Photo By Sgt. Ryan Scribner | U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Thomas Anagnos, a quality insurance/control inspector with Bravo...... read more read more
Inside of the test, measurement and diagnostic equipment (TMDE) lab here, a team of U.S. Army Soldiers work together to ensure that the tools and equipment used by service members throughout Southeast Asia are safe for use.
The majority of the team is with Bravo Company 129th Division Support Sustainment Battalion but Staff Sgt. Thomas Anagnos, a TMDE quality insurance/control supervisor with the 369th Sustainment Brigade Support Operations, or SPO, confirms that services provided meet customer expectations.
Anagnos said that over 200 DOD entities are connected with the lab, which represents an estimated fifteen thousand pieces of equipment.
And if the equipment is not checked on a regular basis for needed adjustments or repairs, breakdowns or even catastrophe can occur.
The consistent effectiveness of rotor blades and hydraulic jacks is valuable for mission completion but for pilots and for mechanics respectively, the proper functioning of those parts and equipment is absolutely necessary for personal safety.
“We are trying to make sure that breakdown happens as seldom as possible in the military by employing TMDE stringently,” Anagnos said.
The lab contains a microwave section where microwave equipment is calibrated, a DC and low frequency area where anything having to do with AC and DC currents—like multimeters—gets fine-tuned and various stations for different types of physical calibration such as pressure calibration and mechanical calibration.
For Spc. Alejandro Gallegos, a diagnostics equipment maintenance support specialist with B Co 129th DSSB, microwave equipment that is not calibrated for use in an operational environment can cause communication issues and interfere with the completion of a mission.
Gallegos and his team calibrated the TS-4530 Test Set in the shop and that piece of equipment is used to test transponder/interrogator systems.
Transponder/interrogator systems operate by sending radio frequency signals between an interrogator, or antenna, and transponders, or wireless communications, monitoring, or control devices, which are attached to objects or in particular locations.
TS-4530 Test Sets for service members trained to install secondary surveillance radar need to track hostile aircraft.
In the air, a pilot who engages a hostile enemy is performing a combat role. Then comes the mechanics who support those pilots. They are providing a support role. At the TMDE lab, the Soldiers calibrating equipment are providing support for mechanics who support the pilots.
“Being a diagnostics equipment maintenance support specialist is a really rewarding job because we support workers like mechanics who can't do their job and complete their mission without us,” Gallegos said. “So I like to think that we're like the rock you know, we're the base of the Army, supporting everyone.”
The TMDE lab supports the equipment of other service branches as well.
While the other branches have job equivalences to the Army’s diagnostic equipment maintenance support specialist, there are certain material items of supply that the Army specializes in calibrating that the Air Force, for example, will bring to the lab for calibration, said Staff Sgt. Kevin Stewart, a test, measurement, and diagnostics equipment (TMDE) quality insurance/control inspector with B Co 129th DSSB.
The skills and qualifications of Soldiers trained to calibrate military equipment is shaped by an Advanced Individual Training that teaches electronic theory, calibration, mechanics and repair and the knowledge needed to know how to understand blueprints and schematics, according to the Army.
The equipment worked on in the TMDE lab is varied. Some of the equipment is used on military vehicles and weapon systems but precision equipment of all varieties is received by the trained lab team, given a diagnostic and if maintenance is required, that equipment is calibrated or repaired and ultimately leaves the lab and returns to its unit of origin in an accurate state appropriate for an operational environment.
“I can't overemphasize enough how important TMDE is, not only for mission completion, but also just basic safety,” Anagnos said.
| Date Taken: | 12.06.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 01.20.2023 12:57 |
| Story ID: | 437000 |
| Location: | CAMP ARIFJAN, KW |
| Web Views: | 575 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, TMDE Helps Make A Mission Complete, by SGT Ryan Scribner, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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