Photo By Zachary Mott | David Teelon, right, Fort McCoy Draw Yard manager, instructs Staff Sgt. Amanda...... read more read more
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FORT McCOY, Wisconsin – Each month, the 88th Regional Support Command will highlight a slice of its workforce and the successes made by that section. This month, the Fort McCoy Draw Yard is highlighted for its performance since it began operations in January.
For the Soldiers and civilians running the Fort McCoy Draw Yard, successes comes in the form of equipment distributed and money saved.
For the recent Operation Cold Steel at Fort McCoy, the FMCDY issued 89 pieces of equipment and helped facilitate vital modifications and repairs to 24 vehicles that made it a successful training event for the U.S. Army Reserve.
“I would suggest to you that Operation Cold Steel would not have been the success it so far has been and able to have been executed in the way it has been had we not been here and had we not engaged in that,” said Capt. John Tempski, the officer in charge for the Fort McCoy Draw Yard.
That success is predicated on teamwork. Teamwork that, Tempski said, has been forged in a working relationship that dates back nearly a decade between the three Soldiers assigned to the Draw Yard. Tempski, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jason Sikorski and Staff Sgt. Nathan Egge have served together in various roles throughout their military careers.
“When the opportunities arose, we said the three of us can work together and here we are,” Sikorski said.
Tempski echoed that sentiment. “Whoever figured out to hire the three for us this gig, I’m not saying you couldn’t do it with other folks, but I would argue that you couldn’t do it much better than what we’ve done since we’ve been here,” he said.
The three Soldiers were joined 14 contractors from the Addon Services, LLC to stand up the Draw Yard in January 2017. The final goal is to have more than 2,100 pieces of equipment available to units for training at Fort McCoy. Currently, there are more than 775 pieces available with an additional 800 in various states of repair and an additional 500 plus pieces of equipment awaiting arrival at Fort McCoy.
“We are getting better every day. We have met what our customer has been looking for and as we get our full complement of equipment we can only meet their needs better,” Tempski said.
Currently the Draw Yard is supporting the annual Warrior Exercise (WAREX) at Fort McCoy and will support future exercises in 2017 and beyond.
The available equipment includes everything from water buffaloes to road graders and various wheeled vehicles to generators and everything in between. Having this equipment available and on-hand at Fort McCoy allows a unit to focus its efforts on leadership, energy and execution – the three tenants of Chief of the Army Reserve and Commanding General of U.S. Army Reserve Command LTG Charles D. Luckey’s ‘Road to Awesome.’
“We have the equipment here for you,” Tempski said. “You don’t have to worry about that. The unit can focus on the other parts of their mission. (At the Draw Yard) they have dependable equipment that they can use to train with in concert with the exercise director’s intent.”
In addition to having the equipment available, Tempski and his team have streamlined the process of issuing equipment with the intent to have every unit in-and-out in less than one hour. This is aided by the Draw Yard staff being involved in the exercise planning process and assigning units a pickup time before the advanced party arrives.
“We’re very efficient in how we go about it,” he said. “It should be easier than getting a rental car.”
The workload for the Fort McCoy Draw Yard is planned to increase as more equipment becomes available and more exercises are cycled through this post as the U.S. Army Reserve focuses on readiness and creating a Ready Force to meet the needs of the nation.
Having a strong, seasoned team in place will allow the Draw Yard to continue to set an example for efficiency and allow leaders to focus on training.
“In the past, industry has looked at the Army for how to do business, maybe they can look at the Draw Yard and say maybe we should keep looking because they’re doing good stuff,” Tempski said. “By the time we’re done, I hope that that’s where we’re at.”
| Date Taken: | 04.27.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 04.28.2017 14:36 |
| Story ID: | 231961 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WI, US |
| Web Views: | 132 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, FOCUS ON THE WORKFORCE: Soldiers ‘Draw’ On Experience to Complete Mission, by Zachary Mott, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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