Photo By Pfc. Michael Neuenhoff | U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Tulsa Dean, a supply clerk and embarkation specialist...... read more read more
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Combat Logistics Company 21 (CLC-21) has many different responsibilities at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point. They are broken down into four different sections that each have a very important role to play to ensure the air station remains functioning normally.
What is the mission of CLC-21? CLC-21 has a very peculiar situation in the United States Marine Corps. They are a unit at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, but their parent command is 2nd Maintenance Battalion out of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, with their sister unit CLC-23, at MCAS Beaufort in South Carolina.
The mission of CLC-21 is to provide intermediate supply support and intermediate motor transport and engineer ground equipment maintenance to 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing (MAW); operate the Aerial Port of Embarkation/Debarkation (APOE/D) under the guidance of II Marine Expeditionary Force; and provide personnel to the Fleet Assistance Program in support of legal, postal, exchange, security (military police), personnel administration, freight/passenger transportation and bulk fuel support for MCAS Cherry Point.
To break down the meaning of this, CLC-21 “…provides operations on our airfield to II MEF assets who are deploying utilizing civilian and military aircraft,” said U.S. Marine Corps 2nd Lt. William Hudson, executive officer of CLC-21. “We provide intermediate field level maintenance as well as providing, delivering, and exchanging required parts for vehicles through our supply section.”
Each section within CLC-21 has its own mission and unique purpose. The headquarters section deals with all administrative work and on goings within the company and keeping all the company’s records in order and up to snuff. The APOE/D section handles different inspections for on-going and off-going cargo loads, ensuring each flight doesn’t exceed their allowable cabin load and making sure the personnel’s information is properly uploaded to different databases. The third section is the supply section, whose responsibility is to keep track of all incoming and exporting parts and equipment to and from the company. The fourth section is the maintenance section who maintains, repairs, and operates the different vehicles within the company and the units they support.
“Our maintenance and supply sort of tailor themselves around the units with ground assets, while our APOE/D section works with the airfield itself,” said Hudson. “They coordinate with airfield operations, the personnel on board the aircrafts, and the different commands of the units we are assisting, which requires a lot of cooperation and many different communication lines. We manifest the Marines, load up our vehicles, load up their vehicles, and take them out to the airfield, load the birds with the cargo and work with the loadmaster to ensure the birds aren’t overweight for flight.”
In addition to all of their other duties, CLC-21 does routine baggage inspection starting at ten percent of all luggage moving on and off the aircraft and sometimes moving all the way up to 100 percent if they find any contraband items that could pose a risk to the aircraft and the lives on board.
“A very popular blacklisted item we find are jet boils, the little portable stoves that you attach a gas canister to so you can cook while you are in the field,” said Hudson “a lot of guys like to bring those with them and cook ramen and stuff so they don’t have to eat MREs (Meal Ready to Eat) all the time.”
Despite being part of 2nd Maintenance Battalion, CLC-21 doesn’t work closely with the rest of the units in their same chain of command. Almost all the work they do is done at MCAS Cherry Point with the exception of going to Camp Lejeune for meetings and occasionally assisting with operations happening at Camp Lejeune.
“We mainly just stick to ourselves,” said Hudson. “We try and send our Marines on as many field operations as we can so they can get out there and do Marine things in the field for a change, but for the most part we do what’s needed here. We send Marines to Lejeune for meetings sometimes but with us being an hour away we a lot of the time just join a conference call. It’s definitely a growing pain but we are sorting the kinks out and getting used to it.”
CLC-21 doesn’t let their geographical dislocation from the rest of their command interfere with their day to day operations. They have a job to do and at the end of the day their number one priority is to accomplish the mission at hand.
“CLC-23 and us are in similar situation, they are just a lot further away,” said Hudson “We work together to get over the distance between us and 2nd Maintenance, but for the most part we take care of what we need to take care of and make sure all operations on Cherry Point are completed smoothly, safely, and efficiently.”
| Date Taken: | 02.07.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 02.13.2020 15:46 |
| Story ID: | 362148 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 548 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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