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    USARAF uses talents of rare food, water safety officer

    USARAF uses talents of rare food, water safety officer

    Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Lance Pounds | Warrant Officer Clayton Davenport, a food safety officer assigned to Public Health...... read more read more

    VICENZA, Italy – About 65 percent of the human body is made up of water. Having safe water to drink is a basic necessity. On average, a person can survive three days without water before perishing. A close second is having a safe food supply. Again, the average person can survive about three weeks without food. At the brink of dehydration or starvation, a person may try to consume anything to subdue the thirst or hunger.

    Consuming tainted food is worse than no food. Sure, your stomach is full, however the side effects of ingesting unapproved food or water can be life threatening. Counting on both to be safe not only provides a sense of comfort, it also allows time for activities other than searching for safe food and water.

    Helping ensure food and water safety for Soldiers working with U.S. Army Africa is the job of Chief Warrant Officer Clayton Davenport.

    Davenport stands tall at 6’8”. He graduated in 1990 from Somerset High School, just south of San Antonio, where he won several awards playing basketball. Davenport said his greatest high school memory was when his team played against Shaquille O’Neal.

    “We had only heard rumors of this amazing player. Our team walked into the locker room of Cole High School, Fort Sam Houston, and in an equipment cage was a shoebox that was twice the size of a normal shoe. Our jaws dropped when we saw his shoe size was a 22,” said Davenport. “We got beat that game.”

    Following high school he was recruited by the Air Force Academy, however he decided to take a different path. Throughout his 20s, Davenport held a variety of jobs: a bouncer for a club, club manager and owner of a bar. Due to hard economic times, he began searching for a new career.

    “I heard the Army was taking older people,” said the 34 year old Davenport. “So I went to talk to a recruiter.”

    In 2006, Davenport joined the U.S. Army as a veterinary food inspection specialist. After multiple career achievements, deployments and assignments worldwide as an enlisted Soldiers, he was selected to attend warrant officer candidate school.

    As a food safety officer with Public Health Command District-Southern Europe, his job takes him to countries in Africa and southern Europe to conduct surveys on local food and water distribution companies. USARAF relies on Davenport’s abilities to ensure safe food and water options, regardless of location, and has tapped him for an upcoming Western Accord 2016 planning event in Burkina Faso.

    Western Accord 2016 is part of USARAF’s annual Accord series of exercises, which focuses on partnering with African nations within that specific region.

    Davenport, like many USARAF personnel, travel to host nations for planning events to coordinate and finalize details leading up to exercises.

    Burkina Faso, on average, is more than a 20-hour flight from Venice, if you factor in layovers. Long flights make just about anyone uncomfortable. Especially if you are the size of Davenport or a professional basketball player like Tim Duncan from the San Antonio Spurs. Interestingly, Davenport also played against Duncan in 2003 following the Spurs second NBA championship win.

    When traveling by air, Davenport attempts to minimize his discomfort.

    “No matter where I’m going, I ask if there’s an exit row seat available,” said Davenport. “Roughly half the time they give me one.”

    Davenport said when he doesn’t get an exit row seat he almost always gets an aisle seat, which is good and bad, he added. Good because he can stretch out at least one of his legs and bad because he always gets hit by people walking up and down the aisle or by the flight attendant’s cart. Davenport’s travel challenges do not end there.

    “I gave up trying to do work from a plane because there is barely enough room between me and the seat in front of me to eat let alone work, and forget trying to sleep.”

    However, Davenport said despite extreme discomfort, he does travel a lot. He has accumulated more than 200 thousand frequent flyer miles, since reporting in 2014. Most of those miles were in support of USARAF or U.S. Africa Command missions in Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia, Mali, and Niger, he said.

    Off duty, Davenport travels with his wife, Alicia, in support of their daughters’ swim meets. He said he has been to numerous swim meets within Italy, as well as Belgium, Germany and Portugal.

    “Being a supportive husband and father is important,” he said, adding he is now a grandfather. His oldest daughter, who recently had a baby, remained in San Antonio to pursue a business career.

    Davenport carries over that supportive nature into his work with Regional Health Command Europe, his parent unit, and USARAF.

    “Purchasing from a locally-approved bottled water facility saves tax-payer dollars by not having to ship water to the continent on a C-17 from Germany or somewhere else in Europe,” said Davenport. “We audit and inspect local distribution companies to ensure Soldiers still receive the best possible food and water.”

    “This is where I come in,” Davenport said.

    He explained the process he uses to identify safe suppliers through a recap of his most recent trip to Zambia for exercise Southern Accord, where he inspected five hotels and three caterers.

    Davenport said he conducted a risk assessment of each supplier. He also took samples of water supply, check records and review overall production and sanitation practices during the assessment.

    If the company passes his inspection, he lists it as a possible supplier. Should it fail in one or more areas, he will offer the company suggestions on how to improve the areas in question.

    “They can take my suggestions or not, it is solely up to them,” said Davenport. He added, even if a company does make the improvements, there is no guarantee the military will purchase from them. Davenport said, to his knowledge, the suggestions he made had been addressed by most of the companies he dealt with.

    Pass or fail, the inspection process helps onsite commanders make a safe, informed decision as to which supplier to use. Onsite commanders get this information from a carefully prepared memorandum, in which Davenport lists each potential supplier from least to greatest risk.

    “The memorandum helps the onsite commander assume an acceptable level of risk,” said Davenport. “I sometimes make recommendations, such as don’t eat uncooked vegetables or don’t drink from a bottle of water unless you hear the clicking sound as you open it.”

    In addition, those same results and recommendations are made available for future missions conducted in that area. A summary of Davenport’s work is also presented in a variety of USARAF pre-country briefs, which are mandatory for all USARAF personnel entering the continent, according to Donald Houghton, chief of current operations for USARAF Current Operations and Integration Center.

    The mandatory briefs ensure personnel entering the continent are armed with the knowledge they need to not only survive, but to avoid potential hazardous food and water as well. Obviously, day-to-day functions would be much easier to perform when not hunched over a toilet in gut-wrenching pain from ingesting unapproved food or water.

    Davenport said his he loves his job and it has been a real eye-opening experience.

    “I’m passionate about what I do,” said Davenport. “It makes me look at food from a different perspective. Even though it is an obscure type job in the Army, I feel like I’m making a difference.”

    Davenport provides a rare, yet vital, service to the USARAF. His work benefits personnel operating in Africa and the Southern European region, taxpayers and African businesses alike.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 03.07.2016
    Date Posted: 03.07.2016 04:56
    Story ID: 191356
    Location: VICENZA, IT
    Hometown: SAN ANTONIO, TX, US

    Web Views: 60
    Downloads: 0

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