Courtesy Photo | Staff Sgt. Ricardo Lawrence with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 189th Combat...... read more read more
By: Capt. Damian Oliver
AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq – Sgt. 1st Class Ronald Caswell, Joint Distribution Center operations supervisor for the 189th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 4th Sustainment Brigade, 310th Expeditionary Sustainment Command and a Philadelphia native, operates the 24-hour Joint Distribution Center at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, seven days a week with his team of seven soldiers.
The JDC is a logistical hub for a variety of customer units in Iraq and serves as a cargo hub that receives, screens, issues and pushes out cargo.
“We facilitate both inter- and intra-theater cargo movement,” Caswell said.
Soldiers working in the JDC yard are not transporters by trade but hold a variety of military occupational specialties. The JDC staff receives cross-training on the job, which helps them support their current mission.
Soldiers are encouraged to put their skills from other disciplines to good use on a daily basis.
“It’s been a new experience, but it’s been a great example of soldiers from different fields coming together to get a job done,” said Staff Sgt. Ricardo Lawrence, the JDC noncommissioned officer-in-charge and a New York, N.Y., native.
Visual inspections, radio frequency tags, and proper paperwork ensure everything that is supposed to be on the trucks is on the trucks, and everything that is supposed to be in the yard is in the yard.
“The inventory idea is similar to warehouse operations I’m used to,” Lawrence said. “My experience in that area has helped out a lot.”
Units move trucks in and out of Al Asad Air Base, carrying equipment where missions require it. Units in convoys arrive at the JDC carrying everything from multi-pack boxes and pallets to entire vehicles.
Once the trucks hit the yard, the team goes to work checking paperwork, shipping documents, and inspecting cargo. Pallets, containers, trailers and vehicles are all processed through the screening lanes and sent to their assigned place in the yard.
Once the JDC staff receives and stages the incoming cargo, they send it out to the units on the ground where it is needed. This requires coordination with the local movement control team and the units who are shipping and receiving the cargo to make sure the operation moves efficiently.
Getting the right things to the right places is paramount to success at the JDC. As units prepare to depart or relocate, their equipment must do the same, but not always at the same time.
This occasionally results in gaps in paperwork and communication, which creates a challenge, but the JDC staff is prepared and ready to assist.
“Many of the logistics skills I would use are similar here; I use the same computer systems to track things and research movement codes and property owner codes for customer units to ensure it all ships properly,” said Spc. Joni Acevedo, an equipment receivable/ parts sergeant and JDC administration specialist in the support operations office for the 189th CSSB and a San Antonio, Texas, native.
The Superchargers do everything from tracking down unit information online to conducting maintenance and inventories.
In one month, the JDC has moved more than 1,000 pieces of inbound and outbound containers and hundreds of pieces of rolling stock.
| Date Taken: | 04.14.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 04.24.2011 08:36 |
| Story ID: | 69267 |
| Location: | AL ASAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 72 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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