512th PSD takes on Security Force mission

Courtesy Photo | Spc. Sbal Ebas, a gunner, ensures that his weapon is mounted prior to the team's mission.  

JOINT BASE BALAD, IRAQ

09.05.2010

Courtesy Story

3rd Division Sustainment Brigade

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq– As troops enter Operation New Dawn, many units have started to feel the stretch of more missions and more responsibility.

Such has been the case for the 512th Quartermaster Company’s Personnel Security Detachment, who recently started training for Convoy Escort Teams. The PSD 512th QM Co., 13th Combat Support and Sustainment Battalion, 3rd Sustainment Brigade, 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) usually provides transportation for the battalion to facilitate battlefield circulation.

“Everything went pretty well, but it’s a different animal and it takes a different skill set to be in the lead truck during a SECFOR mission,” said Spc. Greg Jerkins, gunner in the PSD 512th QM Co., and a Cheyenne, Wyo., native.

He, along with other members of the PSD team, rode with Company F, 199th Infantry Battalion, attached to 3rd Battalion, 156th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Sustainment Sust. Brigade., 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), on four different missions to learn how to transition to security force operations. They also learned the process of escorting trucks to different bases throughoutin the theater and how to ensure that all trucks make it to their destination safely.

“It is a lot more work for the front truck and more responsibility to handle all trucks that they have to escort,” Jerkins said. He, added that they traveled at night for his ride-along, which made controlling the escorted trucks much easier.

Spc. Joshua Cohen, also a part of 512th QM Co., PSD team, and a native of Phoenix, Ariz., native, said it was a nice change of pace to work with new people and to do something different out on the road. He drove during a mission and is normally a driver for PSD missions.

By Blair Grimes

“Everything was very well done since it’s so difficult to control over 30 vehicles,” Cohen said Cohen.

The gunner of the last vehicle for the PSD team, Spc. Sbal Ebas, also of 512th QM Co., and a native of Peleliu, Palau, said the increased responsibility of keeping the entire convoy safe from outside threats is something he will have to teach all of the gunners.

“I was looking everywhere for threats,” Ebas said. All of the team members who took part in the convoy ride-alongs now have to share everything they learned to make sure the entire platoon is ready for their next mission, he added.

Cohen and Jerkins agreed that the members were all very good teachers and that they feel well prepared to add force missions into their mission set.

• Date Taken: 09.05.2010
• Date Posted: 09.12.2010 09:22
• Story ID: 56132
• Location: JOINT BASE BALAD, IQ