Welders steel Army vehicles for attack in Iraq

CAMP ANACONDA, Iraq — When Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Summers arrived last fall, the Army knew he’d be able save lives.

The 7th Transportation Battalion asked the ship hull technician to attach makeshift steel plates to trucks and Humvees. Poorly protected vehicles had been coming under fire every time they left this central logisitics hub for points all over Iraq.

Many of the vehicles did not have the extra protection of “armor-up” kits. And the Army didn’t have enough to go around. “I’m a welder by trade,” said Summers, a 33-year-old Naval reservist from Frisco, Calif. “When I got here, my chief said, 'Boy, we have got a job for you.’”

Almost every military convoy going “outside the wire” encounters bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 bullets. Among the 1,700 here with the 7th Transportation Battalion, four soldiers have been killed , more than 60 have been wounded and one remains a prisoner of war.

Despite the risks, coalition forces rely on convoys going to and from Camp Anaconda.

The operations on this former Iraqi air base in Balad are officially overseen by 13th Core [Corps] Support Command forward deployed from Fort Hood, Texas. The camp’s location about 65 miles north of Baghdad connects more remote forward-operating bases in almost every direction, from Fallujah to Najaf.

After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the Iraqi military abandoned the base at Balad, which was heavily bombed. The squatters who took over stripped 144 buildings of all valuable goods, down to the metal lining the window frames.

So coalition forces now live out of tents, trailers and some renovated buildings. They use portable commodes and trailers filled with showers and toilets. Thousands of generators provide the camp’s power.

More people are coming. The Army now plans to sharply reduce operations at the Baghdad airport and move people to Anaconda. Dozens of construction workers are pouring cement, painting walls and installing trailers. Vying for space with convoy traffic on the base’s limited road system, these crews are creating a new septic system, restoring indoor plumbing and updating the power grid.

Convoy security remains one of the most critical problems. To reinforce operations out of Balad, an Army Stryker Brigade in Mosul reassigned 700 of its soldiers into Task Force Arrow and dispatched it south to Balad.

These forces, known to some Iraqis as ghost soldiers, travel in high-speed tank-like vehicles. They not only escort convoys of dozens of fuel tankers and supply trucks but also often hunt down the insurgents who attack them.

“I think the Iraqis are kind of scared of us,” said Army Capt. Hank Barnes, logistics officer for the task force.

The squat vehicles have almost no windows. Roadside bombs rarely slow it down. And “slat armor” has been wrapped around its skin, forming a fence-like barrier that makes incoming rocket-propelled grenades bounce away.

“They’re always improvising, so we change our tactics – the routes, the times,” said Capt. Stephen Machuga, the task force’s intelligence officer.

Summers has “armored-up” more than 40 Humvee military jeeps, 25 5-ton trucks and seven light, medium tactical vehicles that resemble semi-tractor trailers.

A crew of Iraqi workers help with the custom jobs that can take three days to build an 8-foot-by-7-foot gun box, according to Capt. Michael DeLaughter, the 7th Transportation’s maintenance officer.

The extra steels adds about 700 pounds to a Humvee and 3,000 pounds to a 5-ton truck, requiring some minor adjustments for balance when driving.

But the safety results can be dramatic. The 7th Transportation Battalion keeps a picture of a badly damaged truck parked far away from a soldier receiving medical attention. The soldier had been riding in the gun box, a steel reinforced container mounted on top of the truck, when a bomb hit.

The box built by Summers tumbled in the air. But the solider suffered only a broken ankle.

Thanks, Cannoneer. Good links, info.

Thanks, TEX. Appreciate the pings.

Some friendly competition from the Marines:

The metalworkers have been busier than almost any other group of Marines here, despite the fact that there are only two of them.

Ooh rah! (^:

MWSS-273 welders cut, burn, melt their way to mission accomplishment
Submitted by: 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing
Story Identification #: 200452862244
Story by Sgt. J.L. Zimmer III

AL ASAD, Iraq (May 28, 2004) -- The Marines of Marine Wing Support Squadron 273, Marine Wing Support Group 37, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, arrived here in February with one thing in mind, supporting the Marines and Sailors of 3rd MAW with anything they need.

The metalworkers of MWSS-273 maintenance are here not only to assist, they are here to design and build anything a unit needs that requires heat, sweat and several hundred volts of electricity to make.

The metalworkers have been busier than almost any other group of Marines here, despite the fact that there are only two of them.

Sgt. Philip J. Thornton, a 24-year-old Deltona, Fla., native and Lance Cpl. Jeremy A. Gray, a 19-year-old Gretna, Va., native, both metalworkers with MWSS-273, are a two-man team with creative ideas and the technical proficiency of men far beyond their age.

"We have a trade that does not require a technical manual to tell you how to do something," said Gray. "But that means we have to know our job well enough to not need the manuals. We have to be creative enough to make something out of nothing."

Constantly busy, the two Marines have completed more than 150 tasks since arriving in theater and still have a laundry list of assignments to complete.

"These Marines have done everything from gates to door latches and plumbing work," said Gunnery Sgt. Brett C. Scheuer, maintenance chief, MWSS-273 and 35-year-old Buffalo, N.Y., native. "They have everyone from around the base coming to them for projects."

According to Thornton, the job is something he loves to do and having a younger Marine to teach makes it especially meaningful.

"I have been teaching Gray field-expedient ways to do things and the ins-and-outs of the (military occupational specialty)," said Thornton. "He is coming along pretty well and learning a lot since we have been here."

Gray, a young warrior with motivation to spare, said he enjoys his job and would not trade it for anything else.

"This is the best MOS in the Marine Corps," he said. "The Marine Corps has taught me a trade that I can carry with me a long way. I can always progress and get better."

Thornton, an experienced and talented metalworker, has been welding for the Marine Corps for more than six years and is encountering obstacles here he is not used to at his home base of Marine Corps Air Station, Beaufort, S.C.

"The biggest difference between here and there is the amount of adapting and overcoming we have to do here," he said. "Different obstacles, like not having the right tool for the right job happens but we work our way around them."

Although Gray's experience does not extend as far as Thornton's, Scheuer believes the two make an excellent team.

"If I had to pick my 'A' team, they would be on it," he said. "They are truly the best at what they do. They are the most proficient and technically sound duty experts at what they do."

-30-

Photos included with story:

Lance Cpl. Jeremy A. Gray, metalworker with the maintenance section for Marine Wing Support Squadron 273, Marine Wing Support Group 37, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, welds a makeshift boiling pot to test a thermostat in Al Asad, Iraq, May 20. Gray, a 19-year-old Gretna, Va., native, has been a metalworker for the Marine Corps for more than

~ http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/03D56B415C02393E85256EA20039038E?opendocument

Artificer & Farrier

These men were specialists who were paid an additional rate like teamsters. In winter camps and during lulls in active campaigning they broke out their tools from the battery wagon and forge and went to work. The artificer was primarily a blacksmith - he repaired the wood and iron parts of the battery carriages. The farriers specific task was to keep all the horses and mules shod - a large task considering the number of animals in a battery. There is some evidence that a few batteries had an artificer assigned to each platoon. However, most records indicate that only two men, or a maximum of three, were assigned this duty in a single battery. They received their instructions from the first sergeant and traveled in the rear of the battery near their tools.

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