KUWAIT NAVAL BASE, Kuwait -- A troublesome obstruction located in the middle of the inner harbor basin here has been removed by members of the 402nd Army Field Support Brigade and other units.
Kuwaiti Navy and Army divers surveyed the obstruction and asked Watercraft Equipment Site-Kuwait, Army Field Support Battalion- Kuwait, if the 115-ton Barge Derrick crane from its Army Prepositioned Stock-5 set could be used to lift the wayward impediment.
The dive team, headed by dive master Staff Sgt. Kyle Broughton, 511th U.S. Army Dive Detachment, attached a lifting sling from the main hook of the crane to pre-staged slings attached to the obstruction as Lt. Col. Marc Staats, AFSBn-Kuwait battalion commander, and Lt. Col. Keith Jarolimek, Kuwait Naval Base Security Forces South battalion commander, looked on. Both commanders played a key role in orchestrating the time frame for the lift.
"The difficult part was having the dive team preposition the rock prior to the lift," said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jonathan Keyes, the APS-5 Watercraft Equipment Site's officer in charge. "The original location of the rock was too far away and the angle of the crane would have caused dangerous side loading."
After a tense hour of waiting for the divers to rig, check, and recheck the load, the crane master was given the go-ahead to start the lift. As the obstruction broke the surface, observers realized it wasn't a rock, but rather a piece of the original interlocking concrete block that was used to construct the KNB South Pier almost 40 years ago. The 12-ton oblong block was then loaded on a waiting flat bed for removal.
"The operation went smoother than we anticipated," Keyes said. "We looked at several different courses of action, and the most feasible one was to use our asset [the BD crane] which was already in place. We incorporated this mission into our preventative checks and services monthly 'rotate & swing' requirement."
The operation was completed successfully demonstrating the valuable link between Army divers and the Army's Watercraft community. It also showcased the Army Prepositioned Stock-5's BD crane capability to perform multi-agency, intra-theater missions.
Kuwait Naval Base, also known as Sheikh Muhammad Naser al-Ahmad Naval Base, is located on the country's eastern coast, 30 miles south of Kuwait City. The base is also used by the United States Fifth Fleet under the name Camp Patriot.
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