Posted on 12/21/2003 7:26:25 PM PST by Calpernia
When soldiers are badly wounded or seriously ill they are sent to combat support hospitals. When vehicles are seriously damaged or require extensive repairs, they go to “the third shop.”
Soldiers with B Company, 501st Forward Support Battalion (FSB), 1st Armored Division, operate one of these shops at Provider Forward Operating Base in Baghdad.
“Our mission is to bring ‘deadlined’ vehicles up to speed,” said Staff Sgt. William Brown, shop foreman, B Company, 501st FSB.
Any vehicle belonging to a 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) unit, from a High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) to an Abrams tank, that is considered deadlined and unserviceable by its unit’s motor pool is sent to the B Company shop.
“Any vehicle in 1st BCT – you name it – we fix it right here in our shop,” Brown said.
Their specialty, however, is not in performing routine maintenance or tune-ups. The B Company mechanics have taken vehicles that have been hit by rocket-propelled grenades and other explosive devices, repaired them and sent them back into service.
"We’re like a combat support hospital for HMMWVs and other vehicles,” Brown said. “We do major repair work.”
Though the work goes on in the shop where the mechanics repair the vehicles, the heart of the operation is in the shop’s office where Sgt. Willie Jones, automated logistical specialist, B Company, 501st FSB, orders and tracks the parts that the mechanics need to repair each vehicle.
“Soldiers need these vehicles to accomplish their mission,” Jones said. “Our job is to keep these vehicles mission-capable.”
Jones does that by expediting orders and ensuring that parts get to the mechanics when they need them.
The experience has been rewarding, said Spc. Anthony Dickerson, tracked-vehicle mechanic, B Company, 501st FSB. He’s had the chance to improve his skills in working on different kinds of vehicles, rather than just the tracked vehicles he specializes in.
“We do a little bit of everything. It’s great to show what we’ve been trained to do,” he said.
“It’s satisfying when you get a piece-of-crap vehicle in here and no one thinks you can fix it,” Dickerson said. “Then we do the repairs and it’s on the road again in a few days or weeks.”
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