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MCLB unit re-named

• A name-changing ceremony marks the changing duties and new home of one Marine Corps unit.

Susan McCord

ALBANY — At Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany, every detail is significant.

Friday morning, Maj. Gen. Willie J. Williams, the commander of Marine Corps Logistics Command, snipped a ribbon and delivered a speech commemorating the official re-naming of a Marine Corps unit with a growing presence in Albany.

As of Friday, Marine Corps Technical Assistance Team (“MCTAT”) becomes Marine Corps Logistics Command Maintenance Assistance Team, or MMAT.

The unit is comprised of 52 Marines possessing the skills to work on 17 different ground weapons systems, a statement from MCLB public affairs office said. A few dozen of the MMAT personnel not currently on missions, as well as civilian support personnel participated in the name change ceremony Friday.

“It’s not a particular effort that’s focused in one particular area,” Williams said of MMAT. “What we’re about is providing those integrated solutions to the warfighters... to help them to maintain their readiness in the battlefield.”

The change brings the unit under the guidance of Logistics Command, the largest tenant in residence at MCLB, and increases the number of personnel stationed at MCLB, staff said, though its focus is hardly Albany.

“It is a vision of mine that we would focus outside of our boundaries, outside of the fence line, because that’s where the warfighters are. They’re not inside MCLB... The warfighters are around the world. We’re responsible for providing them the type of logistics support that they need,” Williams said.

Those needs will only increase, he said.

“I think that we’re going to find that the stresses on that equipment are going to become more and more pronounced as we go forward,” Williams said.

“As we take this short period of time out this morning to officially stand up, it sends a signal to the Marine Corps at large, that what we’re about is service and support.”

Jerry G. Mengelkoch, Workload Division Director for Logistics Command’s Maintenance Management Center, works with civilian personnel that have aided the unit’s transition.

“Logcom basically ‘took ownership’ of these Marines, and we actually changed their mission,” Mengelkoch said.

MCTAT had been part of Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Va. before coming under both the administrative and operational control of Logistics Command, he said.

Maj. Kenneth Woods, acting maintenance management officer for Logistics Command, commands the renamed unit, which has several members completing final MCTAT missions involving reserve units in the western U.S., including Alaska, he said.

The change brings all the unit’s personnel to MCLB, including Marines that had been based at Logistics Command’s Maintenance Center in Barstow, Calif., he said.

“They’re looking forward to the challenge,” Woods said. “This is what Marines like to do. They like to be called upon when in need.”

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