Third Port / 3rd Port
The 7th Transportation Group (Composite) of the U.S. Army Transportation Center, Fort Eustis, VA maintains a pier complex at Third Port, Fort Eustis on the James River at the mouth of Skiffes Creek. Local harbor authorities state that the piers and wharves are in good repair. The main pier was built in 1947, and the current concrete deck lies on top of the original deck and wooden pilings. Local harbor authorities state that most pier decks are approximately 3 ft above the water level at high water, and about 5 ft at low water. The main pier is about 2 ft higher.

Third Port is used to train personnel in cargo logistics and vessel operations. Located at Fort Eustis, Third Port is a deep-water port that provides a safe harbor for the Army's watercraft fleet and serves as a deployment platform for Army units. In addition, it is a joint service training facility for watercraft operators and cargo handlers. Third Port is a fixed-port facility housing 62 vessels. Landship, Hagglund Crane and Winch Fram provide terminal cargo handling training. Pier berths provide vessel management and operations training. Support facilities are located on premises. Vessel mooring and vehicle parking beside landship is not allowed, since the landship must be accessible for training at all times.

The channel in the James River that leads to Ft. Eustis is an extension of the Newport News Channel. The narrowest part of the channel is Rocklanding Shoal Channel, a 300 ft wide dredged channel that lies southwest of Mulberry Island. Rocklanding Shoal Channel is approximately 5-1/2 nmi long, and is maintained at a depth of 25 ft.

The facility has several U.S. Army vessels assigned, including 11 tug boats with bollard-pull ratings to 64 tons. The tugs range in size from 86 ft Side Loadable Warping Tugs (SLWT) to 128 ft Large Tugs (LT). Other craft include 274 ft Logistic Support Vessels (LSV), 174 ft Landing Craft Utility 2000 (LCU 2000), 135 ft Landing Craft Utility 1600 (LCU 1600), 73 ft Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM), 140 ft (100 ton) Barge Cranes, a 250 ft Floating Machine Shop (FMS), and various other craft.

Silting is a major problem at Ft. Eustis piers; local harbor authorities state that silt accumulates at a rate of about 1 ft per year. Dredging must be done every three to four years, or vessels at or near the piers will make contact with the silted bottom. It was stated during a March 1998 port visit that alongside depths were 18 to 20 ft at the main pier, but only 8 to 10 ft in Skiffes Creek away from the piers.

The channel in the James River that leads to Ft. Eustis passes through the James River Bridge, a lift bridge which is located approximately 14 nmi down river from the piers at Ft. Eustis. Of great concern to Ft. Eustis is the possibility of trapping the Army fleet upriver, since the bridge is closed in the down position in winds greater than 45 kt. Because the bridge has a vertical clearance of only 60 ft in the down position, vessels of LSV size could not move down river into Hampton Roads or Chesapeake Bay if the bridge could not raise.

The Dragon Team '96 sea emergency deployment readiness exercise tested the players' ability to deploy on a moment's notice, moving a unit from fort to foxhole. An aviation task force from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., hastily departed for Jacksonville, Fla., where nearly 500 pieces of division equipment -- from helicopters to 5-ton trucks -- arrived by air, rail and ground transportation. When the 101st's equipment arrived in Jacksonville, stevedores loaded it aboard USNS Antares. Then the ship sailed to Norfolk, where 7th Transportation Group soldiers from Fort Eustis, Va., and 101st port support soldiers unloaded it in a simulation of a strategic movement to a port of debarkation. Besides soldiers from the 101st Abn. Div. and 7th Trans. Grp., it involved Army Reservists, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard personnel. The Navy contributed a fast sealift ship and staging facilities at Norfolk Naval Base, Va. Air Force personnel tracked the weather and the Coast Guard provided port security. The entire Hampton Roads, VA area simulated different kinds of foreign ports. Norfolk Naval Base simulated an improved port. Fort Eustis' 3rd Port area -- the main terminal for 101st aircraft that were transported from Norfolk on Army watercraft -- served as a restricted landing area. Craney Island, a small port near Norfolk, represented an area with no port facilities and required exercise participants to conduct logistics-over-the-shore operations. To avoid creating congestion on area highways, equipment was convoyed over two routes or transported by 7th Trans. Grp. boats from Craney Island to the 3rd Port at Fort Eustis. In the force projection Army, 7th Grp. is absolutely essential to total Army readiness. Likewise, in an actual deployment, the Hampton Roads area -- because of its military ports, Langley Air Force Base and other installations all within a 50-mile radius -- would serve as a main port of embarkation.