13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary)

Story by Spc. Naveed Ali Shah

CONTINGENCY OPERATING LOCATION SPEICHER, Iraq – Soldiers with the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) prepared for Operation Clean Sweep, set to begin the first week of November at Contingency Operating Location Speicher, Iraq.

Operation Clean Sweep is an Army-wide initiative to turn in, repair, and redistribute supply items to best serve the needs of the Army.

As Multi-National Force-Iraq prepares for and executes the drawdown and relocation of equipment and personnel, Operation Clean Sweep facilitates the drawdown by identifying excess equipment and providing resources to rid units of their excess, said Maj. Jack Kredo, support operations officer, 264th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 15th Sustainment Brigade, 13th ESC.

"Units will bring in their excess, whether it's in trucks or containers, it will be classified, shipped to Kuwait for onward movement to Afghanistan or back to the U.S. or transported to a warehouse for redistribution here in Iraq," said Kredo, a Colorado Springs, Colo., native.

As the scheduled January elections near, MNF-I units are moving toward the drawdown while continuing to engage with their Iraqi counterparts.

While the majority of more than 130,000 troops and more than 100,000 contractors are scheduled to be out of Iraq by fall, 2010, the roughly 50,000 remaining personnel will require ongoing sustainment support, which will be provided in large part by units of the 13th ESC.

"These guys are setting conditions," said Col. Larry Phelps, commander of the 15th Sust. Bde., 13th ESC. "We're pretty excited about this."

The coordinators anticipate the receipt of a lot of excess, but they are hoping to mitigate this by assisting units with the identification and turn in process, said Kredo.

Other units at COL Speicher will also be involved in Operation Clean Sweep.

The 1st Squadron, 82nd Cavalry, 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 13th ESC, has already begun the turn-in process in preparation for Operation Clean Sweep.

Though the squadron has already identified and submitted $6.3 million of excess, they expect to turn in an additional $10 million in the course of the coming weeks, with the end result of the operation reaching $60 million of excess equipment identified and turned in, said Capt. Marty Walton, logistics officer and a Peace Valley, Miss., native.

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