Soldiers head north to Alaska to hone skills, improve materiel readiness

By Mr Charles Fick (AMC)July 18, 2011

Honing skills
Spc. Marcus Phelps, a Mexico Beach, Fla. native, now serving as a wheeled vehicle mechanic for the 1st Maintenance Company,541st Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, Fort Riley, Kan., replaces an upper ball joint on an Army High Mobility Multipurpos... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska - Getting the most out of their 12-hour days here, Soldiers are honing their technical skills while contributing to materiel readiness and saving money.

An agreement between Army Materiel Command and Army Forces Command entitled "Leveraging Sustainment Organizations in Continental United States" has opened the way for matching Soldiers to missions.

At its heart, the LSOC agreement calls for building "upon the already strong relationships between the Expeditionary Sustainment Commands (ESC), the Sustainment Brigades (SB), the Army Sustainment Command, and the Army Field Support Brigades (AFSB), all in support of the senior commander and his/her Army force generation (ARFORGEN) mission."

In its first test of the agreement, ASC is facilitating a mission in which three successive teams of Soldiers from the "lower 48" are augmenting Fort Wainwright's maintenance capability.

"Bringing Soldiers into the equation creates new opportunities," said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Billy J. Jackson, ASC's chief of maintenance and workloading. In addition, he noted, employing Soldiers saves a considerable sum compared to the alternate solution of hiring contracted labor.

The mission had its start when the Fort Wainwright Directorate of Logisitics turned to its new command partner, Army Field Support Battalion - Alaska, for assistance with repairing and servicing vehicles left behind when troops of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, deployed to Afghanistan.

Once the need for additional mechanics was identified, ASC pushed a proposal forward to temporarily add Soldiers to the Fort Wainwright maintenance capability.

Adding FORSCOM Soldiers to the mix is not the only new wrinkle in this mission: ASC is in the final stages of absorbing DOL activities from Installation Management Command.

For its part, FORSCOM, working through its 13th ESC at Fort Hood, Texas, agreed to send three teams of 39 Soldiers to Alaska, each for 30 days. The 593rd Sustainment Brigade at Joint Base Lewis - McChord, Wash., led the way in June, followed in July by a maintenance support team from the 1st Sustainment Brigade, Fort Riley, Kan., and concluding with a team from the 4th Sustainment Brigade, Fort Hood, Texas.

The Soldiers are enthusiastic about the opportunity to focus solely on their technical skills while working six-day weeks.

"I'm absolutely perfecting my skills. When I wake up here, I know I'll spend all day inspecting and repairing trucks," said Sgt. Joshua L Brown, a squad leader assigned to Fort Riley's Headquarters Company, 541st Combat Sustainment Support Battalion.

"While they're on the job in Alaska, the LSOC Soldiers will be partnered with AFSBn - Alaska," Jackson said. He went on to say the Soldier-mechanics will service and repair up to 600 pieces of rolling stock.

It's an enterprise solution to a readiness issue. ASC, in its role as the operational arm of AMC, is exercising a new capability, through a new element of the command, to ensure Soldiers of the 1/25 SBCT will return from Afghanistan to ready equipment.

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Hi-Res photos of Fort Riley Soldiers turning wrenches in Alaska