What are all those military vehicles doing on Shop Road in Columbia?

The S.C. National Guard's 4-118th Combined Arms Battalion is loading up for Texas.

The battalion is moving about 200 heavy vehicles by rail to Texas for the unit's annual training. About 500 National Guard soldiers will join those from North Carolina and West Virginia for training at Fort Bliss. They will leave in early August and be gone for about three weeks.

Guard soldiers are loading up the vehicles on rail cars at two sidings, one at Shop Road and the other at Garners Ferry Road. The work could take about a week, a Guard spokeswoman said.

The vehicles include "the big stuff," said Sgt. Peter Oloff, who was working at the Shop Road siding Monday. They include M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers and scores of other armored vehicles and trucks.

The bigger vehicles are being transferred to rail cars near the Garners Ferry Road siding from the Guard's McCrady Training Center at Fort Jackson. Smaller vehicles are being loaded at Shop Road.

The battalion will be in Texas for less than a month, spokeswoman Capt. Tammy Muckenfuss said.

This story was originally published July 9, 2018 at 5:44 PM.