HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- A U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville is helping ensure Soldiers are healthy and fit for duty with a $9.4 million Medical Outfitting and Transition program contract developed to provide equipment and materiel to 43 Army Brigades around the world transforming to the Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness, or H2F, campaign.
In 2017, The Army rolled out the H2F campaign focused on improving Soldier’s selection process, physical performance, performance education, and transforming and improving Soldier fitness and training centers. The overarching goal of the new H2F initiative, created by the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command’s Center for Initial Military Training, is total Soldier readiness.
One of the main characteristics of H2F is the integration of physical training at the unit level resulting in TRADOC reaching out to the Center’s MO&T program to develop the contract.
Huntsville Center originally stood up the MO&T Program to support large Army replacement hospitals like Fort Bliss at a cost of $100 million.
However, MO&T has outfitted medical projects as small as $400,000, and routinely provides medical outfitting support for all project sizes in between, said Brian Bezilla, MOT project manager.
“The MO&T Program’s contract structure allows them to “right size” the services for each customer’s requirement,” Bezilla said.
After almost a year of planning and procurement, the first H2F materiel delivery went to Fort Huachuca, Arizona Aug. 24. According to Lt. Col. Cecilia Najera, Occupational Therapy Consultant to the Army Surgeon General, that first delivery set the tone for the entire project.
“Each pallet was labeled accordingly, included an inventory sheet, and each item was labeled with its JSN, expediting the inventory process significantly,” Najera said.
The $9.4 million task order included $8.6 million in equipment purchasing, with contractor services accounted for 8.25% of task order value.
“That’s comparable to what we consumers pay in state tax on things we purchase at the store,” Bezilla said.
For more than 100 years, the Army used an industrial scale approach to physical training with cavernous fitness centers dotting garrison landscapes. Soldiers were expected to fit in physical training around the Army mission. To meet physical fitness standards annually, Soldiers were expected to spend time at the “gym” and unit training was conducted without regard for an individual Soldier’s status or needs.
Under the new H2F program, assets are embedded in active-duty brigades resulting in an H2F operations order tasking Huntsville Center to support the effort as a Working Group member.
When the H2F program was being developed, Department of Army Headquarters engaged with Army Health Facilities Planning Agency, Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) and Forces Command (FORSCOM) to improve instructions and orders related to standing up the initiative.
Before the Defense Health Agency assumed management of all military medical facilities, MOT's primary customer was Army HFPA, Bezilla said.
“HFPA approached MO&T and explained the requirement and got MO&T concurrence that we could support with current available contract capabilities,” he said.
“TRADOC asked us about putting a contract in place next Fiscal Year too with three options out to FY26, so they can outfit roughly 18 brigades a year with equipment for the embedded Holistic Health and Fitness Initiative,” he said.
In addition to equipment purchasing and delivery like H2F, Bezilla said MO&T services can include equipment and transition planning, physical relocation, and equipment disposal.
“The full range of services can be as much as 30% of the equipment cost for a large medical facility,” Bezilla said.