Pine Bluff Arsenal's highly-skilled workforce continues to impress and shine as critical capabilities emerge in the area of chemical defense for the Warfighter.

During fiscal year 2016, the Arsenal's Directorate of Material Management was approached by the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense to explore the possibility of using the installation as the receiving, storage and shipping center for the new Joint Expeditionary Collective Protection Systems or JECP. These systems are manufactured for fielding to the joint services.

"The JECP consists of three different systems being produced and fielded from the Arsenal," said Allen Huff, project manager with MM Operations. "So far all of the systems have been sent state side, however, the latest fielding was to an overseas location and had to be containerized."

The three systems are the Structure Kit Improvement or SKI, which consists of five crates, the Tent Kit 2, which consists of eight crates, and the Stand Alone Large or SAL, which consists of 13 crates. All three systems, according to Huff, have some common components, the only difference is the size and capacity of each.

"When MM was approached about the overseas shipments of the SAL systems, we were asked about what it would take to break all the equipment out of the crates. All of the equipment is in special packaging," said Huff. "The system actually goes with each unit, are used, repackaged and maintained. There is a possibility that PBA will carry the sustainment of these systems in the future."

The initial shipment of these systems arrived on the installation in October 2016, since that time PBA has received approximately 115 systems, and shipped approximately 40 to various fielding locations. MM has supported the fielding operation by providing the facilities and manpower to uncrate and stage the systems prior to the arrival date of the JECP team for inspections.

"I wanted to make sure and give kudos to the following material handlers for their involvement with this project: Brian McElroy, Fred White, Jimmy Flowers and Michael Carter. They were our heavy lifters for the recent OCONUS JECP shipment," said Monte Smith, storage division chief for MM.

PBA's handling of this project has opened the doors for further workload in the future, said Smith. "Future sets and sustainment look like a definite possibility for us," he said.

John Hollenbeck with MM's Storage and Inventory Divisions said that the 'so what?' about this mission is that PBA is delivering readiness to the Warfighter. "The Arsenal's role is to deliver more than the customer asks for," he said.

Huff said that there are still quite a few of the systems on the installation that will be fielded. "We are also working with our customer on units for the Air Force," he said.

Since the initial build of these systems starting a year and a half ago, Huff said there have been a number of change and modifications to some of the components.

"MM has to coordinate the efforts to have the systems opened up, de-crated and inspected. This efforts was made for validation of serial numbers on the components that are supplied by different manufacturers as well as for repair," he said. "This was a PBA combined effort with all divisions across MM and the Directorate of Public Works. It was a very successful mission to meet this fielding requirement."