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FORT BELVOIR, Va. -- The Kandahar Airfield Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services site, one of three sites in southern Afghanistan, serves as a key staging area for destruction and removal of unusable equipment.
“This facility represents great work by many people,” said Army Brig. Gen. Philip R. Fisher, Joint Sustainment Command-Afghanistan commander. “Its value to Kandahar makes it one of the most important functions here.”
The facility staff receives unserviceable equipment for demilitarization, said Perry Daniels, the Kandahar site chief. Demilitarization means to take away any inherent military capability in the property.
Imagine a battle-damaged vehicle, he continued. It doesn’t work anymore, so the owning unit can now contact this disposal center to get the vehicle off of their accountability paperwork and out of their backyard.
“It’s essential,” said Navy Cmdr. Alan Schmitt, Disposition Services Afghanistan officer in charge. “We need to free their areas where they’re storing unserviceable items. We’re getting ready for when the military eventually leaves Afghanistan – getting ahead of the curve, cleaning up as soon as possible.”
The removal of these items – be it vehicles, air-conditioning equipment or tires – is a widespread issue in Afghanistan, said Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Dane Nearhoof, an expeditionary disposal remediation team member. If a combat unit has broken items but nowhere to dispose of them, he said, the unit usually ends up creating a makeshift junkyard.
Over time, an on-the-spot junkyard can grow to include discarded wood, glass or even hazardous waste, Nearhoof continued. When U.S. forces depart Afghanistan, the proper cleaning and disposing of such junkyards can pose a problem.
That is why the expeditionary disposal remediation team members deploy to outlying camps and forward operating bases to educate service members of the importance of proper disposal of broken equipment, he said. Now that there is a facility operating at Kandahar Airfield – the other two facilities being at Bagram Air Base and Camp Leatherneck – procedures should change for the better.
“Sites like this one are one of the things we need to help clear the clutter in this country,” Fisher said about the importance of keeping U.S. waste to a minimum.
Once equipment is demilitarized, Daniels said, the remaining scrap metals are contracted out and sold to Afghan vendors. This cost offsets the price of shipping items to disposal facilities and saves money by not shipping items back to the U.S. for disposal there.
This way, he said, the U.S. and Afghan communities work together to get the best solution.
| Date Taken: | 01.27.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 02.02.2011 11:46 |
| Story ID: | 64652 |
| Location: | FORT BELVOIR, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 114 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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