Photo By Staff Sgt. Amanda Tucker | Spc. Jonathan L. Schellenberg, a Grand Rapids, Mich., native, and Spc. Benito Cruz, a...... read more read more
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By Amanda Tucker
3rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary)
CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE SPEICHER, Iraq – When the 233rd Transportation Company, from Fort Knox, Ky., drives through the streets of Iraq, it is because its maintenance platoon prevents, maintains and fixes problems to keep the trucks moving.
The maintenance platoon fixes the heavy equipment transporters, large military vehicles designed to haul heavy cargo as large as tanks.
"My maintenance section is probably one of the tightest platoons I have," said Capt. Lydia Y. Welch, the commander for the 233rd Trans. Co., and Elizabethtown, Ky., native.
When the unit first arrived, vehicles were breaking down before making it out the gate. Thanks to the mechanics, missions are running for up to a week with no breakdowns. There are only two vehicles non-mission capable out of more than 130 in the company.
"That speaks volumes for the amount of work that the mechanics and the operators together are doing," said Chief Warrant Officer Joseph R. Scarpill, the unit maintenance officer for the 233rd Trans. Co. and Warrington, Pa., native.
Heavy wheeled vehicle operators fill out a DA Form 5988 when something is wrong with vehicles during a weekly or post mission preventive maintenance checks and services inspection. Then it is the mechanic's job to fix the problem.
The mechanics do more than just fix the HETs. In addition to wheeled vehicle mechanics, the maintenance team consists of prescribed load list clerks; petroleum, oil and lubricants team; welders and power generation technicians.
PLL clerks order replacement parts for vehicles and send old, broken parts to be refurbished or rebuilt. When the mechanics solve the maintenance issues on the vehicle, the PLL clerk is the one that tracks the information that the services are complete.
POL workers order, issue and replace all the oils in the motor pool. They also manage the hazardous materials in the area such as batteries and used oil.
The welders make or cut off pieces of HETs using plasma cutters, oxygen/acetylene torches and metal inert gas welders. They have cut rims off trailers, made cab mounting brackets and are constantly helping convoys that stop at COB Speicher needing metal fabrication.
Due to the lack of generators, the generation mechanics are being cross-trained to work on vehicles as well.
"My platoon is probably the best group of mechanics that I've had the opportunity to work with in 17 years," said Scarpill.
Scarpill laughed as he admitted there were some mistakes that the platoon has learned from. He recalled a time when the mechanics forgot to put an inner gear in the steering pump, which takes approximately half a day of dismantling to access. The truck was re-assembled and the mechanics found the steering wheel wouldn't turn and had to disassemble the vehicle again to replace the inner gear.
Since arriving in theater six months ago, the platoon has replaced approximately 30 engines. One engine can take anywhere from four to seven days depending on the complications involved. There are nights when the mechanics don't go home until 2 a.m. because trucks have to be ready for upcoming missions.
"They're the guys that don't mind working the long hours," said Welch.
"Failure is not an option," said Scarpill. "We will not miss a mission because of maintenance issues."
| Date Taken: | 02.17.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 02.17.2009 03:01 |
| Story ID: | 30096 |
| Location: | TIKRIT, IQ |
| Web Views: | 183 |
| Downloads: | 136 |
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