Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Bryant Maude | Houston native Spc. Ricardo Salazar is a transportation specialist with the 297th...... read more read more
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Staff Sgt. Bryant Maude
1st Sustainment Brigade, Public Affairs Office
SATHAR AIR BASE, Iraq – There is a small group of dedicated Soldiers who bare the harsh elements of rain, sun, wind and dust on a daily basis to ensure Soldiers, living on small forward operating bases in and around Baghdad, are equipped with the vital supplies needed to continue their mission.
These Soldiers with the 297th Inland Cargo Transfer Company, 68th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 1st Sustainment Brigade, also clock long hours so that other Soldiers can stay off the road.
"To keep Soldiers off the road, we fly the cargo instead of trucking it," said Sgt. 1st Class Brian Kunz, a native of Knoxville, Tenn., and the non-commissioned officer in charge of the Arrival/Departure Airport Control Group at Sathar Air Base. "In order to do that we have to break these incoming pallets down into sizes that work for the helicopters."
Cargo flies into Sathar Air Base by fixed-wing aircraft and is usually packaged on individual pallets that are about 96 inches tall and up to 10,000 pounds. The cargo is then off loaded and placed in the Air Force inbound lanes.
"There are three categories of palletized cargo that we receive; pure, mixed, and miscellaneous," stated Kunz.
Pure pallets consist of cargo destined for one location; mixed pallets consist of cargo destined for multiple locations, and miscellaneous pallets will either stay on Victory Base Complex or go to other destinations that aren't flown to on a daily basis.
"The supplies here, according to the Army, need to be broken down and on its way to the customer in five days," says Kunz. "Our battalion says three days. We do (it) in 48 hours; probably because we're trying to be the fastest ADACG on the planet."
Each pallet that comes off the planes is identified by an identification tag. The ADACG Soldiers know how to read the tags and determine what product goes where. Trucks from VBC also arrive to the ADACG, and as they do, Staff Sgt. Anthony Reaves, a Miami native, and the platoon sergeant for the ADACG platoon, 297th ICTC, is there to greet them and direct them to the proper lane.
"I have a team that breaks down pallets and a team that builds pallets," said Reaves, "I constantly train them on any changes that take place so we don't miss a beat."
The Soldiers trained and trained for the mission prior to arriving in Iraq, and this training helped prepare them for the volume of materials they would be handling.
For Spc. Berman Tsinnijinnie, a native of Page, Ariz., and a cargo specialist with the 297th ICTC, the job came easy.
"It was hands on training and I enjoyed it very much," said Tsinnijinnie.
"It's a lot of manual labor," said Spc. Jorge Bernardez, a cargo specialist and Bronx, N.Y., native. "We break down and build 15 to 18 pallets a day on our shift alone."
The ADACG personnel identify pallets in need of break down by location and date from oldest to newest. Pure pallets are broken down to CH-47 specifications and placed in the appropriate lane. Mixed pallets are also broken down to create either HELO pallets or local pallets.
"The 68th CSSB sends allocated Kellogg, Brown & Root trucks to pick up and distribute the cargo bound for local VBC destinations, on regular basis," said Kunz.
The "Soldiers off the Road" initiative was one of a number of new initiatives started by the support operations section of the 1st SB after their arrival; and as a result, the need for manpower at the ADACG increased.
"Originally, we had 20 people here at this location and that has grown to 35," recalls Kunz. "I have an additional 15 maintenance personnel on the other side I'm accountable for as well."
Harsh weather wasn't the only challenge facing these Soldiers coming into the ADACG; the operational readiness of their vehicles was also an issue.
"We had an Operational Readiness rate of around 60 percent when we got here," said 1st Lt. Audrey Iriberri, the executive officer for the 297th ICTC. "Thanks to Chief Chandler in maintenance, our OR rate is 98 percent."
"Those guys really make it happen because the equipment here is old and they work night and day to make sure it runs," echoes Kunz.
With plans to upgrade the facility by cementing the entire ramp they are located on and adding new shelters for the cargo to be housed as they break it down and prepare it for transport, it won't be long before Kunz realizes his dream of becoming the fastest ADACG in the Army and keeping more Soldiers off the road.
| Date Taken: | 03.05.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 03.05.2008 17:39 |
| Story ID: | 17047 |
| Location: | IQ |
| Web Views: | 335 |
| Downloads: | 259 |
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