Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Veronica McNabb | Soldiers of the 3656th Quartermaster Company validate serial numbers on old equipment...... read more read more
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Hattiesburg, Miss. -- The 3656th Quartermaster Company, Mississippi Army National Guard, began a journey in October 2019 to join only a handful of units in the United States Army serving as a Classification and Inspection Company (CICO). During a busy two-week annual training period in July, the 3656th began the final phase of inventorying, processing, and turning in equipment.
This transition reflects the Army's overall shift away from conducting component repair internally to potentially sending the equipment back to manufacturers or civilian maintenance shops for repairs.
Before, the unit was a maintenance company mainly made up of maintenance-oriented Soldiers. Now, it's a quartermaster company divided between maintenance and quartermaster subject matter experts.
"We have several sections within the unit, inspectors, shipping - and we will still have mechanics, which is still vital to recovering and pulling parts off of equipment that need to be classified and inspected for turn-ins," said Staff Sgt. Justin Cuellar, outgoing supply sergeant.
Not only will the transition renew the unit's inventory, but it will also provide the 3656th with hands-on experience to help evolve its Soldier's skillsets before beginning real-world processing.
"Since this mission is new to us and has never really been utilized in our state, we are in the crawl walk phase during this Annual Training," said Cueller. "Next year we will have a better understanding when we start doing real-world missions and sending our teams out."
CICOs receive, classify, and inspect retrograde materials to determine if it is salvageable and can be returned to a repairable state versus the cost to acquire new equipment.
"It's improved the team tremendously, the team is more cohesive than it's ever been, we have all hands on deck, and all the Soldiers here at the 3656th have done an awesome job. We have been able to train and educate so many new Soldiers; it will benefit not just the unit but the state," Cuellar said.
| Date Taken: | 07.27.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 07.31.2020 11:29 |
| Story ID: | 374765 |
| Location: | HATTIESBURG, MISSISSIPPI, US |
| Web Views: | 903 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Out With The Old, In With New: 3656th CICO Edition, by SFC Veronica McNabb, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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