SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii -- The 25th Sustainment Brigade conducted a series of four leader professional development events that focused on instructing executive officers and maintenance leaders from the 25th Infantry Division on Department of the Army maintenance policy and available resources located here. The 25th Sust. Bde. Command Maintenance Evaluation Team spearheaded the events and provided overviews of field and sustainment levels of maintenance to include supporting doctrine throughout the series. The series ran from early September through the first week of October.
The common theme repeated by the members of the COMET team during the events was that the foundation of any good maintenance program is command maintenance. The COMET team and maintenance leaders from the 325th Brigade Support Battalion discussed methods to ensure all organizational equipment are inspected during command maintenance on a recurring basis.
"Once the officers fully understood the command maintenance policy, the focus shifted to a discussion on capabilities within the brigade combat teams and services provided by the support maintenance company to echelons above brigade," said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Kent Shepherd, team leader for the COMET and materiel readiness branch senior warrant officer for the 25th Sust. Bde. Support Operations.
The attendees received instruction on the work order process for internal maintenance actions and evacuation work orders to external support units such as the 536th Support Maintenance Company or the Logistics Readiness Center. The attendees also received a capabilities overview of the 325th BSB to gather an understanding of typical repairs that would exceed the Forward Support Company capabilities. Following this discussion, the officers received a tour of the Company B, 325th BSB, Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives (CBRNE) and Arms Rooms to observe systems and procedures that would help to ensure proper cleanliness, organization, security, and maintenance record filing systems in accordance with Army policies.
"The tours served as a demonstration of tracking systems," said Shepherd. "It demonstrated a system that was developed by a unit armorer over in the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade that we are trying to spread across the board. Those rooms were set up as kind of a static display or a model for them to look at and to take back what they saw and try to incorporate that into their own CBRNE and arms rooms."
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Chad Ellison, the 325th BSB Maintenance Technician, said the tours helped by reminding leaders at all levels they must strive for balance when it comes to maintaining equipment. Ellison, along with other warrant officers from across the division, assisted the COMET team by discussing Army maintenance policies and practices.
"It's too easy to focus the majority of our attention on the Humvees, trucks, trailers, and generators, because that equipment is in the motor pool where the formation for command maintenance takes place," said Ellison. "Let's change things up a little and start having command maintenance formations in the Quads and in the company areas so that units can open up their Arms Rooms for Soldiers to maintain their weapons, spare barrels, night vision devices, and navigation devices."
Ellison discussed how his battalion is trying different methods to ensure those maintenance inspections encompass all of the equipment authorized on its current Modified Table of Organization and Equipment. He emphasized how leaders need to continue to look for ways that are effective and efficient and allows the unit to maintain all of its equipment in a serviceable condition all of the time.
The officers participated in a tour of their respective brigade Supply Support Activity yards to see how parts requests escalate from the unit supply ordering system into Global Combat Support System-Army. This was illustrated by discussing how a request arrives at the ZPARK for funds approval and begins the order process from their supporting SSA, through to the Logistics Readiness Center, and on to the National level, where the source of supply has the requested part on hand.
The culmination of this discussion was a demonstration of how parts are received, processed, and placed in the customer bins for pick-up. In GCSS-Army, a supply or purchase request generates a submission to ZPARK for funding approval. Once the purchase requisition has been approved, a commitment and obligation is recorded in GCSS-Army, creating the purchase order.
"ZPARK is a funds approval process," said Shepherd. "When a part is ordered, the request goes up and sits in the ZPARK for the resource managers to say, 'Yes, we have funds and we're going to pay for that.' When they approve it, the request goes further up to wherever the part may come from; whether it's a national supply source or from a local warehouse. Ultimately, the parts end up in the bins for the customers; the operators, mechanics, and technicians, ready to be used."
The tours were followed by lunch discussions where the officers discussed ways to ensure leader involvement within organizational equipment service programs. The key highlights of the discussion emphasized the commander's role, methods for tracking services on the training calendar, the importance of protecting Soldiers from distractions during execution of maintenance services, the Army's Low-Usage Program, quality assurance and control programs, service briefs, and inspection programs.
"The thing about maintenance is this; there are some things that are predictable," said Shepherd. "When it comes to scheduled maintenance for services, we can look out and we can forecast when those services are scheduled so we know exactly how much oil we're going to need for a year. How many filters, how many seals; all that stuff is very predictable. When it comes to unscheduled maintenance, we don't have a crystal ball so we don't know when an engine is going to blow."
Following the lunch discussions, the officers received a capabilities tour of the 536th SMC to see how the 25th I.D. is providing support to 8th Theater Sustainment Command units and other commands across U.S. Army-Hawaii. The tour illustrated the capabilities of the 536th SMC Armament and Communications & Electronics (C&E) shops and included a demonstration of the load test program.
The officers then received a tour of the Test, Measurement & Diagnostic Equipment (TMDE) lab, and were instructed on the importance of the program and best practices for providing leader oversight.
The events transitioned at this point to highlight some of the valuable assets that supporting agencies within USARHAW provide for the Soldier. This included an overview of the Schofield Barracks LRC, a 'windshield' tour of LRC maintenance repair facilities, instruction on the work order process, and an introduction to key leaders. Following this tour, the officers visited the Installation Publications Stockroom to gain an understanding on how to open accounts and to request critical technical manuals for units to conduct maintenance inspections.
Finally, the officers received a tour of the Army Field Support Battalion-Hawaii headquarters and received briefings on the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command's Tobyhanna Army Depot Forward Repair Activity facility and its capability to repair computers, printers, and other specialized communications equipment. The tour ended with a visit to the 25th Inf. Division's Force Integration Complex where they received informative briefings about CECOM personnel that are available to train Soldiers on the operation and repair of the communications platforms that are used on the battlefield today.
"We've been at war for the past 15 years and we've had leaders that have become reliant upon contractors to manage all of their maintenance programs," said Shepherd. "Now we are taking those commanders and leaders and showing them all of these systems that are in place throughout Schofield Barracks and Hawaii. Where to get the support from, who to talk to, how to put a name with a face, how these systems actually work, so they can build a network of sorts so they can take that responsibility back to within their units. The maintenance terrain walks were packed with valuable discussion, interactions with key personnel, and tours of those supporting agencies. Based off of the overwhelmingly positive feedback we've received from senior leaders across this division, this event looks to become an annual requirement for all executive officers within the 25th Infantry Division and will undoubtedly shape leaders for years to come."
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