Photo By Maj. Anthony Buchanan | BALAD, Iraq (Aug. 6, 2006) -- Army 1st Lt. Charissa Delp is the maintenance platoon...... read more read more
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by Spc. Lee Elder
133rd MPAD
BALAD, Iraq – The guy in charge of keeping nearly 200 vehicles running and safeguarding the welfare of more than 50 Soldiers who are a part of 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Task Force Band of Brothers is not a guy at all.
She's 1st Lt. Charissa Delp, a maintenance platoon leader for Company G, 64th Brigade Support Battalion, tasked to maintain vehicles ranging from the massive M109A6 Paladin, which can fire 100-pound shells more than 30,000 meters away, to the small vehicles used to travel around the base here at Logistical Support Area Anaconda. Delp's platoon also provides welding and recovery services.
"We're in charge of anything that rolls," Delp said.
Most important to Delp is the welfare of her 22 noncommissioned officers and 24 Soldiers. On this day, she's helping prepare one of her Soldiers, Spc. Johnny Naranjo, to appear before a
promotion board.
"She is great," said Sgt. Ellen Beck, maintenance team chief for Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 29th Field Artillery. "She's a valuable asset to the company and does a great job managing and motivating the Soldiers."
Beck, a 10-year veteran from Quilcene, Wash., said Delp is a caring leader. She keeps her door open for all of her Soldiers and ensures their welfare.
"She goes out of her way to help us with personal issues," Beck said. "She helps guide us in the right direction.
"She's always there for us."
Delp's efforts also drew praise from her supervisor, Capt. Geraldo Perolta, commander of Company G. During the first portion of her deployment, she held the positions of maintenance platoon leader and the maintenance control officer when the company suddenly lost one of its officers in Kuwait while awaiting their arrival here.
"She proved she could do the other job and do her job too," Perolta said. "She was a fresh breath of air in the company, and she was always asking questions so she could learn to her job better."
Delp has also become someone the company's female Soldiers can look up to and emulate, Perolta said. She has been an example with both her work ethic and her professionalism.
"She's really become a role model for all the females in the company," Perolta said.
Delp doesn't take this fact lightly. She said she makes an extra effort to lead by example.
"When I first came to G Company, I was told there weren't a lot of females and they were looking for someone to look up to," Delp said. "I've had people tell me they respect me and admire me, and that makes me feel good."
While she may stand out in the male-dominated world of field artillery, Delp said her company has always made her feel welcome. She said the unit is a close-knit group that helps each other through the difficulties that often accompany an overseas deployment.
"With my position being in a field artillery unit, I do get some looks coming into a room full of males," Delp said. "I've been received pretty well, and there are no issues there.
"They know I can do my job and they respect that."
One of the ways Delp stood out was by posting a maximum score on her Army Physical Fitness Test. She is one of only three individuals in her company who can make that boast.
"For me, physical fitness is a goal of mine that I always try to maintain," Delp said. "As a leader, it is always important to me to set the example for Soldiers.
"It's an if-I-can-do-it-you-can-do-it type thing."
Delp said she follows the same fitness routine she used when she was an ROTC cadet at Western Illinois University. She attended college there after graduating from Southeast High School in Springfield, Ill., in 1999.
After completing her college studies, Delp was commissioned as an ordnance officer in 2004. She finished her officer basic course and reported to Fort Carson, Colo., where her unit is based stateside.
Delp married her husband, Michael, on June 3, 2005. He is a field artillery officer in the Colorado National Guard who hopes to get an active duty assignment.
"We haven't spent two months together since we've been married," Delp said.
Finishing her training, getting married and moving, all in a close time span, made for a hectic time in her life, Delp said. Her unit was in the field training to be deployed here when she reported to them.
"It was a little hard, but there were always people there for me in the 64th," Delp said. "They are a great team; they kept me in the loop and didn't let me focus too much on what was going on around me."
Now, people and vehicles are the focus. The task force has a grueling schedule providing both indirect fire support for four installations in central Iraq and patrolling areas in the hotly contested Balad area as well.
"The biggest challenge is with patrol schedules," Delp said. "We try to cater to the needs of the people that we support.
"We try to stay on their schedule and still get the other stuff that we need to do."
Vehicles not only have to deal with difficult roads and searing heat, but also with improvised explosive devices. These makeshift roadside bombs can strike at any time.
"One of the biggest challenges is being on call 24 hours, seven days a week," Delp said. "Our recovery team works all day and an IED can happen any time.
"If it happens at 2 o'clock at night, those Soldiers who have been working all day have to get up, get prepared and get outside of the wire to recover that vehicle."
Despite the demands, Delp said she loves her job. She is considering making the Army a career and will be mulling that prospect when she returns home in the fall.
Delp is looking forward to being reunited with her husband and spending the holiday season with her mother, Pamela Cassagnol, who lives in Springfield, Ill.
"I haven't missed a Thanksgiving yet," Delp said. "It's home."
| Date Taken: | 08.21.2006 |
| Date Posted: | 08.21.2006 10:48 |
| Story ID: | 7508 |
| Location: | BALAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 223 |
| Downloads: | 69 |
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