Photo By Timothy Hale | Spc. Jeremy Deramus, a surveyor from Midland, Texas, and assigned to the 650th...... read more read more
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FORT IRWIN, Calif. – Borrowing the line from a famous movie – “If you build it, they will come” – one group of Army Reserve surveyors are helping to improve training areas in “The Box” at the National Training Center.
The 650th Engineer Detachment (Survey and Design), based in Oklahoma City, Okla., conducted a number of survey missions in support the 368th Engineer Battalion during NTC rotation 10-07 in May and June of this year.
“A survey and design team is a combat multiplier for any construction operation,” said Sgt. Trevor Cheramie, detachment non-commissioned officer-in-charge. “The quality of the product the 368th can produce is elevated because of us being out there (in The Box).”
Cheramie said the 650th conducted a number of surveying and design operations at various Forward Operating Bases to include: a tactical helicopter pad, an ammunition holding area, performed quality control on road grading and surveyed for a new Combat Outpost which would replicate those used in Afghanistan. The 368th Soldiers then executed the building missions.
In addition to conducting the surveys, the design process involves working the engineer staff to meet their operational needs including drawing the actual design plans which are turned over to the engineers who then build the facilities and roadways.
Command Sgt. Maj. Karen Speckman, the 368th Eng. Bn. senior enlisted advisor from Gardner, Mass. said the work survey and design teams do is vital to their own mission accomplishment.
“It ensures that you are building in the right place,” Speckman said. “Without the survey and design team you could conceivably lay your road in an area that ultimately is not going to support the construction of that road.”
Cheramie, whose civilian occupation is a surveyor in Spring, Texas, said that he brings what he learns from his civilian job to his Soldiers so “we can be the best surveyors in the military.”
He was also quick to praise his team stating that surveying requires a different type of Soldier.
“You get a smarter Soldier and a better quality of Soldier who is more adaptable to different situations,” he said. “My Soldiers are always top notch, it’s too easy being in charge.”
One of those Soldiers is brand new to not only the Army Reserve but surveying as well.
Pfc. Jeffrey Hauser graduated from Advanced Individual Training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., in December 2009. Hauser, from Uncasville, Conn., said his first trip to NTC has been a good one and that it will help him when it is time to deploy.
“I didn’t really have any expectations (of NTC),” he said. “All I’ve done is drill for five months, practicing what you’ve learned. Here, we’re actually putting it to work.
“What we do matters. We have to be correct here. There is no room for error,” Hauser concluded.
Whether it’s in the Mojave Desert at NTC, the sands of Iraq or the rugged mountains of Afghanistan, these surveyors and engineers know, that when they build it, Soldiers will definitely come.
| Date Taken: | 06.11.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 06.11.2010 14:00 |
| Story ID: | 51256 |
| Location: | FORT IRWIN, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 711 |
| Downloads: | 251 |
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