Photo By Robert Harnden | JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, SC — U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Louis Unger examines a...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. – All military members use individual protective equipment at some point or another during their careers. The 628th Logistics and Readiness Squadron (LRS) inspects and prepares hundreds of items per week that can help protect base personnel in the event of a chemical, nuclear, or biological warfare event.
“We deal with everyone, including Navy and Coastguard,” said Staff Sergeant Louis Unger, Individual Protective Equipment (IPE) Supervisor. “We’re pretty adamant on keeping everything clean,” he said.
When the unit receives issued gas masks from return users, the masks are placed into an unserviceable condition bin, remotely separated from the freshly serviced gear. Members carefully ensure dirty equipment cannot get reissued before it gets sanitized.
“The gas masks are sent back to the manufacturer to be cleaned,” said Unger. “Lately, we are definitely taking more precautions on the things that we do wash ourselves.”
“We verify serial numbers of each piece of equipment to help ensure items do not get overlooked,” said Unger.
“It’s different every day,” said Staff Sergeant Lorenzo Frausto, Mobility Supervisor. 628th LRS. One day we’re shipping out or receiving two to three-hundred plus gas masks, and then the next day we’re inventorying all the individual body armor vests. For the chemical gear, we have a lot of prebuilt bags already sorted by size, so for busy days, we can just hand a customer a full kit. We like to get that out of the way before things can pile up.”
“We actually have to adjust our lunch schedules in order to receive gear because everyone wants to bring it all back at once,” said Unger.
In response to an increased awareness of COVID-19, Frausto said, “We deal a lot with customers so we have a big sign near our sign-in sheet next to a big bottle of hand sanitizer. We have bottles of hand sanitizer at every desk. I’m also wearing gloves as an extra safety precaution.”
For now, the unit will continue to practice extra care in maintaining the accountability and cleanliness of each piece of individual protective equipment.
“We have a pretty good team,” Frausto said. “We are always trying to improve it in here.”
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| Date Taken: | 03.11.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 07.23.2020 16:59 |
| Story ID: | 374489 |
| Location: | JB CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 141 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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