Photo By Sgt. George Welcome | CAMP STRIKER, Iraq - A vehicle-recovery team from Company B, 526th Forward Support...... read more read more
Spc. George Welcome
2nd BCT, 101st Div. PAO
CAMP STRIKER, Iraq " When a vehicle breaks down outside the wire due to mechanical problems or battle damage, Soldiers can take comfort in knowing that their vehicles, and their comrades, will soon be retrieved.
The recovery team of Company B, 526th Forward Support Battalion, knows Soldiers are counting on them to respond quickly to their calls for help. In fact, the recovery team is ready to roll in as little as fifteen minutes after receiving a downed-vehicle call.
"The overall recovery mission is to retrieve immobilized and damaged vehicles in the Strike Brigade area of operations," said Warrant Officer Byron Wheatley, the allied trades technician for the service recovery section. "We return the vehicles to a repair facility so they can be made operational as quickly as possible."
With M984 HEMMT wreckers and M88 Tracked Recovery Vehicles, the team manages to successfully retrieve all vehicles that are unable to make it back to camp under their own power.
The Soldiers of Company B's recovery team are in "on call" status Mondays through Wednesdays, meaning whenever a vehicle needs to be picked up, no matter the time, they are the first responders.
"When we are on call, we have a 15 minute recall standard," said Capt. Ethan Mills, commander of Company B. "All we need to receive is a six-line recovery report that includes what personnel are with the vehicle, what equipment is out there, what kind of package we need to put together, how the vehicle is damaged, the location of the vehicle and security of the area."
Time is a critical component of the mission of the recovery team. The longer a vehicle remains downed, the longer the Soldiers securing it remain exposed to the enemy.
"Fast recovery missions from the time we SP to the time we have recovered the vehicle is about 30 minutes," said Mills. "On average, it takes about an hour for battalion to gather its data and prepare proper data for us to launch."
The recovery team has been very fortunate during their missions. Only once have they had any sort of contact with the enemy.
"We only had one incident, where they were mortared while recovering a HETT a couple of months ago. Other than that, we haven't had any major pitfalls," said Mills.
"We've been very lucky," said Wheatley, regarding the team's contact with the enemy while extracting vehicles. "We have had 34 recovery missions " one incident with no injuries and no damage to equipment. Our gun truck platoon and the infantry are very good at securing the recovery area for us," he added.
To the recovery team Soldiers, there is no such thing as an "unrecoverable" vehicle. They will conduct extraction missions for even the most severely damaged vehicles.
"There are no vehicles that we won't recover," Mills said. "Every piece of equipment that gets damaged out there is the responsibility of that unit to turn it in to higher. It helps the unit with accountability with sensitive items and primarily it helps the unit get back the piece of equipment they lost."
"We'll go get anything, no matter what the condition," said Wheatley. "We have the assets available to recover any type of vehicle or aircraft, whether it is wheeled or tracked. If it's out there, we can get it."
| Date Taken: | 01.24.2006 |
| Date Posted: | 01.24.2006 11:18 |
| Story ID: | 5184 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 196 |
| Downloads: | 53 |
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