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By Sgt. Gaelen Lowers
JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq— As the old adage goes, when someone takes over the tasks and duties of a highly accredited and accomplished person, “You have some big shoes to fill.”
Now imagine that there isn’t just one pair of shoes to fill, but hundreds, each pair larger than the last.
This was the situation that the 403rd Inland Cargo Transportation Company, 13th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 3rd Sustainment Brigade, 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), faced when they were tasked to take over the Central Receiving and Shipping Point operations of six different bases and camps throughout U.S. Division-North and U.S. Division-Center.
“My 150 soldiers replaced an excess of 400 soldiers,” said Capt. Eric Bechard, commander of the 403rd ICTC, and a Perry, Maine, native. “The numbers are pretty astounding.”
Originally tasked with taking over the CRSPs at Joint Base Balad and Contingency Operating Base Adder, the unit’s mission changed drastically during the plane ride from the U.S. to Kuwait.
“When we deployed from Fort Bragg, N.C., that is what we expected to do,” said Bechard. “By the time we reached Camp Buehring, Kuwait, our mission started changing.”
Instead of the original two locations that the company expected to have, the number rose to four, and then to six.
“We were a little nervous,” he said. “We asked ourselves, ‘how are we going to do this?’ and ‘How are we going to make this happen?’ I have some pretty good senior leaders, officers and non-commissioned officers. They are well-trained and have positive attitudes.”
According to Bechard, the company started preparing their soldiers for this type of operation back in February.
“We have been training them to be pushed around the battlefield and do things that they aren’t normally expected to do,” he said. “So they have an open mind.”
This amount of responsibility and workload has become commonplace for units and their leadership in the wake of the massive drawdown of U.S. troops and equipment from Iraq.
“Same mission, huge footprint, and we’re still pushing the same amount of cargo through the same places that those 400-plus Soldiers were pushing around before,” said Bechard. “My guys are managing the drawdown with respects to the moving of logistical cargo through the CRSPs. I’m very happy, very pleased.”
1st Lt. KiAnna Walker, Victory Base Complex CRSP officer-in-charge with the 403rd ICTC, and a Suffolk, Va., native, said the challenges were great, but her Soldiers were accomplishing their mission with very few deficiencies.
“I have 30 soldiers working under me,” she said. “The company that we replaced had 60, so we are working with half of the workforce as our predecessors. Although the manpower was cut in half, it doubled our determination to continue the mission.”
Spc. Luke Baierl, VBC CRSP database operations processor with the 403rd ICTC, and a Murrieta, Calif., native, agreed with his OIC. Although there were challenges, he and his peers were prepared for whatever was thrown their way.
“We each take it day by day,” said Baierl. “I am very proud of my co-workers and all the hard work we do here in the CRSP. We work harder than superstars. Superstars look up to us.”
With soldiers scattered throughout northern and central Iraq, it is hard to keep track of soldiers, but Bechard said that his company is full of soldiers and leaders who do the right thing, so it makes his job easy.
“If the first sergeant isn’t out doing battlefield circulation, then I am,” he said. “It’s tough to be everywhere at once, but we’ve got phones and we’ve got e-mail. Managing soldiers on the battlefield is different than it used to be.
“Do we like it? No,” he continued. “My First Sergeant and I don’t like having our guys all over the place, but you don’t have to tell these guys day in and day out what to do. They are just out there doing it. They are well trained and professional enough to go out there and be superstars.”
| Date Taken: | 08.18.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 08.30.2010 15:26 |
| Story ID: | 55419 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE BALAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 928 |
| Downloads: | 10 |
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