Photo By Capt. Colin Cutler | Soldiers from the 465th Company, 926th Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade,...... read more read more
Soldiers of the 465th Vertical Engineer Company, 926th Engineer Battalion of Birmingham, AL, worked night and day with their Romanian counterparts from the 136th Battalion, 10th Engineer Brigade, on the approach lane to an ammunition loading dock at the Joint National Training Center, Cincu, Romania.
The joint engineer project is part of Resolute Castle 2017, a multi-national NATO effort building training infrastructure at the JNTC as well as a stronger allied resolve between NATO forces. There are a multitude of projects being developed at the JNTC, such as a non-standard live-fire complex, ammunition loading docks, and breach facilities.
An ammunition loading dock enables Soldiers to quickly and efficiently load rounds into a tank.
The approach lane to the ammunition loading dock is built to withstand the stresses placed on it by passing tanks, which can weigh between 40 and 60 tons each. “We have to put down three layers,” said 1st Lt. Bryan Alger of Birmingham, AL.
The first layer, Alger described, is composed of aggregate, gravel, and dirt to provide a flexible base layer they can manipulate and level. “If it’s not level and you place the concrete mats on it,” said Alger, “the odd sections stick up like a black marble in a pile of white ones.”
The concrete mats, each nine squares of concrete held together with a permeable fabric, provide a stable base to prevent damage to the road. “We will actually cut out part of the road and lay mats to protect it where the tanks turn into the lane,” said Alger.
The Soldiers use forklifts to lay the mats and Skid Steers (small tracked bulldozers) to adjust them once they are emplaced; then the concrete mats are covered with gravel to protect the concrete from the tank treads.
The next step is pouring concrete for the ammunition loading dock itself, which is designed to be approximately level to the tanks that will receive ammunition from it. The project is a peripheral asset which supports the non-standard live-fire range, whose lanes line the next hill over.
Working at night presented its own challenges. The unit worked more slowly in order to safely accomplish their mission, and found that communication was key to success.
“It’s harder for the forklift drivers to see their ground guides’ signals in the dusk,” said Alger. The night operation was a required part of their annual training, which measures the unit’s readiness to complete their mission in a deployed environment.
| Date Taken: | 06.14.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.15.2017 10:16 |
| Story ID: | 237981 |
| Location: | CINCU, RO |
| Hometown: | BIRMINGHAM, AL, US |
| Hometown: | CHARLESTON, SC, US |
| Hometown: | COLUMBIA, SC, US |
| Hometown: | GREENVILLE, SC, US |
| Hometown: | LONGVILLE, LA, US |
| Hometown: | MOBILE, AL, US |
| Hometown: | MONTGOMERY, AL, US |
| Hometown: | MORRISON, OK, US |
| Hometown: | SUMMERVILLE, SC, US |
| Hometown: | TIFTON, GA, US |
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