Photo By Sgt. Elizabeth Raney | Two U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers assigned to the 103rd Quartermaster Company perform...... read more read more
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FORT POLK, La. – Army Reserve Soldiers of the 103rd Quartermaster Company specialize in keeping their fellow Warriors battle-ready by making sure their supplies are stocked and ready at a moment’s notice.
During field conditions and downrange, these Supply Support Activity (SSA) areas are the centerpiece of the supply chain, and allow units to receive the supplies they need in order to drive on with their missions.
Sgt. 1st Class Adelaido Solis, an automated logistics specialist, is the noncommissioned officer in charge of the on-site SSA while the Soldiers of the 103rd Quartermaster Company, a U.S. Army Reserve unit stationed in Houston, Texas train at the Intermediate Staging Base in Alexandria, Louisiana.
Solis explained the importance of the function of the SSA.
“We pretty much encompass all classes of supply, minus medical supply,” Solis said. “At this SSA, we are responsible for the ration break point, so all rations for JRTC exercise 16-04 will come through us. We will break down and issue to the Brigade Support Battalion and to the ISB here at Fort Polk.”
Solis said that Soldiers do not usually get the opportunity to support the dietary needs of the units they support, so it is a chance for his Soldiers to exercise all aspects of their military occupational training.
“A lot of my Reserve Soldiers have never deployed and 75 percent of them have never been on an exercise where we get to use our class one knowledge,” he said. “So this is a great opportunity to do stuff like this and it is something that we can share with the rest of our unit and increase our unit readiness. Running a subsistence platoon is part of our basic tasks and so doing this makes us a more capable and deployable unit.”
During the exercise, Soldiers from both Reserve and active duty units are working together to accomplish the training necessary to support units in a deployed environment.
“We are all 92As,” Solis explained. “As Reservists and active duty, we both have somewhat of a different approach for things, but we are all Soldiers.”
“We all come from the same training, so it’s just a matter of us coming together and understanding different standard operating procedures and different policies for getting things done,” he continued. “But right now we have become a really well welded team.”
Sgt. Eric Flores, a 103rd QM Soldier, agreed and added that the training was worthwhile and will be helpful when it is needed, as the unit does not normally receive this style of hands-on training.
“When we do our drills, we show up and we train but we don’t have a warehouse in which to actually do our jobs,” Flores said. “I’ve learned about all the paperwork that goes into issuing and receiving. I learned the procedures for what each person needs in order to actually receive any kind of MREs.”
“Being here actually taught me more in-depth how to do my job in order to teach my Soldiers to do their jobs,” he continued.
Solis added that he was proud of the work his Soldiers are putting into the training.
“Right here, what I see with my training and with my Soldiers is a lot of eagerness, a lot of willingness to learn,” Solis said. “So my Soldiers are quick to want to learn. That’s great because sometimes you get overseas and you have to jump right in. So this is an excellent time for us to polish those skills.”
Solis said he likes to remind his Soldiers of what’s important to be proficient in their field.
“One thing I have always stressed to my Soldiers as Quartermasters is there are two things that you always got to have,” he said. “You always have to have something to write with and you always have to have trust and taken care of your forklift.”
“You do those two things and you’re going to be a good Quartermaster,” he said.
| Date Taken: | 02.18.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 02.22.2016 16:34 |
| Story ID: | 189685 |
| Location: | FORT POLK, LA, US |
| Web Views: | 93 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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