16th Sustainment Brigade

Story by Capt. Murray Shugars

CONTINGENCY OPERATING LOCATION Q-WEST, Iraq — When Mississippi Guardsmen cut the locks on five unclaimed shipping containers here Sept. 15, they wondered if they would find a treasure of forgotten equipment or nothing more than an Al Capone's vault of dust and empty bottles.

Members of 2/198th Combined Arms Battalion, headquartered in Senatobia, Miss., opened containers near the Base Defense Operations Center and found unclaimed equipment valued at more than $75,000, said Capt. Dirk Waldrop, battalion logistics officer.

"We opened the containers as part of an Iraq-wide initiative to inventory and turn-in excess property," said Capt. John E. Satterfield, director of public works and container manager for the 2/198th CAB, Mayor Cell. "Because of the draw-down, we need to account for all containers and their contents," said Satterfield, a native of Midway, Ga.

"Technically, we classify these unclaimed containers as found-on-installation, FOI. Command supply discipline dictates how to deal with such property," said Capt. Dirk Waldrop, of Senatobia, Miss.

Following command supply discipline procedures, the property book officer will inventory the equipment and material, record any serial numbers, submit the inventory to higher command, and await disposition of the unclaimed items.

"Some of the stuff has been in those containers for at least three years," said Staff Sgt. Shelden W. Pope, battalion property book team chief, 2/198 CAB. "During our transfer-of-authority, I conducted an inventory of excess property on the books and found some of it in those, such as communications and computer equipment, a surveillance system, and other such items," said Pope, a native of Senatobia, Miss.

The unclaimed items included numerous pallets of printer paper worth about 10K, printers and ink cartridges, desktop and laptop computers, hand tools, mechanic tools, electrical equipment, office furniture, small arms paper targets, four pristine industrial air conditioners, old handheld radios and base stations, and spools of cable.

"The Mayor Cell is accountable for 317 shipping containers across the base, and we have to account for each of them on a monthly basis," said Satterfield. "As we find unclaimed containers, we will have to open them. This is an ongoing process, all part of our efforts to assist a responsible draw-down of forces and equipment across Iraq."

"This should have been done more often and more thoroughly, or we wouldn't be finding excess equipment stored since 2007," said Satterfield.

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