FORT LEE, Va. - The team from the 75th Ranger Regiment proved they were the best at receiving and storing munitions in the weeklong Army Ammunition Transfer Holding Point (ATHP) Team of the Year competition at Fort Pickett, Virginia.
The ATHP Team of the Year is an event that brings together the pinnacle of the Army's ATHP community to train, evaluate, and assess the most effective tactics, techniques, and procedures employed by the operational field against a spectrum of ATHP problems.
The Ranger team, out of Fort Benning, Georgia, was Chief Warrant Officer 2 Joseph Giron, ammunition warrant officer, Sgt. 1st Class Darryl Skelley, ammunition specialist, Sgt. Luis Heredia, motor transport operator, Sgt. Michael DeBord, automated logistical specialist, and Spc. James Maus, an infantryman.
"What made us successful was that in the Rangers we are a team," said Giron. "We had different skills but because of teamwork, made it happen."
ATHP Team of the Year provides training and readiness insight beyond the institutional domain. Assessment of performance gives leadership an opportunity to improve institutional training and refine doctrine.
"Every year we increase the rigor, we increase the realism of the training events," said Brig. Gen. Heidi J. Hoyle, chief of ordnance, U.S. Army Ordnance Corps. "You all as competitors continue to tackle the challenges head on."
Through the week the teams were tested on Soldier tasks to include the Army Combat Fitness Test, day and night navigation, and occupy and defend an ATHP with M-4 rifle firing for scores. The ammunition skills tested were ATHP layout, munitions management and preparing munitions for transport by facilitating the receipt and transfer of ammunition to include ammunition receipt, issue, holding and storage, trans-load and operation of a Standard Army Ammunition System (SAAS) ATHP.
"While you compete one goal is you learn from each other and build confidence in your ability to handle tough, unexpected situations as an agile team," said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Pennie S. Temmerman, military deputy, Munitions & Logistics Readiness Center, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois. "Friendly competition shows the ammunition enterprise and the ordnance community will do our part to ensure that America's Army is ready, lethal and prepared to destroy its enemies now and in the future, in any domain anytime, anywhere.
The other teams competing were Headquarters & Headquarters Company, 10th HSTB, 10th Sustainment Brigade, Fort Drum, New York -- Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jeffrey Springer, Sgt. 1st Class Kevin Tull, Sgt. Brian Nelson, Spc. Rachel Hersey, and Pfc. Fellisia Young; and 664th Ordnance Company, 553rd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division Sustainment Brigade, Fort Hood, Texas - 2nd Lt. Noah Stallbaumer, Staff Sgt. David Miller, Sgt. Ivan Rivera, Sgt. Jordin Staton, and Pvt. Alfredo Trejos.
""Without the ammunition professionals in the United States Army, we have no ability to do large-scale combat operations to fight and win the nation's wars," said Col. Joseph M. Colacicco, assistant commandant and chief of staff, U.S. Army Ordnance Corps. "The combat arms without ammunition a rifle is just a club...a tank is just a moving bunker...artillery pieces are just something that holds the ground down. It what you guys to do that makes the Army operate and do its mission. Without that we cannot get anywhere."
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