Photo By Master Sgt. Matthew Keeler | Tech. Sgt. Quentin Ford, project lead for electrical craftsmen with the 467th Prime...... read more read more
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CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq — In Iraq, soldiers typically have a mission that many complete with others from their own unit.
Rarely do soldiers, sailors, airmen, and civilians work in conjunction on a small project, let alone a larger project. At Contingency Operating Base Adder, Iraq, these four different groups came together to build and establish Convoy Support Center Adder.
“The purpose of the CSC is to prepare the base for the responsible drawdown of forces,” said Capt. Philip Thomas, convoy support center officer-in-charge with the 224th Sustainment Brigade, 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), and a San Diego native.
“The key component of doing that is to pull things from Iraq through convoys … and we are here to make it as convenient as possible.”
When Thomas and his team arrived in Iraq, they were initially stationed at COB Kalsu. Working with the units stationed there, they got a number of good ideas of how to develop a CSC in Adder.
“We took a lot of TTP [tactics, techniques, and procedures] specific to Iraq, and we saw how they work, and spun our ideas on how to make it better,” said Thomas. “Then bring them down to Adder, on behalf of the 224th Sustainment Brigade.”
Upon arrival at COB Adder, Thomas and his team found the area still in its very basic stages. The office that they would be working out of had no heat or air conditioning, there were issues with setting up tents for the convoy crews, and a number of other problems, he said. What the team that Thomas and his unit replaced had done was left a basic groundwork and plan.
One of the first missions of the CSC team was to establish a convoy command building.
“The buildings, we had to bring them in,” said Master Sgt. Scott Witt, project manager for the CSC team with the 224th Sustainment Brigade, and a Paso Robles, Calif., native.
“There originally was talk about moving buildings, or building wooden buildings, or prefab buildings put in place. So, there was a lot of decision-making up front that had to be done.”
When the building was established, it was nothing but an empty shell, and so a request was sent to the 467th Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force, stationed at Victory Base Complex, Iraq, said Tech. Sgt. Quentin Ford, project lead for electrical craftsman with the 467th Prime BEEF, and a Cocoa Beach, Fla., native. “So I came down, and saw what we had on ground, and got started.”
Ford’s job as a reconnaissance element was to see what kind of work needed to be done on the command building, and then request additional support before he began the work, he said. The 467th Prime BEEF helped lay down wiring, air conditioning, and heating capabilities to the building to help the soldiers who work inside.
The work of Ford and his team created further requestes to continue supporting the CSC team with another one of their projects, the rest-overnight tents, said Sgt. 1st Class Heriberto Culebro, project team leader for the CSC with the 224th Sustainment Brigade, and an Imperial Valley, Calif., native.
The original tent area for convoys at the CSC had neither lighting nor any type of heating or cooling, said Culebro. So a request was put out to the 467th Prime BEEF for Ford and his team who had heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) trained airmen, to extend their time at COB Adder and help the 224th Sustainment Brigade.
“Most of the work is electrical, and even when you have to hook up HVAC units, you need the power to run those units,” said Ford.
They also assisted with moving the Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group across post, said Thomas.
“We have the largest fuel farm in the world,” said Lt. Richard Rodriquez Jr., contracting officer with the NAVELSG, and a San Antonio, Texas, native. “We were trying to manage operations from the north side [of COB Adder], which is a good 20-minute drive.”
Since they run a 24-hour operation, if anything were to occur their response time would have been delayed by the travel distance.
What the NAVELSG did was solicit help from the CSC team about setting up a location on the other side of base, and they completely opened themselves up to aid us in accomplishing this, said Rodriquez.
Rodriquez went on to say that the NAVELSG has three core competencies at COB Adder: to oversee Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) operations and their contractual requirements; to watch the fuel shipping and distribution, and to maintain the flow of fuel as it moves from Kuwait and throughout theater.
Even though the NAVELSG’s job is based more on an accounting and planning operation, it means that their day-to-day operation is extremely important to the continuing sustainment of troops in theater.
“We are making sure that there is a warrior at the end of this fuel, that there is aircraft at the end of this fuel, a tank, a Humvee, an MRAP [mine resistant ambush protected vehicle], a truck, or an NTV [non-tactical vehicle],” said Rodriquez. “If we do not to do this right, no fuel, no fight.”
The 224th Sustainment Brigade was not the only Army unit that contributed and continues to work at the CSC, said Culebro. “The organizations involved are the 1st Sust. Bde., special troops battalion, the 119th Task Force, 635th MCT [Movement Control Team], and the 565th Quartermaster Company under the 749th [Combat Sustainment Support Battalion].”
Each unit has its own important function to help keep the convoys flowing quickly and efficiently into the CSC.
The 1st Sustainment Brigade, make sure the incoming convoys have the correct direction for billeting, and for staging their vehicles. The MCT tracks the convoys. The 119th TF is primarily concerned with southern pushes and theater sustainment pushes, and the quartermaster soldiers are in charge of resupplying food and water and the fuel farm, he said.
“There is essentially no unit that I can think of that occupies COB Adder or USD-South [United States Division-South] that we haven’t worked with, and that is the beauty of this job,” said Thomas. “That is why we have enjoyed it so much because we have made contact with units that we normally would not have.”
For Culebro it has been a significant learning experience.
“Its unique how everyone works at a professional level, and how they depend on one another from various points of view, and they follow through and just make sure that they are someone that can be counted on and relied on, and its amazing how everyone is just working together,” he said.
With the transfer-of-authority between the 224th Sustainment Brigade and the 4th Sustainment Brigade, Thomas and his team’s work at COB Adder has drawn to a close as they hand off the mission to the next team.
“I feel like I can walk away from Iraq and know that we have done our part to posture our brothers and sisters here for success in the future,” he said. “I feel we have done our part to push the ball forward in Operation New Dawn.”
For Witt, the fact that the mission was accomplished ahead of schedule and against the odds was something he will remember.
The most important factor is that CSC Adder is just beginning its true mission of aiding the transition to U.S. Mission Iraq, said Thomas.
| Date Taken: | 03.05.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 03.20.2011 05:55 |
| Story ID: | 67391 |
| Location: | CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, IQ |
| Web Views: | 208 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Armed Forces join together for common goal in Operation New Dawn, by MSG Matthew Keeler, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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