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FORT BLISS, Texas - Army operational tempo has been on the rise since early 2003. Deployments in support of both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom has put a strain of the military’s budget and has caused the Army as a whole to be more accountable in regards to supply discipline and overall spending.
The 1st Armored Division’s Command Maintenance Evaluation and Training team, using their many years of military experience, help divisional and non-divisional units at Fort Bliss save money by training units to reduce spending through maintenance and supply accountability.
“Comet teams have been around for more than nine years,” said Ronnie Fauntleroy, COMET team chief. “Our team has been here for 4 years. We’re here to assist units with any logistical shortfalls due to lack of training or lack of experience.”
The 1ST AD’s COMET team members are all Army retirees in the field of logistics and are subject matter experts in supply, Master drivers, HAZMAT and motor pool and weapons maintenance. The main focus of the team is to assist units with command inventories, familiarize them with component listings, hand receipts, property books and how to read the modification table of organization and equipment.
“We are here to assist the units with daily operations, said Kerrie Granger, a Standard Army Maintenance System Enhanced Analyst. “We help units to do it right the first time, by the regulations, instead of them having to go back a second, third or fourth time; that’s just time wasted.”
The COMET team points the soldiers, with military occupational skills in the field of logistics, to the current regulations and assesses and evaluates soldiers in maintenance and supply operations. The Comet teams goal is to teach, mentor and coach the soldiers to help them be technically proficient in their duties.
“We need to get back to basics,” said Michael Rauls, a Standard Army Retail Supply System Analyst. “Soldiers of today’s Army have so many tasks and so have many jobs outside of their MOS that sometimes they are out of their MOS for a long period of time.”
“When they come back to their MOS a lot of the knowledge is already lost. We’re getting them back to the basics so they can properly operate in garrison and in the field.” Rauls added.
Inexperience is the common shortfall the COMET team wants to eliminate from the units they train and evaluate.
“We’ve been at war for the last 11 years,” Fauntleroy stated. “The OPTEMPO has just been outrageous a lot of the experienced soldiers have retired and we’re here to help fill that gap and get these young officers and NCOs trained up.”
The COMET team offers courtesy evaluations designed to fix any shortcomings before the final evaluation as well as that training can be conducted as professional development for officers and NCOs, or just as a normal training session.
The COMET Team is focused on getting units up to the Army standard and meeting the required regulations, so overspending and missing equipment will no longer be an issue with Army units.
For additional information or to request training from the COMET team call (915) 744-1648/1649 or visit their office at building A-440 on East Bliss, across from the 1st Armored Division Headquarters building.
| Date Taken: | 04.20.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 06.06.2012 12:53 |
| Story ID: | 89505 |
| Location: | FORT BLISS, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 953 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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