Photo By Staff Sgt. Ashley Cohen | Grayland M. Price, right, the lead tech inspector retrograde yard at the General...... read more read more
Subscribe
CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait— In the surge of war, success is not often reached by a force of warfighters alone, it is also dependent upon items concealed in the legions of shipping containers that reinforce the fight.
As the war in Iraq came to an end and troops returned home, many of the containers filled with a surprising array of equipment are now mountains of war relics shadowing several U.S. military bases in Kuwait.
To ensure the containers and their contents didn’t meet their demise, Operation Steel Purge ascended to give them a new mission—saving money.
“Operation Steel Purge is an effort to reclaim shipping containers being used as long-term storage,” said Maj. John T. Bowman, country container authority for Kuwait, 316th Expeditionary Sustainment Command. “As we face these budgetary restraints, this is one way we can get the cost of logistics in-hand.”
Recycling the government-owned shipping containers and items within saves the U.S. government millions of dollars that would be used for new ones, added Bowman.
“When we utilize a commercial carrier for shipping it creates excessive expense to the Department of Defense,” said Bowman. “Since we own these containers in Kuwait, we can reclaim them, reintroduce them into the distribution network and decrease the amount of money that we pay to commercial companies to move our equipment.”
Military units responsible for any of the 25,000 shipping containers in Kuwait assist the Operation Steel Purge team to identify and move available containers to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, where they are consolidated and prepared for reuse.
“We’ve been steel purging since we got here in August 2012. We started with 181 containers. Throughout the last eight months we have turned in 114 containers and currently we have 67 remaining,” said Capt. David J Flounders Sr., retrograde officer in charge, with the 1109th Aviation Sustainment Maintenance Group, a National Guard unit out of Groton, Conn.
The goal is to recover about 40 percent of containers in Kuwait by this April.
“Even though we have a deadline, the reduction of containers will stretch beyond the conclusion of Steel Purge,” said Bowman. “What we are trying to do is purge as many shipping containers as we can without creating a disruption.”
Once a container is released, it’s delivered to the retrograde yard at the General Dynamics Information Technology center, where its contents find a new purpose as well.
“What we need to be doing all the time is saving money, so we can prosper as a country and keep our national security and defenses up,” said Michael Hamilton, retrograde manager at the GDIT retrograde yard. “If you are able to take these items and repair and recycle them then we are saving money.”
Once a container has been delivered to them and is unsealed, the team enters the unknown to awaken whatever treasures lie within.
“Anything is possible when you open the container door. It could be anything; from animals, to equipment, to money, you name it,” said Grayland M. Price, the lead tech inspector at the GDIT retrograde yard, who is typically the first person to enter a container and was once surprised to find a stray cat that had wandered into one.
The team of contracted civilians, almost all of whom are retired military, work diligently to clear out, organize and process about $600 million worth of supplies each year.
“I understand the importance of having supplies right there, that I can reach out and touch and work with,” said Hamilton who is an Army veteran. “To me, this is about helping those service members who are putting their life on the line. I’m doing my part to support them because I know they are supporting me.”
Each hand involved in the steps to reincarnate shipping containers and their contents has found a way to put money back in America’s pocket and reinforcement’s into the fight.
| Date Taken: | 03.26.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 03.27.2013 03:51 |
| Story ID: | 104159 |
| Location: | CAMP ARIFJAN, KW |
| Web Views: | 538 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, US military in Kuwait salvages equipment, saves millions, by SSG Ashley Cohen, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT