DoD's only mobile repair team located at MCAAP

MCALESTER, Okla.-- As the only Department of Defense mobile rail repair team, the 35 rail road workers at McAlester Army Ammunition Plant keep plenty busy as they crisscross America providing a vital national security service to other Army installations and military services.

Since October, the MCAAP rail crew, generally consisting of nine to 10 volunteers on three-week assignments, have been to Sierra Army Depot, Nev.; Radford Army Ammunition Plant, Va.; Tooele Army Depot, Utah; Shaw Air Force Base S.C, and the Defense Logistics Agency's fuel depot also in Charleston. Upcoming trips include Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo., Pine Bluff Arsenal, Ark. and three air bases in South Korea. Each crew requires five complete semi-truck loads of equipment.

After their first three weeks on the job, they return home for two weeks then return again for another three weeks and the cycle is continued until the rail assignment is completed, according to Steve Bedford, rail road maintenance supervisor. Bedford estimated that this is their second busiest year since the inception of the mobile rail repair service in 1994.

"We do it all," said Bedford when asked what MCAAP's rail repair capabilities were. "Everything from laying down new rail to surface and alignment, road crossings . . . anything having to do with the railroad, we do," he said.

Right now MCAAP's mobile repair team is at Tooele Army Depot replacing 3,000 feet of rail to a critical part of the depot's rail line. Included in that 3,000 feet of rail are seven turnouts, rails going into and out of the round house, asphalt service aprons at the round house, a 35-foot wide concrete grade crossing and three rail sidings.

According to Robert Rieper, construction representative at Tooele, "if we lose this (rail capability) we won't be able to service any of our mission needs." The repair team began Jan. 4 and should take two to three months depending upon the weather, Rieper said.

McAlester Army Ammunition Plant is the premier bomb and missile warhead loading facility for the Department of Defense and is one of 15 Joint Munitions Command installations.

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