CAMP WALKER, South Korea (July 15, 2014) -- Soldiers from the 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, "Team 19," tested out the newly released airbeam shelter for the first time, from June 30 to July 3, here, in preparation for upcoming Ulchi-Freedom Guardian exercise.
Ulchi-Freedom Guardian, or UFG, is a military exercise between U.S. and Republic of Korea Army focused on defending South Korea from North Korean attacks and 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, or ESC, is trying to deliver more mission flexibility by improving their Assault Command Post Training.
As the officer in charge, 1st Lt. Lee, Young-gyu, executive officer, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 19th ESC was proud of the Soldiers for being ready for the upcoming training as they were able to demonstrate the mission capability of the Assault Command Post, known as an ACP.
"We bring more mission flexibility to UFG," said Lee. "With this new tent, our ACP will provide a larger area to operate as we have [had] new Soldiers [arrive] since Key Resolve."
He emphasized the importance of Soldiers being able to familiarize and understand how to construct and utilize the equipment during training.
The field expert of the ACP layout, Master Sgt. Scott C. Fuchs, operations non-commissioned officer in charge, 19th ESC, pointed out the major differences that the new shelter has in contrast to the old ones.
"This new tent is more user friendly than the old one and more operator friendly," said Fuchs. "The Yeager tent, or the old tent, consists of around eight to ten bags of pieces, and it takes six hours just to set it up; while the new tent is a one giant piece and consumes only half an hour."
Compared to its previous version, which is constructed by iron beams, the new tent is built based on beams filled with compressed air, is much larger to operate, and only requires a few Soldiers to stretch the tent in shape and pump the air in.
Cpl. Lim, Han-ul, administration specialist, 19th ESC, who has set up the ACP before, shared his thoughts on how the airbeam shelter is much more convenient for the Soldiers.
"It was such a hard job with the iron beams, and so many components were required for the shelter to be set up in the past," said Lim. "This new one, however, only has a single component, and all we need to do is to pump it up with air. I like this one better, and I think it is 1.5 times larger in size."
The 19th ESC provides operational sustainment and theater mission command for sustainment support to Eighth Army, and by Team 19 expanding the mission flexibility of the ACP, they will be essential to maintaining the "Fight Tonight Readiness."
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19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command
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