Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Stephen Scott | Brig. Gen. Don S. Cornett Jr., the commanding general of the 310th ESC presents Spc....... read more read more
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JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq – In the United States, the Lakers have won back-to-back titles and are going for their third. Residents of Joint Base Balad have their own repeat champions, the 238th Support Maintenance Company, 352nd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 77th Sustainment Brigade, 310th Expeditionary Sustainment Command.
The soldiers of the 238th SMC, however, were not awarded for their ability to participate in an entertaining recreational activity but for an excellent score for maintenance.
Brig. Gen. Don S. Cornett Jr., the commanding general of the 310th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, announced April 17 to the 238th SMC that they had won the Army Award of Maintenance Excellence for the second year in a row.
“The Army Award of Maintenance Excellence is a program the Department of the Army sponsors every year,” said Capt. Jordan Simmers, the 238th SMC commander and a native of New Alexandria, Pa. “Any unit in the Army, regardless of the unit’s mission, can compete in a program to prove that they’ve got the best maintenance program in the Army.”
Multiple awards are given out each year, because units being judged for the AAME compete in different groups based on size, said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Kenneth Foster, an AAME evaluator and Columbus, Ohio, native.
During the announcement, Staff Sgt. Isaac Rubalcava and Spc. Lalita Bozeman, the motor sergeant and prescribed load list clerk with the 238th SMC, were recognized for their contribution to the unit’s success.
“I’m proud,” said Bozeman, a Dayton, Ohio native. “I’m very proud and excited. I really thought we weren’t going to get it this time.”
Rubalcava, a San Antonio, Texas, native, said he is taking over for Sgt. 1st Class Bernardo Padro, who couldn’t deploy for medical reasons.
“[Padro] was the motor sergeant that led this company to the first AAME,” Rubalcava said. “I was the second in charge, so with his guidance … we did pretty good.”
“I couldn’t be prouder of my soldiers for all the work they’ve put into this and just the hard work they put in every day,” Simmers said.
When Simmers came to the unit, he had a meeting with Padro and Rubalcava to discuss how to make the unit better.
“Shortly after I took command, what we set off to do was to improve readiness by taking the things you have to do for the AAME and the supply excellence programs and using those as checklists,” Simmers said. “We never thought we’d have progressed to the point where we’d have won it once, let alone twice.”
Winning an award like this can have positive effects on the morale and motivation of everyone involved, especially the non-commissioned officers.
“There are a lot of intangibles that come with this,” Simmers said. “The NCOs down at the section-leader level really have something to take ownership of and to be apart of, and it has a positive impact on the unit.
The AAME is a two-phase program. The first phase is submitting a packet to the AAME committee. Those whose packets are approved move on to the second phase where evaluators are sent to get a closer look at the chosen units’ maintenance programs, Foster said.
The 238th SMC came together just as a great team should down the final stretch of a championship run. Just as a team in the NBA playoffs aims to earn the crown as the best in basketball, the 238th SMC continues its journey to have the best maintenance program in the military.
The unit is now moving on to compete for the Phoenix Award, which is a Department of Defense maintenance award.
| Date Taken: | 04.18.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 04.24.2011 07:47 |
| Story ID: | 69263 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE BALAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 985 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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