Photo By Master Sgt. Gary Witte | A tactical truck is used to transport the machine elsewhere. ... read more read more
by Sgt. Gary A. Witte
210th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
Al TAQADDUM, Iraq – It is one thing to find spare change when doing laundry; it is another to find a fully-loaded rifle magazine.
Soldiers of the 1008th Quartermaster Company said they have seen their share of out-of-place items in the clothes servicemembers turn in for cleaning.
They don't just find ammunition. Sometimes they'll discover classified documents and thumb drives. Once they found a wallet containing $340. In each case, the items are separated out and returned intact to the servicemember, Soldiers said.
Even minor items can offer unique problems.
"Ink pens are the worst, because if we don't find them before they go in, they could go on their clothes and someone else's," Sgt. Sarah E. Roby, a laundry and textile specialist from Owensboro, Ky., said.
The Army Reserve unit, which falls under the 593rd Corps Service Support Battalion, runs laundry and sewing services at numerous military posts in Al Anbar province, including Habbaniyah, Fallujah, Corregidor, and Al Taquaddum. The unit also provides portable shower facilities to Corregidor.
Each bag of laundry turned in is sorted by the Soldiers and fed into a trailer-sized apparatus, known as a Laundry Automated Draining System, to be washed and dried. The machine is equipped with wheels and can be hauled from location to location or replaced as needed.
The machines help the unit provide a quick turnaround time for servicemembers, sometimes resulting in the clothes' return the same day. They also help when the unit receives the result of their customers spending a week or so in the field. These results can be compounded when dirty socks and undergarments are sealed in plastic bags for a while.
Roby, who is social worker in her civilian job, noted they have to take plenty of breaks when they sort that clothing in an enclosed area.
"It can start smelling pretty bad," she said.
Customers will sometimes leave thank you notes in their clothing bags and a Navy SEAL was overheard bragging about the laundry service the unit provided in Corregidor, Soldiers said Staff Sgt. Marcos O. Olvera, the shower, laundry, and clothing repair team chief from Ammarillo, Texas, said he was asked at one location how many women they had there. The answer was none.
"People find it hard to believe our males can fold clothes," Roby explained.
About 90 percent of the Soldiers in the Illinois-based unit have been drawn from across the United States, as well as Guam and Puerto Rico for the deployment, Sgt. 1st Class Ronald G. Horrall said.
Horrall, who in civilian life is a grocery story manager in Terra Haute, Ind., serves as a platoon sergeant for the unit, although he was previously a combat engineer.
"I came in blowing stuff up and now I'm sewing stuff up," he said.
Flexibility has been a necessity for Soldiers in the company. A group of them have been tasked to help with the Al Taquaddum fuel farm and another dozen were placed in gun trucks for regular convoy duty when the unit first arrived in April, Horrall said. One detachment serving with the company is the 266th Quartermaster Team, a water purification unit, which has assisted with the bottling plant at Al Taqaddum.
Even with basic services, the Soldiers try to provide little extras, Horrall said. They took the shower facility at Corregidor, which is a simple tent, and installed plumbing for sinks, mirrors and a floor.
Not everyone knows about the services the company provides. Horrall said. He recently visited a Marine Corps unit which wasn't aware it could arrange special laundry service at Al Taqaddum for troops who are constantly going outside the wire.
"It's just like a business," Horrall said. "We try to get customers.
(Servicemembers) are our customers."
| Date Taken: | 11.07.2006 |
| Date Posted: | 11.07.2006 08:33 |
| Story ID: | 8218 |
| Location: | AL TAQADDUM, IQ |
| Web Views: | 323 |
| Downloads: | 164 |
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