In times when the number of Soldiers
needed to complete the mission
is not available, cross-training personnel enables maintenance
sections to
repair equipment more quickly, thus helping keep maneuver
units functional.
It is said that the new modular brigade combat team was designed
to be self-sufficient at the battalion level without needing
outside support. This is true if the brigade is operating
in the manner for which it was conceived. However, we all
have seen deviations from the modular design and the push
to “do more with less.” This is why cross-training
battalion personnel is more essential now than ever.
During previous rotations to Afghanistan, one maintenance
support team was sent to support each forward maneuver battalion.
However, when the 710th Brigade Support Battalion (BSB) deployed
to Afghanistan in 2006, it had to support four organic maneuver
battalions—and even the brigade special troops battalion
acting as a maneuver battalion—and attached battalions,
covering over 30 forward operating bases (FOBs). Each of the
new forward support companies can support its respective battalion
at one or two different locations, but when spread over four
or five FOBs each, their small numbers of Soldiers with low-density
military occupational specialties (MOSs) were stretched to
the breaking point.
Defining the Problem
While in Afghanistan, G Company, 710th BSB, was responsible
for providing direct support to the 4–25 Field Artillery
Battalion, so it trained automotive mechanics to assess and
repair howitzers, which were located at seven different locations.
This was one of the simpler tasks, albeit still difficult.
In B Company, which is the BSB’s maintenance company,
we decided to send out our ground support equipment maintenance
technician (a chief warrant officer) and a Soldier to assess
and repair the air conditioning (A/C) and materials-handling
equipment (MHE) at each FOB. The MOSs responsible for repairing
this equipment (62B, construction equipment repairer, and
52C, utilities equipment repairer) are some of the most critical
shortage MOSs in the modular brigade combat team design used
in Afghanistan.
My unit had only three A/C mechanics. However, one of those
was attached to a maintenance support team and one was assigned
as a platoon sergeant. I was left with one A/C mechanic, one
generator mechanic cross-trained to do A/C work, one engineer
equipment mechanic, one quartermaster equipment repairer cross-trained
for MHE, and my equipment maintenance technician to provide
support to the entire Regional Command East.
Solving the Problem
To solve this problem, we established a mobile maintenance
team consisting of the above-mentioned warrant officer and
Soldier. This team spent over 5 1⁄2 months traveling
to the FOBs and repairing A/C units in high-mobility multipurpose
wheeled vehicles, the need for which had increased sharply
as the temperatures began to rise during the spring.
Regardless of the temperature, MHE was in constant use, and
the only authorized engineering mechanics who worked on hydraulics
were assigned to the support platoon of the brigade special
troops battalion. However, we had managed to retain one engineering
mechanic during our transformation from the Army of Excellence
to the modular brigade and had a quartermaster equipment repairer
cross-trained to repair MHE. Between the two of them, they
had constant work at FOB Salerno. They also were sent out
to provide MHE maintenance support at other FOBs since most
of them had MHE but no one who could repair it.
Although the mobile maintenance team did a lot of great work,
the need to send them out could have been alleviated with
better cross-training before deployment. Many mechanics had
received a quick A/C familiarization before deploying, but,
without real systems to work on and obtain hands-on experience,
they quickly forgot what they had been told. Almost no mechanics
received any type of training on MHE. If more time could be
spent on cross-training and hands-on experience, the need
to send such teams out for extended lengths of time could
be avoided.
ALOG
Captain Charles L. Arnold is the Commander of B Company, 710th
Brigade Support Battalion, 3d Infantry Brigade Combat Team,
10th Mountain Division, at Fort Drum, New York. He holds a
B.S. degree in chemical engineering from Case Western Reserve
University and is a graduate of the Ordnance Officer Basic
Course and the Combined Logistics Captains Career Course.