Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Debralee Lutgen | Spc. Juan Santiago-Laboy (left), motor transportation operator, and Chief Warrant...... read more read more
FORT HUNTER LIGGETT, Calif. – The swing of the hammer and rotating drills are the focus of Castle Installation Related Construction at Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif., but behind the scenes there is another group supporting the engineers.
The forward support companies for two battalions form the maintenance team for CIRC. Their mission is to work together to ensure all the equipment continues to run properly and the vehicles can make it to their destinations.
The 983rd Forward Support Company out of Monclova, Ohio, and the 315th Forward Support Company out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., have picked up the reins of the maintenance mission under the command and control of the 372nd Engineer Brigade from Fort Snelling, Minn.
The maintenance team is confident in their abilities and want to keep the engineers rolling.
“We can handle pretty much anything,” said Warrant Officer Edward Cornell, 983rd maintenance control officer who hails from Waterford, Mich.
The maintenance mission on this exercise is more extensive than on a normal annual training. The advance party arrived 14 days early and the trail party will stay for a week.
The maintenance advance party’s mission was to pull the equipment from the Equipment Concentration Site 170 and prepare it for use. They made sure everything was in working condition and ready for the engineers arrival.
The trail party plans to fix any deficiencies that arise throughout the exercise, turning the equipment in better than when they received it.
“It’s normally a ‘break it and replace it’ mission,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Ronald Diehl, 372nd brigade maintenance officer from Laport, Ind. “Historically this equipment is used by so many troops that it’s in relatively poor shape.”
This maintenance operation is more complex than most so it required more effort to prepare.
“It’s been a detailed plan because we had to figure out how to get the people, the tools, the equipment all here in time to set up operations … and not play catch-up at the end,” said Diehl.
This project was important to Diehl because he thinks maintenance is taken for granted.
“Maintenance is normally overlooked as just something that happens in all activities,“ said Diehl. “With engineer missions we think about building buildings, towers, roads, dams, bridges. None of that is possible if you don’t have the equipment it takes to do those activities.”
The battalions have taken on this mission as their own and are working as a team to compliment each other.
“The two battalions are working together on this mission,” said Cornell. “If we need something, we ask them, if they need something, they ask us. It works really good.”
The 315th is appreciative of this support since they recently formed and have less experience than soldiers in the 983rd.
“I want to learn everything I can and work on every kind of vehicle I can while I’m here,” said Pfc. Jonathan Chavez, 315th wheeled vehicle mechanic from San Diego.
Diehl believes this exercise will benefit the maintenance units most if they take away what they’ve learned.
“[I want soldiers to] go home after seeing the right way to do maintenance and maintenance control, take that home and do that every battle assembly to practice their skills.”
| Date Taken: | 08.05.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 08.08.2011 12:01 |
| Story ID: | 75044 |
| Location: | FORT HUNTER LIGGETT, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 86 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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