Headquarters unit makes amenities possible for troops

Photo By Sgt. Spencer Case | Spc. Tyron Stallings and Sgt. 1st Class Thomas Holcomb, both supply specialists with Headquarters, Headquarters Battery, 5th Battalion, 113th Field Artillery Regiment, sort extra DCUs at Camp Adder, May 24.  

IRAQ

06.22.2006

Courtesy Story

207th Public Affairs Detachment

In order for deployed troops to enjoy time away from work, be it at a Morale, Welfare and Recreation Center, a dining facility or simply in their trailers, others have to work to make those amenities possible.

As the garrison command at Camp Adder, troops of Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 5-113th Field Artillery have been doing just that. With just over 30 Soldiers, the unit is responsible for the diverse mission of overseeing the installation.
Their tasks include keeping track of all the equipment on base, supervising the MWR facilities, and manning the visitor control center.

"It's one of those missions that doesn't get a lot of gratitude," said Maj. John Kennedy, the garrison operations officer at Camp Adder. "People don't realize that you have to have a staff to make all those things that happen behind the scenes actually happen â?¦ and that's what we do, we're the behind the scenes guys."

Things like a malfunctioning bulldozer at the trash disposal pit may seem insignificant to most Soldiers, but the troops in HHB, 5-113th FA, know that small things can have large ripple effects. If the bulldozer is unable to move, trash will not be properly disposed of and the dump will grow larger than the regulations allow and can lead to other problems like backlogs.

"It presents new challenges every day," Kennedy said. "Things come up that you never expect, never thought to expect, [it's] not in any military manual anywhere to tell us how to do that. So the challenges present great opportunities for us to be creative."
One of the most relentless challenges the troops of HHB, 5-113th FA face is keeping track of more than $12 million of installation equipment.

Sgt. 1st Class Thomas Holcomb, the supply sergeant for HHB, 5-113th FA, and Spc. Tyron Stallings, Holcomb's assistant, spend about 25 hours a week inventorying base equipment. This includes everything from tents and refrigerators, to MWR equipment.

"Supply is either going to make you or break you and that's the bottom line," Holcomb said. "You can go out and do missions every day, but if you don't have fuel and you don't have bullets and you don't have food, you stop."

Others in the unit are responsible for manning the visitor control center. Sgt. 1st Class Ronnie Thomas, the visitor control center NCOIC at Camp Adder, and Sgt. 1st Class Raymond Andrade, help process and badge each of the approximately 2,000 local workers who come to do various details on base each day. Kennedy said the troops of the HHB, 5-113th FA deserve credit for staying on top of their considerable responsibilities.

"Knowing that we had just a small group of people we were coming with, we hand-picked who was going to be on this team because we knew it was going to be a challenging mission," Kennedy said. "That it was going to take hard-working individuals with the ability to get the job done and do it with minimal supervision and the team has definitely not disappointed the leadership in this unit. They have risen to the occasion."

• Date Taken: 06.22.2006
• Date Posted: 06.22.2006 09:03
• Story ID: 6914
• Location: IQ