Photo By Claudia Neve | Training in the 91B10 Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic Course is shown March 6, 2024, at the...... read more read more
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Every year, Fort McCoy’s Regional Training Site (RTS)-Maintenance facility holds training for Soldiers who literally help keep the Army “rolling along” with the 91B10 Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic Course.
The course focuses on the basics of the Army’s 91B military occupational specialty (MOS) — wheeled vehicle mechanic. According to the Army’s description for the 91B field at goarmy.com, “as a wheeled vehicle mechanic, you’ll supervise and perform maintenance, repair, and recovery operations on wheeled vehicles and select armored vehicles that serve the Army in a variety of mission-critical roles. You’ll inspect, service, maintain, repair, replace, adjust, and test wheeled vehicles, material handling equipment systems, subsystems and components, and automotive electrical systems, including wiring harnesses and starting and charging systems.”
The course, taught by instructors Staff Sgt. Luis Torres Roman and Staff Sgt. Paul Hendrickson, trains dozens of Soldiers every year in both active- and reserve-component, including the Army Reserve and Army National Guard. RTS-Maintenance Chief Instructor William Parker said the course teaches a critical MOS the Army needs, so they have Soldiers capable of repairing the vehicles and equipment in its inventory.
Parker said when students come to Fort McCoy to train in the 91B course, they have the latest items available to complete their training.
“So, each course that is written is required to have certain equipment to run that course,” Parker said. “It is very essential that Soldiers who are coming to train have the most up-to-date equipment to train on because that's the equipment they're going to see when they get back to their units. We have that here.”
The course description for the 91B course does reflect the Army job description for the wheeled vehicle mechanic. It shows that during the course, Soldiers are trained “to perform field-level maintenance on automotive wheeled vehicles, wheeled-vehicle operations,” and they receive an “introduction to troubleshooting; fuel system maintenance; electrical system maintenance; power train maintenance; chassis, suspension, and steering maintenance; brake maintenance; and preventive maintenance checks and services.”
91B students also learn about common maintenance subjects; Test, Measurement, and Diagnostic Equipment; publications; maintenance forms; use and care of tools/power tools; shop safety, automatic fire extinguishing systems; air conditioning; the Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station System; and maintenance discipline.
Spc. Spencer Shanks was a student in the 91B10 Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic Course from the 1544th Transportation Company at Paris, Ill., in March. He described his training experience at Fort McCoy RTS-Maintenance.
“This course — it’s a lot of fun,” Shanks said. “I have worked with the maintenance platoon at my unit for about a year now, and I was expecting to learn stuff that I knew something about, but I came here and so far, we haven’t done anything I’ve done before. It’s a great learning experience … it allowed me to broaden my perspective.”
Shanks also discussed the professionalism of the RTS-Maintenance staff.
“The instructors are phenomenal,” Shanks said. “They’re great people … and they’re extremely smart. … everyone’s very knowledgeable. You can have great conversations, too. I was talking with one of the warrant officers here, because I want to be a warrant officer one day, and he was able to just walk me through a few things and give me some knowledge I didn’t have before.”
Sgt. Jordan Williams, also a student in the 91B10 Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic Course in March with the 732nd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion of the Wisconsin National Guard in Tomah, said she gained many new skills during the course.
“I’ve enjoyed it,” Williams said. “I have zero mechanical experience … so course has been such a change for me because I am starting from zero, whereas most of my classmates have at least a little experience. … It’s going really well. The instructors are all really nice. … Soldier caring is probably their top priority and then of course, teaching us well and keeping us safe.”
Williams said part of her job at her unit requires her to be a motor sergeant during certain training periods, so attending the 91B course will also prove to be useful going forward in that capacity.
“For me, coming to this course, I’m learning everything that I need to know,” Williams said. “It brought me up to speed, and I’m going to be able to help order parts and help with paperwork and really just (help) ensure readiness.”
Maj. James L. Frangenberg, RTS-Maintenance commandant, said the success of the training like the 91B course at the facility is due to having a skilled staff dedicated to the training mission.
“I’m blessed to say I have some of the very best instructors that you could possibly have,” Frangenberg said. “They’re caring, they’re engaged, they know their material, and they want to do well by the future of the Army that they’re training up here today.
“We have a chief instructor who’s been in multiple locations, an operation sergeant major who’s come from another RTS, and … a chief warrant officer who’s been in the Army (a long time),” Frangenberg said. “To have that experience working together and to be able to pass that on to our students is incredible.”
RTS-Maintenance trains thousands of Soldiers every year in the Army’s 91-series MOS and administratively supports the training of Soldiers in the 89B MOS. The unit aligns under the 3rd Brigade (Ordnance), 94th Division of the 80th Training Command, and is centrally located in the cantonment area with an entire complex to hold training.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.”
Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: | 04.08.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 04.08.2024 17:41 |
| Story ID: | 468074 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 99 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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