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On the road again

Photo By Sgt. Kevin Stabinsky | Spc. Patrick Allen, 26th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd...... read more read more

ISKANDARIYAH, IRAQ

02.24.2008

Story by Sgt. Kevin Stabinsky

2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division Public Affairs

By Sgt. Kevin Stabinsky, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division PAO

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq – When the Humvee arrived on Forward Operating Base Kalsu, Oct. 8, it was on its last wheels. Damaged in an accident during combat operations, the Iraqi army vehicle had sustained severe damage to its front end, making it almost inoperable.

The Humvee was about to take its last ride to the scrap yard when one determined mechanic with the 26th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, decided that the vehicle could be repaired and returned to the IA.

On Feb. 18, a little more than four months later, Spc. Patrick Allen's goal was reached.

Ordering parts or salvaging them from junked vehicles took the bulk of the time. Once these components, including a new engine, transmission, front end and drive train, were collected, Allen said it took him and three civilian mechanics about one month of 'wrench' time to reassemble the vehicle.

"We basically had to build it from the ground up," he said. "The only thing good was the body."

With the 26th BSB providing wrecker and recovery missions, it was not a task he could focus on every day. However, when not occupied with other missions, Allen, from Tampa, Fla., said he spent as much as six to seven hours a day on the vehicle.

Though other missions took precedence over work on the IA vehicle, the missions reinforced his motivation to return a fully mission-capable Humvee to the Iraqis. "When you're out on a mission you don't want your vehicles to break down and stop the mission," Allen said.

Allen, who worked at a mechanic shop for four years before joining the Army, wanted to extend that courtesy to his IA partners, some of whom he met when the vehicle was first brought to the motor pool.

Capt. Tim Page, Company B, 26th BSB commander, said he hopes the Iraqi Soldiers are motivated by Allen's work. "The vehicle is more symbolic (than anything)," said Page, from Des Moines, Iowa. "Our gesture shows we care."

Although Allen did most of the work, IA mechanics from the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army, helped with the initial repairs.

Getting the IA to a higher level of proficiency is an important step towards handing security of Iraq over to the Iraqi security forces, Page said.

Building up IA logistics is one of the top ten goals of the new Multi-National Corps - Iraq commander, Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin. To that end, the 26th BSB is working on a program in which IA mechanics are brought on base for hands-on learning along with his mechanics, Page said.

"Something like a two-week course could work," Page said.

The future of such an academy is still up in the air, but one certainty is that if instructors are needed, Allen is a definite candidate. "He's definitely a hyper-motivated guy," Page said of Allen, adding his accomplishment rebuilding the vehicle did not surprise him.

In his current tour, Allen has already won the battalion's Soldier of the Month for January and was chosen as "Challenger Soldier of the Week" for Feb. 17 to 23. For his work on the vehicle, he received a battalion coin and certificate of achievement.

He may have also worked himself into a new job, a position Allen said he wouldn't be afraid of. "No challenge too great," he said, echoing the battalion motto. "If they want me to (fix) another one, it's too easy."