IRAQ - Senior Airman Bryan Alvarado, a vehicle maintainer with the 70th Medium Truck Detachment, recently deployed to an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia from the 35th Logistics Readiness Squadron, Misawa Air Base, Japan.
Alvarado, a native of Socorro, N.M., directly impacts Operation New Dawn in a big way - by keeping trucks on the road. The same vehicles responsible for trucking supplies out of Iraq.
Alvarado inspects and maintains vehicles before and after convoys make trips to Iraq. By doing this, he enables trucks to make long hauls to and from Iraq as U.S. forces withdraw from the country.
"Getting trucks in, and being able to push them out so they're back on the road is what motivates me," said Alvarado. "Keeping trucks on the road is my business."
In recent months, the 387th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron, which the 70th MTD belongs to, has increased its amount of missions trucking out cargo from Iraq by approximately 200 percent.
"When we first got here last month, the squadron was averaging about 11 missions per week," said Lt. Col. John O'Connor, 387th ELRS commander and native of Albany, Ga., before going on to say that the squadron is on track to average about 35 missions per month.