Photo By Capt. Charles Baxter | Soldiers with the 351st Aviation Support Battalion conduct routine maintenance at...... read more read more
SOUTHWEST ASIA – Since arriving in Kuwait in April, the 185th Theater Aviation Brigade and its subordinate battalions have conducted aviation operations throughout the U.S. Army Central area of operation. Through partnering with nations that span the Middle East and conducting joint training with nearly every U.S. service component, the 185th TAB has remained heavily engaged in the Theater Security Cooperation mission it has been tasked to support. In addition to balancing Theater Security Cooperation mission requirements, the 185th TAB has the task of providing operational and logistical support to an aviation task force in Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.
With a number of different types of aircraft, including CH-47 Chinooks, UH-60 Black Hawks and AH-64 Apaches among others, moving throughout the theater of operations and conducting a wide range of missions, the 351st Aviation Support Battalion is providing aviation and ground maintenance, sustainment and communications support to the 185th TAB.
“We do all the behind scenes things—keeping all the ground trucks running and keeping all the helicopters running,” said Capt. Sam Gaither, commander of Headquarters Support Company, 351st ASB.
Day in and day out the men and women of the 351st ASB provide support to the overall brigade in extreme weather conditions.
“We try to keep our Soldiers working inside as much as possible during the day and get a lot of production out of the night shifts because it’s cooler,” said Capt. Justin Brown, a platoon leader with Bravo Company, 351st ASB.
The harsh environment not only affects production in terms of personnel, it takes a toll on the aircraft as well.
“Our aircraft require more maintenance in this kind of environment due to the sand and the heat,” said Brown. “It wears down their engines and pretty much anything that rotates, so we do more maintenance here than a normal maintenance program back at home.”
Like the 185th TAB as a whole, the 351st ASB is an amalgamation of units that are headquartered throughout the United States. For many of the personnel in the 351st ASB, the first time to meet their fellow Soldiers face-to-face in adjacent platoons or companies as well as their battalion leadership was at the mobilization station at North Fort Hood, Texas.
“We’ve taken seven different states, threw them all together, and we cover down on three different airframes in the U.S. Army, which is very complicated because one section is working on a completely different system than the other one is working on,” said Brown.
With a high demand for Army aviation assets throughout the U.S. Army Central area of operation, it is clear that the 185th TAB will continue to depend heavily on the robust support capabilities that the 351st ASB provides on a daily basis.
“You don’t realize how important some of the supply people are or the fuelers are until you get somewhere and you don’t have them,” said Sgt. Kenneth Burton, who works in the battalion support operations shop.
| Date Taken: | 07.20.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 07.22.2015 01:28 |
| Story ID: | 170719 |
| Location: | CAMP BUEHRING, KW |
| Hometown: | SUMTER, SC, US |
| Web Views: | 1,265 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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