Recovery Rodeo gives KFOR a lift

Photo By Staff Sgt. Cody Harding | Members of the Ukrainian coy work alongside their Polish coy counterparts to connect a Polish vehicle to a Ukrainian recovery vehicle during the “Roundup Rodeo” on Camp Novo Selo Aug. 29. Eight Kosovo Forces coys, the Kellogg, Brown and Root maintenance and recovery team and the Joint Logistics Support Group came to Camp Novo Selo to demonstrate their vehicle recovery abilities. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Cody Harding, 4th Public Affairs Detachment)  

CAMP NOVO SELO, KOSOVO

08.29.2013

Story by Staff Sgt. Cody Harding 

KFOR Regional Command East

CAMP NOVO SELO, Kosovo – Soldiers from the NATO-led Kosovo Forces held a “Recovery Rodeo” on Camp Novo Selo Aug. 29 to help expand their skill sets on vehicle recovery in preparation for the upcoming winter season.

The event was hosted by the Multinational Battle Group–East’s Forward Command Post, who believed that the multiple partner nations in KFOR would be better able to handle an emergency situation by cross-training with their multinational counterparts.

U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Clinton Andrus, a member of the Utah National Guard and the maintenance officer assigned to the FCP, was tasked with developing a training plan for the event.

"It's been fun to watch all the different coys recover their vehicles proficiently, effectively and fast with the methods they have, because everyone seems to be very different,” Andrus said. “Everyone has different assets, and we want to be able to utilize the best recovery assets for any given situation."

The plan brought together all eight multinational coys from MNBG-E: Armenian, French, German, Moroccan, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, and the United States coys. The Kellogg, Brown and Root maintenance and recovery team and the Joint Logistical Support Group for KFOR also participated in the training event.

Each group demonstrated how they can recover one of their own vehicles in the field with their vehicle recovery equipment. Afterwards, Andrus had the groups work together to determine how they would recover vehicles from other nations with their own equipment in the event their recovery assets are the closest to an incident.

"Most everyone knows how to recover their own vehicles, but most of these maintenance crews have never had the chance to handle another nation's vehicles,” Andrus said. “This gives them that opportunity to work with other nation's vehicles that they haven't before."

Ukrainian Army Maj. Andre Polschuk, the maintenance officer for the Ukrainian coy, said that his soldiers enjoyed the training and learned how to help out their multinational partners in case of a breakdown.

"It was a good opportunity to see our assets and assess different countries for future operations.” Polschuk said. “For example, if there is an emergency situation, we now know that if a Polish vehicle was broken, we can help them."

• Date Taken: 08.29.2013
• Date Posted: 08.31.2013 05:20
• Story ID: 112945
• Location: CAMP NOVO SELO, ZZ