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Training wrecker drivers for deployment

Courtesy Photo | Spc. Grant Flegel moves the crane on the Hemmet Wrecker into place during training at...... read more read more

GOWEN FIELD TRAINING AREA, IDAHO, UNITED STATES

08.28.2010

Courtesy Story

115th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

Story by: Pfc. Philip Steiner

GOWEN FIELD TRAINING AREA, Idaho – When a car breaks down, an insurance company will come get the vehicle from the side of the road. Now make that vehicle bigger and put it in a combat zone. Not so easy to repair or tow it. This is a job for the Hemmet Wrecker drivers and mechanics of Delta Company, 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team. The brigade is training at Gowen Field Training Area, south of Boise, Idaho, for its’ upcoming deployment to Iraq.

The Hemmet Wrecker is a truck with a crane and hitch able to pull most military vehicles. It dispatches to where it is needed and tows the broken down vehicle to a safe place where it can be repaired.

Sometimes this is not as easy as it sounds.

“It could take 15 to 45 minutes... if the area is clear,” said Staff Sgt. Paul Hussey, of La Grande, Ore., a Hemmet Wrecker mechanic for Delta Company.

That is a long time to be working outside in a combat area. Therefore, drivers and mechanics started cross-training in order for the drivers to be able to fix their own vehicles and to make towing faster.

“Just in case [a wrecker] gets hit or someone is unable to do the job, everyone needs to know everyone else’s job to be efficient in all the tasks,” said Hussey.

With this new information and training, drivers and mechanics alike will spend less time waiting for repair and have more time to effectively complete their mission. The knowledge also provides a new hurdle for the soldiers to overcome.

“This is something new to us, something we have to do ourselves which we kind of like because we are able to do more, but it’s also challenging because we have to learn new tasks and skills,” said Spc Thomas Collins, of Hermiston, Ore., a Hemmet Wrecker driver with Delta Company. “Before we’d just call [Quick Reaction Force] and have them come out and fix us up.”

Collins sees the benefit of this new deployment training, as compared to his last deployment with this unit.

“Lots of situations came up in our last deployment when we didn’t know what to do, we’d have to call someone who did, and so the more you know the more you can do without having to call a specialist in to do it,” said Collins.

This cross-training will help to cut down on time spent towing vehicles and more time repairing them so they can be back on the road where they are needed. It will help to maximize not only the Hemmet Wreckers’ mission, but also the overall mission of the 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team.