The 737th Transportation Company takes a training mission operational at Operation Sentinel Justice

CAMP SHELBY, Miss. — What began as a training evaluation using empty fuel tankers at Operation Sentinel Justice became something with real-world consequences: a Defense Logistics Agency tasking to move actual bulk fuel to three locations across the Gulf Coast and Louisiana. For 737th Transportation Company (TC), that kind of adaptability is exactly what the training was designed to produce.

The DLA needed fuel moved to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, to Gulfport, Mississippi, and to Fort Polk, Louisiana. The 737th TC, a petroleum transport company out of Yakima, Washington, was the unit that would do it.

This wasn’t a simulated training event. They were still being evaluated on their mission essential tasks, but this time the mission wasn’t a scenario. It was real jet fuel. Real delivery points. Real stakes.

"As far as the ability to execute and adapt to the situation and get fuel down the road, from the personnel side, I think we are more than ready," said Sgt. 1st Class Stephen Thale, first platoon sergeant for 737th TC. "We've been training and we have a really good crew, a very cohesive unit, all the way from the squad level all the way up through the company."

For sustainment units like 737th TC, Operation Sentinel Justice offered something more valuable than a graded lane. It offered an opportunity to execute the actual mission they would be called upon to perform in a contested operational environment. In large-scale combat operations, Army Reserve units are expected to perform from day one, at operational tempo, alongside active component units and Operation Sentinel Justice is where that expectation becomes reality.

When the DLA tasking came down within a couple months before the exercise started, the unit's full-time staff coordinated the integration with 61st Quartermaster Battalion (QM BN), 13th Armored Corps Sustainment Command out of Fort Hood, Texas. The 61st QM BN is the active-duty unit overseeing fuel operations and 737th TC’s higher headquarters for the exercise.

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Paul Zandt, battalion laboratory technician for 61st QM BN and a 923A petroleum systems technician, brought more than technical expertise to the integration. He brought perspective. A former Army Reserve Soldier himself, prior to going active-duty, Zandt had executed DLA fuel missions on the reserve side for years. He knew exactly what he was looking at when 737th TC showed up.

"These companies are truck drivers and I have no questions about their truck driving abilities," Zandt said.

What Zandt also noted was the broader reality of how petroleum transport companies are structured across both components. Medium petroleum truck units are primarily made up of motor transport operators, not petroleum supply specialists. That means Soldiers are executing fuel transfer operations as a core part of their job, not as a gap-fill. It is a demanding task set, and one that requires hands-on repetition with live fuel to fully master.

For Thale, the connection between realistic training and unit readiness is straightforward. When Soldiers train on tasks that reflect real-world demands, they stay ready for whatever the Nation requires and they stay motivated to keep pushing.

The 737th TC’s mission to Keesler AFB on June 12 involved three M1062 bulk fuel trailers — 7,500-gallon stainless-steel semi-trailers designed for bulk petroleum transport — towed by M915 tractor trucks, with support and recovery vehicles rounding out the convoy. The equipment is capable. But repetitions with live fuel are rare, and those repetitions matter.

"The tanker itself isn't a very complex system," Thale said. "It's basically a giant tube or tank with a 90-degree pipe coming down. Where it gets complicated is the proper torque spec on the bolts and making sure the gaskets are tight. And you can't know that until you actually put fuel in it and put it under pressure."

Thale noted that more frequent live fuel missions would directly improve equipment availability and operational capability. His Soldiers, he said, would not have to be asked twice.

"My Soldiers want to be on the road more than anything," he said.

That appetite for the mission is not accidental. Thale described a deliberate, multi-echelon training approach within the platoon. One where every road movement becomes an opportunity to stack training value. Radio checks. Joint battle command-platform exercises. Map reading and land navigation using real grid points.

"We're getting after those 10-level tasks, basic warrior skills, that are so often forgotten at the higher levels," Thale said. "Even just refresher training to keep them up to date on all of that stuff allows them to be a much more lethal and ready force."

The 737th TC’s Soldiers also bring a wide range of civilian experience into the formation. From commercial drivers, construction workers, and mechanics to agricultural industry professionals. The Army Reserve has long drawn on that breadth of knowledge and real-world competency. When those Soldiers put on the uniform and climb behind the wheel of an M915 tractor truck with a fully loaded M1062 fuel tank in tow, they are not starting from zero.

A field training exercise to Boise, Idaho earlier in the year gave Thale his clearest look yet at what his platoon was capable of. The convoy discipline, spacing, route reconnaissance, and professionalism of junior Soldiers executing their briefs confirmed what he believed but rarely had the vantage point to see firsthand.

This mission to Keesler AFB was confirmation at scale.

There is a moment, Thale said, when a well-executed convoy comes together that is unlike anything else in the Army. "It is almost a symphony when it comes down," he said, "with the crescendo of coming back, busting back in the gate and parking your trucks."

It is not a glamorous finish. There are no crowds. The fuel arrives where it needs to go, and the mission is complete. But for the Soldiers, that understated finale carries the full weight of what sustainment means: supply meeting demand, logistics making everything else possible.

In a large-scale combat environment, the fuel that reaches forward commanders does not materialize. It moves through a chain of Soldiers who planned the convoy, inspected the equipment, drove through the night, and delivered. The 737th did that here, on a real mission, inside the largest Army Reserve exercise in history.

That is what readiness looks like when training turns operational.

Operation Sentinel Justice, held at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, is the crucible for the modern Army Reserve. With an estimated 12,000 Soldiers participating across a Combat Support Training Exercise, Global Medic, and a Tech Evaluation, it is the largest exercise in Army Reserve history — and a direct investment in the Reserve's readiness for large-scale combat operations.