TF Guardian prepares for redeployment

Photo By 94th Airlift Wing | Capt. Ryan R. Koester, commander of the 114th Transportation Company, 419th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 4th Resolute Support Sustainment Brigade, prepares to de-scope a large tent that was used as a maintenance bay in the 419th CSSB motor pool at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, Oct. 30, 2014. The bay was used by the 419th CSSB’s convoy escort teams who were responsible for retrograding equipment out of the various forward operating bases. (Courtesy photo)  

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AFGHANISTAN

10.30.2014

Courtesy Story

4th Sustainment Brigade

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – For the past seven months Soldiers of the 419th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 4th Resolute Support Sustainment Brigade, have been running convoy escort team missions throughout Regional Command-East and Regional Command-Capitol supporting the sustainment and retrograde mission requirements from their home base on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.

While maintaining and executing CET missions has been an intricate part of the overall success of the U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, the past few weeks has seen a change in the mission requirements as they transition to Operation Resolute Support and prepare for Operation Freedom Sentinel.

A big part of the retrograde mission is to de-scope the overall size of the USF-A footprint. This is done partly by engineers who are specifically assigned certain areas of each forward operating base to remove wooden buildings, living tents, and any scrap and waste materials that may be left behind, but also by units that own those areas of land.

Task Force Guardian has been responsible for approximately 80 percent of all convoy operations on BAF and owned one of the largest motor pools that also needed to be de-scoped.

The projected date for the complete de-scope of the TF Guardian motor pool was Nov. 15, but with the hard work and determination of the Soldiers it was completed three weeks early.

“The de-scope of the motor pool was difficult in planning but easy in execution,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Jose Serenil, TF Guardian command sergeant major. “The companies de-scoped and executed on their own, and us as the battalion just provided dates and oversight of the process,” he added.

The Task Force Guardian motor pool consisted of the Pit Stop, the Staff Sgt. Randall Lane Resiliency Center, the 514th Support Maintenance Company Clamshell, the convoy readiness center and the “Plywood Palace” which was a large wooden tactical operations center that contained all of the TOCs for the subordinate units of the 419th CSSB.

Serenil, a native of Los Angeles, spearheaded the de-scoping mission which he said was a team effort consisting of a brigade-level CSM working group for planning and timelines and a battalion-level working group for the planning of execution. The battalion work group consisted of Serenil, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Darrell Stephen and the company first sergeants.

The work group had to identify the least mission impacted structures, check all the containers in the motor pool to see how many were mission essential and how many could be turned in, and then start the tearing down process of their infrastructure.

• Date Taken: 10.30.2014
• Date Posted: 12.02.2014 01:03
• Story ID: 149147
• Location: BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AF
• Hometown: LOS ANGELES, CA, US