Food was prepared in a mobile kitchen trailer. During the past 25 years, embassy personnel were the only U.S. military presence in Nicaragua, so there was no infrastructure to support U.S. forces. The logistics and construction efforts in Nicaragua were overwhelming for the two-man contracting team. Negotiating with contractors, coordinating requirements, and finding sources of supplies takes time. While 90 percent of the task force's requirements were available in Nicaragua, no single source could supply the necessary quantities.
Funding is always an initial hurdle in short-notice deployments.
Most subordinate units deployed with field ordering officers and funds from their home station, but the limited sources of supply prevented use of the funds. A recommendation for improving the responsiveness of contracting teams to deployed units is to assign a contracting officer to engineer groups and brigades in the same manner that the JAG is assigned to a unit. The contracting officer would work for the installation while in garrison but would deploy with the unit. The most important aspect of contracting is to begin early. This capability allowed the 36th Engineer Group S3 to be the task force S3 and focus on operational issues throughout the task force.