Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Clinton Wood | U.S. Army Reserve Sgt. Anthony Harley, 391st Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer...... read more read more
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JOINT NATIONAL TRAINING CENTER, Cincu, Romania – It is midafternoon here and this U.S. Army Reserve noncommissioned officer (NCO) knows that an rear axle on a M917 20-ton 8x6 dump truck needs.
“Working late would actually get that dump running,” remarked Sgt. Anthony Harley Sr., a wheeled vehicle mechanic with 391st Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade, 412th Theater Engineer Command, based in Greenville, South Carolina.
Dedication like this sums up this maintenance team composed of Harley and three other U.S. Army Reservists and four Army National Guard Soldiers participating in the multinational Resolute Castle 2017 at JNTC from June 27 until July 18. This was the fifth, 21-day rotation of the five-month engineering operation.
Coincidentally, the day before, team member Sgt. Jarrod Hudson Sr., also of the 391st Eng. Bn., replaced one of these rear axles.
“We have pretty much been actively engaged for 10 hours a day,” said Hudson.
He reflected that on their first day, they did not leave the shop until 10 p.m.
That first day also was déjà vu for Harley and him. Both had volunteered for an earlier rotation from May 20 until June 10. When asked why he volunteered for this rotation, Hudson replied, “I enjoy knowing that I am a part of a mission that makes a difference.”
Harley, who was the officer in charge (OIC) then, said his reason was that he wanted to experience the NCO experience and “get his hands dirty.”
The earlier rotation saw the maintenance shop receive high marks. Hudson went so far to say it set the standard.
Hudson said they maintained a 90 percent or better percentage of the vehicles out there on the lanes running.
“That is a very high standard,” noted Hudson.
Harley agreed considering the type of vehicles and the conditions.
“It is pretty good when you have a lane NCO tell you we have more equipment than we have operators,” said Harley, who has spent the last 14 years either in America’s Army Reserve or the Guard. “That is what we want to do here, you bring us one dump, and we are going to give you two back before you leave.”
Hudson credited the shop working hard and its teamwork for setting the standard.
“It was all there,” said Hudson. “We came together like a well-oiled machine.”
Harley said his team spent most of its time changing tires on the dump trucks. This rotation has an increased work load because of several major repairs of the M917 dump trucks, including engines and drive trains, said Hudson. The repairs also included four destroyed rear axles on as many trucks.
Hudson pointed out that the suspension and drive trains of “these old skeletons” are not built for the terrain that includes hard rocks and drops offs. This is not counting the much talked about mud.
“When it rains out here, it is slicker than Slick 50,” described Harley of the mud.
Similar to mechanical parts being put to their limits in mud, this rotation also tested the team in the first few days, said its OIC, Capt. Aaron White, Forward Support Company (FSC), 178th Engineer Battalion, 59th Troop Command, South Carolina National Guard based in Rock Hill, S.C.
White said along with the “culture shock”, the battalion-led task force, demanded a lot from the maintenance shop.
“It was pretty stressful in the beginning,” said White. “We had to ensure we had a can do attitude and know that we were not going to get the equipment that we needed to do some of the repairs.”
To overcome this, White said his team put all their experiences together and developed ways to execute repairs with the available tools. For example, his Soldiers used bottle jacks (small hydraulic pistons shaped like small bottles) in order to change Humvee’s transmissions and wreckers to lift the vehicles to make repairs. He pointed out that the U.S. Army Reserve and the Guard Soldiers seamlessly worked together.
“FSC operations are the same and we use the same doctrine,” he said.
The challenge was synchronizing the different units and identifying leadership positions, said White. He recognized how Harley and a Guard NCO, who both work as mechanics as civilians, cross trained the Soldiers.
Pvt. Amos Serpra, 391st Eng. Bn., was one of these Soldiers. He is a track vehicle repairmen but had already changed several tires and worked on wheeled vehicles.
“It has been an adventure,” said Serpa, a civilian electrician.
White noted that this adventure is also a “behind the scenes” experience because the engineers moving tons of dirt get the notoriety.
“When that dump truck goes down, they need that dump truck back up and they need it back up now,” said White. “We have to go out there and either get the dump truck or make repairs on the spot. He explained that he felt that his team was doing both Field and Sustainment Maintenance. In other words, it diagnoses, repairs, and rebuilds components.
“They have been making it happen,” said White.
Resolute Castle 17, led by the Brigade that ended Sept. 12 supported the European Reassurance Initiative and Operation Atlantic Resolve by developing training infrastructure in eastern Europe, enhancing interoperability among NATO partners, demonstrating commitment to the alliance and strengthening relationships among participating nations.
| Date Taken: | 09.13.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 09.13.2017 17:01 |
| Story ID: | 248156 |
| Location: | RO |
| Web Views: | 132 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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