By 1st Lt. Reginald Davis
CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE SPEICHER, Iraq — The maintenance sections from the 1083rd Transportation Company and the 2025th Transportation Company, both with the 264th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, and representatives from Kellogg, Brown, and Root were participants in a ceremony here March 22.
The ceremony, hosted by Lt. Col. Steven DeBusk and Command Sgt. Maj. Melvin Rutledge, the 264th CSSB's commander and senior non-commissioned officer respectively, was held to commemorate their maintenance efforts.
The maintenance teams worked as a joint team to ensure that the primary ground transportation mover, the heavy equipment transporter system, remained on the main and alternate supply routes to support the drawdown operations in Iraq.
Keeping with the military tradition of coins for a job well done, battalion coins were presented to the following Soldiers from the 1083rd Trans Co: Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth Stockton, Staff Sgt. Todd Krebsbach, Sgt. Tequila Ward, and Spc. James Elledge.
Chief Warrant Officer Michael Pendley, Sgt. 1st Class William Boykin, Staff Sgt. Kevin Hanvey and Spc. Richard McRobert, all with the 2025th Trans Co., received coins as well.
After the awards ceremony, DeBusk personally thanked each Soldier of both maintenance sections and the civilian support teams for all the hard work they have done over the 10 months that 1083rd and 2025th have been in country.
"With your attention to detail and distinct skills, you have made the battalion's ability to do business that much better!" DeBusk said to the Soldiers.
Stockton, an Anacoco, La., native with the 1083rd Trans Co., said keeping the trucks going is hard work, but it is important work.
"Our guys are doing an excellent job. Without regular maintenance, the HET systems would have more issues while on the road." Stockton said, "We work 80 hours a week with rotating shifts and the major thing I wanted to instill in the platoon was to not let a HET system become dead-lined on the side of the road.
"The only thing that can prevent that is proper maintenance at all levels."