1469 Louisiana’s monsoon season presents a problem, though. Four or five times a year, deluges can “blow out” routes and culverts rise to the point where entire sections of the training area must be cordoned off to maintain soldier safety. To create a “flood-proof, low-cost, low-maintenance, long-term solution,” Fariss knew he could lean once again on DLA equipment reutilization.    

His search of the agency’s Reutilization, Transfer and Donation application, or RTDWeb, first focused on railcar flatbeds to strip down and lay across creeks and low water crossings. But as he probed DLA’s database, he zeroed in on M104 Wolverine heavy assault bridges – normally carried by M1 Abrams tanks – and floating medium girder bridge sets that can be sectioned to the span length needed. 

The trail rebuild project began in 2017. Fariss is now more than halfway toward his goal of installing 14 repurposed crossings across the box – using DLA’s excess bridges, cables, anchors, and even drilling equipment to set footings. 

“I could never afford to go buy a bridge. As much as we could benefit, it would never happen,” Fariss said, estimating that it would set JRTC back about $1 million for each crossing. “And that’s if you could even find a system and someone willing to do it.”

                Low Water Crossing 88 Delta, at Fort Johnson’s Joint Readiness Training Center in Louisiana. Seasonal streams and creeks running mostly north to south across the center’s 250,000 acres can close down whole sections of the training area during heavy rains. Repurposed mobile bridges requisitioned through DLA are helping trainers to keep those sections in play for trainees and broaden unit maneuvering possibilities.                            230906-D-GV919-1453                            Low Water Crossing 88 Delta, at Fort Johnson’s Joint Readiness Training Center in Louisiana. Seasonal streams and creeks running mostly north to south across the center’s 250,000 acres can close down whole sections of the training area during heavy rains. Repurposed mobile bridges requisitioned through DLA are helping trainers to keep those sections in play for trainees and broaden unit maneuvering possibilities.            SHARE IMAGE:Download ImageImage DetailsPhoto By: Jake JoyVIRIN: 230906-D-GV919-1453 Don Cassada shares that same passion for creative military equipment reuse. As the DLA Disposition Services Range Acquisitions Program Manager, he scans agency property stocks daily to identify vehicles and equipment that he thinks ranges and training areas might want. Every week, he sends out slides with item photos and descriptions to more than 60 military ranges spread across the globe and then fields customer logistics and acquisition questions. 

“It may not have anything they’re interested in that particular week, but it keeps them engaged with DLA and prompts them to reach out and inquire about other stuff,” Cassada said. 

                Floating medium girder bridge sets received from DLA Disposition Services offer a low-cost, low-maintenance solution to the restoration of a 500-mile trail system at Fort Johnson’s Joint Readiness Training Center in Louisiana. The JRTC is more than halfway toward its goal of installing 14 repurposed bridges and saving an estimated $14 million by using excess military stock.                            230906-D-GV919-1435                            Floating medium girder bridge sets received from DLA Disposition Services offer a low-cost, low-maintenance solution to the restoration of a 500-mile trail system at Fort Johnson’s Joint Readiness Training Center in Louisiana. The JRTC is more than halfway toward its goal of installing 14 repurposed bridges and saving an estimated $14 million by using excess military stock.            SHARE IMAGE:Download ImageImage DetailsPhoto By: Jake JoyVIRIN: 230906-D-GV919-1435 Equipment is always on the move, he said. Bridges recently shipped to Volk Field Air National Guard Base in Wisconsin will serve as the bases for fabricated targets. The DLA demilitarization site in Tucson will soon send 20 MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial drones to Holloman Air Force Base to provide realistic targets, instead of feeding them into an industrial shredder. Explosive ordinance disposal units perpetually request items to test munition effects on. The flow of repurposed property never ends.

“I’ll send things out and say ‘hey, you can change this item to make it look like a [S-300VM air defense missile system],’ or you can take an older aircraft hull, fabricate some wings and make it look like a MiG fighter,” Cassada said. “I can give them ideas about what a target would really look like.”

Fariss is already thinking about more uses for the bridge components he has stockpiled. One possibility is a constructing a 26-acre lake at JRTC to provide actual floating bridge training on. Creating free-play scenarios where soldiers have to defend a bridge span would be “added value,” he said. Ultimately, now that JRTC has the stuff, they intend to use it.

“These bridges will be good to go for 30 years,” Fariss said. “They’ll outlast me.”04:18VIDEO  | 04:18 |Disposition Services and Training Ranges Supporting the Warfighter