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    Massive turn-in mission a success

    Massive turn-in mission a success

    Photo By Ferdinand Detres Jr | This is the Task Force Harvest III, turn in credit value.... read more read more

    WAEGWAN, 27, SOUTH KOREA

    06.01.2015

    Story by Sgt. Ferdinand Detres Jr 

    501st Sustainment Brigade

    CAMP CARROLL, South Korea - The 501st Sustainment Brigade hosted an award ceremony to recognize the hard work and dedication of Soldiers and civilians during the Task Force Harvest III military equipment turn-in that took place here in Camp Carroll, Waegwan, South Korea, from October 2014 to April 2015. The ceremony was held at the very maintenance yard where most of the massive equipment turn-in mission took place, May 27.

    The mission statement was simple to say the least but the mission itself was daunting.

    Task Force Harvest III had arrived, and the word was put out to all units across the Korean peninsula…

    "Bring in all your excess equipment to us and we will process it and take it off your hands, no questions asked and no paperwork needed," said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Rithner, Nakasone, accountable officer, supply support activity, 501st Sustainment Brigade.

    Typically when a unit wants to turn in parts, whether they are excess, unserviceable, or serviceable, they must go through their unit's supply personnel to do the paperwork and to have it turned in. With units constantly on operational missions and training, sometimes it can take a long time before a unit can get rid of these excess items.

    "Lots of motor pools have parts lying around and they don't have the personnel or time to make appointments to turn them in,” said Nakasone. Task Force Harvest provided a chance for unit's to turn their excess items without paperwork or questions asked.”

    "We did all the workload,” Nakasone continued. "Our Soldiers and research team took the time to manually pull out parts and do the manual research to be able to prepare the proper paperwork to have them redistributed through the proper supply system.”

    Once the word was out units with the Eighth Army, 2nd Infantry Division and 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, took no time in packing their shipping containers and headed over to Camp Carroll with all their excess equipment ready for the Soldiers of the 501st SBDE to sort through.

    In a six month period, Task Force Harvest received 332 shipping containers, and 65,000 parts with a value in excess of $6,500,000.

    It took over 50 Soldiers from the Champions Brigade and countless other units on the peninsula in order to make the operation a success.

    "There were many parts we received that no longer were in the system, or they were missing part numbers. If we didn't know what these parts were, we had to go into old technical manuals and do the research. If we still couldn't find the part, we then had to call in experts from other commands," said Nakasone.

    Task Force Harvest utilized the expertise of several commands in order to accomplish the mission, to include the Material Support Command-Korea, 403rd Army Field Support Battalion- Northeast Asia, 403rd Tank- Automotive & Armament Command, 403rd Communications Electronics Command, Disposition Logistics Agency-Disposition Services and the 32nd Daegu Korean Service Corp.

    Nakasone wanted to thank everyone who made Task Force Harvest III a success.

    "Without the Soldiers nothing happens,” said Nakasone. “They are the key to success; they are the boots on the ground.”

    “The guidance of the noncommissioned officers was also key, without their guidance things would have moved slower,” said Nakasone. “The officers also played an important role; they did the coordination of supply traffic coming in and out of the yard.”

    "The results are very very impressive, what a daunting task that was,” said Col. Timothy P. White, commander, 501st Sustainment Brigade. “Turning in excess the right way, took sweat, technical knowledge, and hard work of Soldiers, warrant officers, officers and civilians."

    "There was no wishing this problem away," said White. “It took hard work the old fashion way, pulling items out of containers and classifying them to be turned into the appropriate class of supply.”

    “I am very proud of everyone who worked tirelessly in the accomplishment of this mission and would like to thank all of them for their hard work,” said White.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 06.01.2015
    Date Posted: 06.01.2015 04:32
    Story ID: 165039
    Location: WAEGWAN, 27, KR

    Web Views: 44
    Downloads: 0

    PUBLIC DOMAIN