240th QM wraps up deployment

Photo By Sgt. Mitch Armbruster | Kellogg, Brown and Root employees pick up containers for the 240th Quartermaster Co. at the cargo transfer point and move them for loading on to trucks that will be moving them from Forward Operation Base Seitz to the surrounding areas.  

12.01.2005

Courtesy Story

207th Public Affairs Detachment

Soldiers of the 240th Quartermaster Company have dealt with adversity and overcome challenges while living and working on Forward Operating Base Seitz for the last 11 months of their deployment.

"I coordinate the day-to-day business for the company, that includes administrative action, personnel action, training issues, and training requirements, also I assist the commander in any enlisted issues that may arise," said 1st Sgt. Shelton Williamson, the company first sergeant.

Four clocks hang above the radio displaying times from all over the world. A dry erase board displays fuel farm numbers that take up most of the board's white space. In the office that is the home of the 240th, the walls are overwhelmed with bulletin boards and papers. Williamson has a University of North Carolina Tarheels sticker covering the edge of his bulletin boards next to his desk, just a small reminder of home.

"The deployment has been extremely successful, extremely positive. I'm actually pretty blessed to be with such a gifted group of Soldiers," Williamson said.

As a company, the 240th has increased their fuel farm capacity from 1.2 million gallons of fuel to 1.9 million gallons. They also accomplished the task of creating a cargo transfer point (CTP) from the ground up.

Although the Soldiers of the 240th made great strides to improve the fuel farm and build the CTP, they still have responsibilities to keep their living area safe. Due to the size of FOB Seitz, the 240th has had to employ unexploded ordnance sweep teams to patrol the area when attacked with mortar fire.

The 240th CTP went from one empty lot to two lots filled with containers, pallets, and retrograde parts. 1st Lt. Amy Kemp oversees the CTP for the 240th while juggling the task of executive officer for the company. The unit has been able to work with Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) loading trucks to move supplies out to the Soldiers in need.

"We have KBR come out because they have awesome support, and that frees up our Soldiers to do other things like force protection and other missions that only Soldiers can do," Kemp said.

The CTP yard has grown because FOB Seitz is centrally located. Kemp stated that the yard is a source of pride for her Soldiers because they were able to build it themselves.

"The Soldiers are incredible because they didn't know how to do this, and I didn't know how to do this and they started from the ground up. Now they are pros at it," Kemp said. "I can leave them out here and know that it will be taken care of and when the new unit comes and we cross-train them, I have no doubt that they will be set up for success."

"Getting the trucks in to pick up parts is the hardest part of this job. We aggressively seek out civilian and military trucks to get all of the parts out to the customers because they need these parts." Sgt. Saudi Plowdeniz, a supervisor and personnel administrator for the yard.The Soldiers of the 240th have done their jobs, but they have also overcome the challenges of the deployment to succeed in the eyes of their leadership.

"It is odd that you can have so many Soldiers in one place, in one unit that do so many things well. It's as if the sun shines on us all of the time," Williamson said. "This is a great bunch of Soldiers, a very close knit group and we have great leadership and motivation."

The company produced a Soldier and NCO of the Year for their brigade and retained 40 Soldiers by having them reenlist during the deployment.

Of all the positive strides that the Soldiers of the 240th have made, one accomplishment is most important in the eyes of Capt. Courteney Abraham, the company commander.

"We all deployed together and we will all be redeploying together. We have not had any casualties that have affected us with the mission. We have had eight Purple Heart recipients thus far but all of them have rebounded well and are doing phenomenal physically and mentally," Abraham said. The Soldiers of the 240th have accomplished a great deal in their time in Iraq. They were able to make the mission a successful one, even when the jobs were unknown to them, through hard work and perseverance.

• Date Taken: 12.01.2005
• Date Posted: 12.01.2005 06:43
• Story ID: 3915