Army Contracting Support Enables Marine Operations Along Southern Border

Contracting officers assigned to the U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command Southern Border Contract Team provided contract support to Marines assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment supporting Operation Ardent Vanguard.

The MICC Southern Border Contracting Team is part of the Forward Contracting Element - West, Theatre Contracting Center - Americas, 410th Contracting Support Brigade, aligned under the MICC.

For the southern border mission and area of operation, the Marines do not have organic contracting units, making Army contracting support essential to their mission success.

The Army and Marine Corps maintain fluid communication channels and continuously reach out for mutual support in joint operations. With just under 100 service members maintaining patrols around the clock across demanding terrain, Company A depends on a steady stream of support services to stay in the fight.

"The Army contracting team has been instrumental to our mission success along the southern border," said Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Martin Hlinovsky III, a maintenance chief assigned to 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment. "Their responsiveness in securing hotel arrangements that meet force protection requirements while reducing commute times has directly enhanced our operational readiness. We are extremely grateful for their contracting expertise and partnership in enabling our mission."

The MICC Southern Border Contracting Team does not operate from a fixed Army post or camp. Instead, the contracting team deploys along the southern border and commutes to different locations to conduct site visits and reconnaissance for potential contracting needs. This mobile approach allows the team to be responsive to the dynamic operational environment.

During the visit to Company A's operating location - a repurposed facility that presents unique support challenges - the team conducted a full review of the unit's basic life support services to assess where contracting is delivered and where gaps remain.

A key part of the visit was educating the Marines on the acquisition process and the proper channels available to resolve ongoing support challenges. The MICC team walked leaders through the fundamentals of contracting support and how they become actionable contract solutions.

While these Marine-driven solutions speak to the unit's resourcefulness, they also highlight an opportunity for contracting to step in earlier so that Marines can invest their energy in the mission rather than in building makeshift solutions. Identifying these gaps is exactly why the MICC Southern Border team walks the ground.

The MICC's greatest contributions have been relocating service members to hotels that meet force protection standards, reducing commute time and lessening the demand to stay for long durations in centralized or isolated locations.

Specific contracting support for the southern border includes lodging and conference rooms for Task Force Leviathan across San Diego; Yuma, Arizona; El Centro, California; and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California. The support also includes sanitation services for Task Forces Forge, Mustang, Strike and the Army Reserve's 489th Engineer Battalion, as well as the Army National Guard's 168th Military Police Battalion and 941st Military Police Battalion units across Arizona and Texas locations. Infrastructure support includes portable office buildings, equipment rentals, wireless communications and battalion aid stations. Additionally, multilocation operations span the Rio Grande Valley, Del Rio, Brownsville and McAllen in Texas; and Nogales and Naco in Arizona.

Currently, the MICC Southern Border Contracting Team manages 19 active contracts valued at approximately $56 million in support of southern border operations. Through strategic contracting practices and effective negotiation, they have achieved $960,000 in cost savings in the past 30 days alone.

Going forward, the MICC team is committed to anticipating requirements by staying engaged with the units on the ground rather than waiting for problems to surface, streamlining support for life-sustainment needs while empowering units with a working knowledge of the contracting process and the proper channels to use, and scaling infrastructure and support services to match the operational tempo and terrain.

By walking the ground alongside the warfighters, the MICC team is better positioned to deliver the right capabilities, at the right time, in the right place.