KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – A new facility opened Dec. 27 for the disposal or re-utilization of unserviceable U.S. Defense Department products.
The Kandahar Airfield Defense Logistics Agency’s Disposition Services, one of three sites in southern Afghanistan, now serves as a key staging area for destruction and removal of unusable equipment.
“This facility represents great work by many people,” said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Philip R. Fisher, Joint Sustainment Command-Afghanistan commander. “Its value to Kandahar makes it one of the most important functions here.”
The facility staff receives the unserviceable equipment for demilitarization, said Perry Daniels, chief of DLADS for KAF. Demilitarization means to take away any inherent military capability in the broken property.
Imagine a battle-damaged vehicle, he continued. It doesn’t work anymore, so the owning unit can now contact this disposal center to get the vehicle off of their accountability paperwork and out of their backyard.
“It’s essential,” said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Alan Schmitt, Disposition Services Afghanistan officer in charge. “We need to free their areas where they’re storing unserviceable items. We’re getting ready for when the military eventually leaves Afghanistan – getting ahead of the curve, cleaning up as soon as possible.”
The removal of these items – be it vehicles, air-conditioning equipment or tires – is a widespread issue in Afghanistan, said U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Dane Nearhoof, an expeditionary disposal remediation team member. If a combat unit has broken items but nowhere to dispose of them, they usually end up creating a makeshift junkyard.
Over time, an on-the-spot junkyard can grow to include discarded wood, glass or even hazardous waste, Nearhoof continued. When the U.S. forces depart Afghanistan, the proper cleaning and disposing of one or two such junkyards can pose a problem.
That is why the EDRT members deploy to outlying camps and forward operating bases to educate servicemembers of the importance of proper disposal of broken equipment, he said. Now that there is a facility operating at KAF – the other two facilities being at Bagram Air Base and Camp Leatherneck – procedures should change for the better.
“Sites like this one are one of the things we need to help clear the clutter in this country,” said Fisher about the importance of keeping U.S. waste to a minimum.
Once equipment is demilitarized, Daniels said, the remaining scrap metals are contracted out and sold to Afghan vendors. This cost offsets the price of shipping items intratheater to the disposal facilities and saves money by not shipping items back to the U.S. for disposal there.
This way, he said, the U.S. and Afghan communities work together to get the best solution.
DLA is the largest logistics combat support agency, providing worldwide logistics support in both peacetime and wartime to the military services, as well as several civilian agencies and foreign countries.