Seven Soldiers are starting off 2026 by earning their newest Military Occupational Specialty — 91J — by completing five weeks of training in the 91J10 Quartermaster and Chemical Equipment Repairer Course at Regional Training Site (RTS)-Maintenance at Fort McCoy.
Students include Sgt. Melvin Velaau with 8-229th Aviation Regiment at Fort Knox, Ky.; Spc. John Jessop with the 277th Aviation Support Battalion at Fort Drum, N.Y.; Spc. Hunt Gibson with India Company, 230th Brigade Support Battalion of the North Carolina National Guard; Spc. Chandler Petrimoulx with 210th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division at Fort Polk, La.; Spc. Joshua Anderson with 834th Aviation Support Battalion of the Minnesota National Guard at Arden Hills; Spc. Joshua Ortiz with the 288th Quartermaster Company in Victoria, Texas; and Sgt. Richard Ubaldo with the 302nd Quartermaster Company in Guam.
Instructors for this course session are Sgt. 1st Class Paul Hendrickson with RTS Maintenance and Staff Sgt. Aaron Devries of the 13th Battalion, 100th Regiment.
Hendrickson described the course, and more.
“These are Soldiers who are coming from active duty, Guard, and Reserve,” Hendrickson said. “With this course, what they are learning is how to do maintenance on heaters, fuel pumping units, water purification units at unit level size, company level, and battalion brigade size. They are also learning laundry units as well and how to maintain those.”
Hendrickson said the course takes five weeks and two phases of training.
“During phase one, during module A, it is just the basic fundamentals of how to read a publication, forms, and things like that,” Hendrickson said. “In module B, which we are in right now, it is mechanical theory and principles of diesel engines. When we get into Module C, that is when we get into electric … the fundamentals of electricity, how it works, and how to read schematics, which is a big thing for this course.
“For module D, that is when we start getting into doing maintenance on the 350-gallon-per-minute fluid pumps,” he said. “And then we go into the heaters, and then the decontamination units. Decon units are used for, well a lot of times, most units are used for pressure washers or cleaning up bays. They have a lot of use.”
Hendrickson said the equipment the 91J Soldiers work on has a direct impact on some very important situations.
“A couple of years ago, Puerto Rico got hit with a really big hurricane, and they lost all their power,” Hendrickson said. “They lost all fresh water supply and everything else. So, the Puerto Rico National Guard unit down there was able to utilize the Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit (ROWPU), which is a 3,000-gallon reverse hydrolysis water purification unit to ensure that the population was able to get clean drinking water, clean water for showers and bathing, hygiene … everything like that. And then we were also able to use generators and get them a power grid somewhat established.
“The other upside with the Juliets is they are able to maintain the laundry units,” Hendrickson said. “So, unlike the people who are running the laundry units, these guys repair them. But they have to also know how to run them too. In a nutshell, they know how something runs to be able to fix it, like practicing what you preach.”
Ubaldo, one of the students, said the course is a great opportunity.
“It’s actually awesome, really good, really knowledgeable, good hands-on stuff,” Ubaldo said.
Ubaldo added on what he is looking to take away from being in the course.
“It’s (gaining) more knowledge on … breakdowns and the way (things) work,” Ubaldo said.He said he’s also glad to learn about recovery of any equipment that they would have to fix.
Guest Instructor Devries explained his contribution to the course.
“I’m a guest instructor, so I’m being certified in the course,” Devries said. “So, I have to teach one classper module, and then I get certified to teach more of the class and be more involved withthe comprehension of the material for the students.”
Devries was a student in the class less than a year ago. He said training Soldiers to fix and maintain the equipment that 91J Soldiers will work on is huge for the Army because it’s equipment that affects their daily lives during a deployed situation, especially.
“The quartermaster equipment, your heat pumps and your water pumps, clean water and havinglaundry, everybody needs that stuff,” Devries said.“It’s really important to the Army, whether it seems that they think so or not, but it’sdefinitely important and it goes a long way.”
Hendrickson said he enjoys teaching students and being a part of the RTS-Maintenance team.
“I love this job,” Hendrickson said. “This is probably the best job that I’ve had. I like the moment when students have that ‘ah-ha’ moment when they’re able to articulate or connect the material to something that they understand. That’s the best part.
“And I love being in the Army,” he said. “I like turning wrenches. This is my job.”
And as the course continues to February, he said once the students enter phase two of the course, they’ll start working more on larger units of equipment, such as the ROWPU and the laundry trailer operated by 92S Soldiers (shower and laundry specialists).
RTS-Maintenance trains thousands of Soldiers every year in the Army’s 91-series MOS and the 89B MOS. Some of the courses taught there, in addition to the 91J10 course, include the 91B10 Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic Course, 91L10 Construction Equipment Repairer Course, Unit Armorer Course, 89A10 Ammunition Stock Control and Accounting Specialist Course, 89B10 Ammunition Specialist, 89B30 Ammunition Specialist Advanced Leader Course, and 89B40 Ammunition Specialist Senior Leader Course.
Also, 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](https://home.army.mil/mccoy), on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at [https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi](https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi), and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the My Army Post 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: |
01.14.2026 |
| Date Posted: |
01.14.2026 18:30 |
| Story ID: |
556234 |
| Location: |
FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: |
35 |
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