By Petty Officer 1st Class David M. Votroubek
CSTC-A Public Affairs
QALAT, Afghanistan – The motor pool at Forward Operating Base Apache in eastern Afghanistan is ordinary by Army standards, but three of the five personnel working there aren't ordinary Army mechanics. They are sailors.
The one-bay shop services 79 vehicles from FOB Apache and seven other FOBs without motor pools. Keeping the Army's vehicles serviced can involve anything from routine maintenance to repairing combat-damaged vehicles.
Petty Officer 1st Class Kevin Kibbe and Petty Officers 2nd Class Stuart Wood and Benjamin Nelson were assigned to the shop when they arrived in Afghanistan in January.
Kibbe says that, when the sailors got to Apache, their first priority was to clean and organize the shop. Their next priority was to reduce the backlog of vehicles needing service. They had 15 vehicles waiting on that first day.
Not only do they service Army vehicles, they also go to a nearby Afghan national army base to train Afghan soldiers how to maintain and repair their own vehicles.
Although the sailors weren't trained as mechanics, Kibbe and Wood are enginemen, who are trained to completely disassemble and repair engines. They simply applied that know-how to the rest of the vehicle, read the manuals and figured it out.
They'll often work late into the night to finish a repair or hurry one up to get someone back on the road. On one recent afternoon, they had the rear suspension of a Humvee completely disassembled to replace the brakes and springs while the crew of the vehicle waited.
The sailors worked quickly to get the soldiers back on the road and the soldiers really appreciate that dedication, according to Wood. It surprises him sometimes how happy the Army is to have them there, which gives him added incentive.
"When I lay my head down at night, I know I've done everything I can to get the guys back out in the fight," said Wood.
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