Posted on 02/28/2003 3:32:49 AM PST by snippy_about_it
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LOL!! This has indeed been the product of this week. We are a 4 person office. Guess how many are here today? I AM TAKING A LUNCH BREAK TODAY!! If I drank I would have finished a whole bottle of wine (whine) just this morning. 4 hours at work and not one minute yet on my work. I am having fun. LOL!
Third-country nationals build the frame for a floor that will be used as the foundation for Force Provider tents. (photo by Bob Whistine)
Tent cities spring up across Kuwait
by Bob Whistine
CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait - (Army News Service, Feb. 25, 2003) - Six tent cities in Kuwait now have space for 15,500 soldiers and officials said more requests arrive daily.
Camp sizes in Kuwait range from 500 to 6,500 personnel, officials said. Dining facilities have increased their capacity to feed up to 10,000 per day with projected increases to reach 20,000 per day.
Joyce Taylor of the U.S. Army Materiel Command's Program Management Office for the Logistic Civil Augmentation Program, know as LOGCAP, arrived in Kuwait in September. She then helped develop plans to construct six Force Provider modules to provide bedding for nearly 3,500 personnel.
Today the number has more than quadrupled for soldiers housed and it continues to grow, Taylor said, explaining that both Force Provider and Festival Tent communities have been built under the LOGCAP contract.
Force Provider modules provide climate-controlled billeting, dining facilities, hygiene services and morale, welfare and recreation, or MWR facilities capable of supporting more than 550 personnel.
Force Providers are containerized for shipping by land, air and sea. A typical camp requires about five to 10 acres of land, officials said. Site preparation takes about three to four days, they said, with an entire camp becoming fully operational in 14 days or less.
"I believe the most important aspect of a Brown and Root contract to construct Force Provider units is that it drastically reduces the military logistics footprint on the battlefield," said Lt. Col. Rod Cutright, the senior LOGCAP planner for all of Southwest Asia.
"We can quickly purchase building materials and hire third-country nationals to perform the work," Cutright said. "This means a small number of combat-service-support soldiers are needed to support this logistic aspect of building up an area."
More than 1,800 Brown and Root contractors support the LOGCAP missions in Kuwait, Cutright said, along with nine officers from the Logistic Support Unit, or LSU.
Force Provider modules come complete with water and fuel storage, power generation and distribution, and wastewater collection systems. The basic building block is the Tent Expendable Modular Personnel, or TEMPER, each of which has an environmental control unit, officials said.
Force Providers have been used in Haiti, Bosnia, Guatemala, Honduras, Guantanamo Bay (Cuba) and various locations in Kuwait in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Missions for Force Providers include: theater reception; intermediate staging base; rest and refit and base camps for military operations such as humanitarian/disaster relief; and peacekeeping missions.
Modernization plans for the Force Provider include increasing its efficiency while decreasing the logistical footprint, operations and maintenance costs, according to officials of the Assistant Product Management office.
The APM office was tasked to develop, build and assemble a total of 36 modules by fiscal year 2005. Thirty-one modules were already completed by June, officials said, adding that five are still in production. Current storage plans call for 12 to be kept aboard preposition ships; eight in CONUS; one at Fort Polk, La., to be used for training and testing; six in Europe, six in the Pacific; and three in the Central Command area of responsibility.
All modules will be under AMC management, officials said. Production will be completed at the Defense Distribution Depot, Albany, Ga.
"Last year there were no Force Provider units here," said Taylor in Kuwait. "Now there are 10 modules, which means we are now supporting over 6,000 coalition forces."
"I get a great deal of personnel satisfaction in knowing I'm supporting the soldiers by meeting their personal needs like a place to sleep, a shower and a place to eat," Taylor said. "My job is to provide them a better life support system that allows them to go out and do the job they are trained for."
(Editor's note: Bob Whistine is the AMC-Logistic Support Element Public Affairs Officer.)
U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Eric Dannenberg, a heating and ventilation superintendent deployed to the 320h Expeditionary Civil Engineering Squadron, checks the status of an air conditioning unit being assembled while expanding a dining facility on Feb. 22, 2003. The 320th ECES extended a dining facility 1,160square feet to make way for continued troop arrivals at a forward deployed location in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Matthew Hannen
U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Richard Silny, a structural journeyman deployed to the 320h Expeditionary Civil Engineering Squadron, aligns floor mats prior to assembling a tent to expand a dining facility on Feb. 22, 2003. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Matthew Hannen
U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Richard Silny, a structural journeyman deployed to the 320h Expeditionary Civil Engineering Squadron, aligns floor mats prior to assembling a tent to expand a dining facility on Feb. 22, 2003. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Matthew Hannen
Tech. Sgt. Greg Tesch and Airman 1st Class Noah Bolten, both heating and ventilation technicians deployed to the 320h Expeditionary Civil Engineering Squadron, move an assembled tent into place to expand a dining facility on Feb. 22, 2003. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Matthew Hannen
Tech. Sgt. Greg Tesch, a heating and ventilation craftsman deployed to the 320h Expeditionary Civil Engineering Squadron, pulls cables prior to unhooking an air conditioning unit while expanding a dining facility on Feb. 22, 2003. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Matthew Hannen
Airman 1st Class Noah Bolten, a heating and ventilation apprentice deployed to the 320h Expeditionary Civil Engineering Squadron, applies a tent fly cover for protection from the weather during a dining facility expansion on Feb. 22, 2003. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Matthew Hannen
Senior Airman Larry Norsworthy and Tech. Sgt. Mike Markley, both structural technician deployed to the 320h Expeditionary Civil Engineering Squadron, put tent straps together while expanding a dining facility on Feb. 22, 2003. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Matthew Hannen
Airman deployed to the 320h Expeditionary Civil Engineering Squadron, lay matting for a tent floor prior to assembling a tent to expand a dining facility on Feb. 22, 2003. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Matthew Hannen
Hi honies, I'm home! Now where is that Tomkow?
Airman deployed to the 320h Expeditionary Civil Engineering Squadron, connect a tent together to expand a dining facility on Feb. 22, 2003. The 320th ECES extended a dining facility 1160sq/ft to make way for continued troop arrivals at a forward deployed location in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. U.S. Air Force Photo by Staff Sgt. Matthew Hannen
What city are we going to?
How was your day?
Its been quite a ride here in the Canteen!!
Today's classic warship, USS Conserver (ARS-39)
Diver class salvage ship
Displacement. 1441 t.
Lenght. 213'6"
Beam. 39'
Draft. 14'8"
Speed. 15 k.
Complement. 120
Armament. 2 x 40mm
ISS Conserver (ARS-39) was launched 27 January 1945 by Basalt Rock Corp., Napa, Calif.; sponsored by Mrs. H. Price; and commissioned 9 June 1945 at South Vallejo, Calif., Lieutenant C. H. Rocklidge, USNR, in command.
Conserver arrived at Sasebo, Japan, 21 September 1945, and until 3 March 1946, she carried out salvage operations at Sasebo, Okinawa, Yokosuka, Aomori, and Hakodate in support of the occupation, and after preparations at Pearl Harbor, arrived at Bikini 29 March. She served in the Marshall Islands, aiding in Operation "Crossroads," the atomic weapons tests of 1946, until 2 September 1947, when she arrived at Manila for duty in the Philippines. From 9 April 1948 to 26 September, she served in Hawaiian waters, and then in Alaskan waters, returning to Pearl Harbor 13 January 1949.
From Pearl Harbor, Conserver returned to operate off Alaska between 14 April 1949 and 7 June, and from 10 December to 25 March 1950. With the outbreak of the Korean war, she arrived at Yokosuka 15 July, and between 15 July and 1 August carried out salvage and diving assignments in Korean waters. After a brief overhaul at Yokosuka, she salvaged a fuel pipeline at Iwo Jima, and from 10 September until 24 December returned to Korean waters. After a final towing voyage from Japan to Korea in January 1951, Conserver returned to local operations at Pearl Harbor from 16 February to 28 May. After salvage duty at Kwajalein and Majuro, she returned to Pearl Harbor to prepare for her second tour of duty in the Korean War. She arrived at Sasebo 27 September, and operated primarily in Korean waters until 7 May 1952, when she cleared for San Diego.
After operating on the west coast until 4 August 1952, Conserver sailed for brief duty at Pearl Harbor, Kwajalein, Guam, Subic Bay, Bangkok, Singapore, and Sangley Point, returning to Pearl Harbor 22 October. On 6 April 1953, she returned to Sasebo for duty in Korean waters until 9 November, when she cleared for Pearl Harbor.
From the close of the Korean war through 1960, Conserver alternated operations in the Hawaiian Islands with occasional towing and salvage duty in Pacific islands and tours of duty in the Far East in 1954, 1955, 1955-56, 1957, 1958-59, 1959, and 1960. Between 20 September 1958 and 20 October, she gave salvage and towing service off Taiwan as American ships stood by during the Quemoy Crisis.
Over the decades of the 1960s, 70s and most of the 80s, Conserver continued her work of salvage, towing and other important fleet support. She deployed to the Western Pacific nearly every year. In 1965, Conserver helped salvage the stranded destroyer USS Frank Knox (DDR-742). She operated in Vietnamese waters regularly from 1966 into 1972 and was engaged in search and recovery operations after the Soviet Union shot down a Korean airliner in 1983.
Laid up in September 1986, Conserver returned to active service a year later. Her subsequent operations were generally in the Hawaiian area, with occasional deployments to the U.S. West Coast and the South and Central Pacific. After almost a half-century of hard work, USS Conserver was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in April 1994.
Conserver received nine battle stars for Korean war service.
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