Middle: SGT Workman, a certified machinist in his civilian job, mentors SGT Carroll, a 91E Allied Trade Specialist, to operate a computer numerical control mill inside a metal working and machining shop set at U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria, Grafenwoehr, Germany.
Right: SGT Bonham and SPC Dech, 91L Construction Equipment Repairers, work on a D9 dozer at U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria, Grafenwoehr, Germany. VIEW ORIGINAL
With today’s numerous challenges from both China and Russia, the U.S. Army is placing unprecedented emphasis on readiness across all echelons. A critical part of the overall Army readiness is its equipment readiness, for which maintenance operation plays a decisive role.
Among the Army maintenance organizations, support maintenance companies (SMCs) are uniquely positioned to assist echelon above brigade (EAB) units. Since 93% of the Army’s SMCs belong to either the U.S. Army Reserve (USAR) or the National Guard (NG), successful integration of Reserve Components’ (RCs’) SMCs into the Army’s overall maintenance power is crucial for the Army’s readiness to dominate its adversaries in competition, crisis, and ultimately armed conflict.
The 758th SMC, a reserve unit from Ohio, was mobilized in 2024 and deployed to the U.S. European Command (USEUCOM), joining other regionally aligned forces (RAF) for Operation Atlantic Resolve. While in theater, the 758th SMC was attached to the Regular Army’s (RA’s) 18th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion (CSSB), 16th Sustainment Brigade, 21st Theater Sustainment Command. Throughout its nine-month USEUCOM rotation, the 758th SMC’s successful integration into the 18th CSSB and the resultant boost in theater maintenance capability highlighted RC SMCs’ critical role for the Army’s maintenance excellence, providing valuable lessons for sustainment leaders across all three components: the RA, the NG, and the USAR.
SMC: the Maintenance Workhorse for EAB units
Structurally, an SMC is composed of three platoons: automotive armaments, electronic maintenance, and ground support equipment. Additionally, there is a company headquarters consisting of operation section (e.g., supply, communication, etc.) and maintenance control section. All active-duty SMCs and four NG SMCs possess organic test, measurement, and diagnostic equipment (TMDE) platoons. Typically attached to a CSSB, an SMC’s primary objective is to provide general support via field-level maintenance, limited wheeled vehicle recovery, and welding and fabrication capabilities to customer units identified by the CSSB, usually on an area basis.
Despite having the same goal of sustaining maintenance, an SMC is equivalent to neither a brigade support battalion’s (BSB’s) field maintenance company nor to the maintenance platoons of various forward support companies (FSCs) attached to their assigned battalions in a brigade combat team (BCT). Unlike FSCs, an SMC is incapable of providing maintenance to major combat systems, such as the M1 Abrams, M2 Bradley, or M1256 Stryker, since those major systems’ maintainers are in either an FSC’s maintenance platoon, a CSSB’s attached maintenance surge teams, or the field maintenance section within a combat logistics company under the light support battalion in a mobile BCT per the Transformation in Contact initiative.
Regarding the priority of support, an SMC differs from a BSB’s field maintenance company for its focus on general support to EAB entities, including transiting-through units, on an area basis. In contrast, a BSB’s field maintenance company prioritizes general support to its BSB units within the brigade support area while reinforcing maintenance for low-density commodities such as communication, electronics, and armaments to FSCs. In contrast to a BSB’s field maintenance company’s general support-reinforcing relationship within the BCT’s hierarchy, an SMC prides itself in both its breadth and depth of maintenance coverage via general support.
Importance of RC SMCs Amid the Shift to Division Fight
As the Army refocuses on large-scale combat operations (LSCO) and multidomain operations, the emphasis on division-level combat power necessitates the reflagging of 10 RA and eight NG CSSBs to division sustainment support battalions (DSSBs), heavy or light. In contrast to a CSSB, whose only organic subordinate is its headquarters and headquarters company, a DSSB has four organic companies, one of which is its division support maintenance company (DSMC).
Structurally, a DSMC is equivalent to an SMC with an organic TMDE platoon. Nevertheless, under a garrison setting, with only one active-duty DSMC per division at its home station, a huge disparity exists between the overall equipment maintenance requirement versus the actual maintenance Soldiers available for work. Consequently, commanders are inadvertently forced to selectively allocate their maintenance manpower in garrison, resulting in a tiered priority of support among its customer units. As demonstrated by the 524th DSSB’s case study published in the summer 2024 edition of Army Sustainment, despite having the same scope and scale of support as its CSSB predecessor, the nature of its divisional-oriented command and support relationships has resulted in an astounding 53.7% deficit in annual maintenance man-hours for its DSMC. In contrast, employment of a DSB in LSCO will require mobilization of additional units, including CSSBs with SMCs to fully meet the maintenance requirements of the division. These CSSBs, the majority of which are from the reserve components, operate via general support relations with all units in its area of operation (AO), following the CSSB’s guidelines. Therefore, deployment of a CSSB with attached SMC plugs the maintenance manpower shortage and thus is necessary to ensure continuity and responsiveness of maintenance support in AOs with significant non-divisional EAB units, or with a multitude of diverse units transiting through the AO.
Given that the LSCO division’s fight requires integrating various non-divisional enablers, SMCs attached to CSSBs remain crucial to the theater’s overall equipment readiness. Consequently, RC SMCs are becoming increasingly relevant simply because of their sheer numbers. By 2030, for every single active-duty SMC, there will be one equivalent counterpart — with organic TMDE capability — in the NG, plus another 12 more RC SMCs, minus organic TMDE capabilities. Therefore, the successful integration of RC SMCs into active-duty CSSBs throughout the conflict continuum is paramount.
Due to the heightened op tempo after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, USEUCOM sustainment requirements prompted the Army to reactivate the 95th CSSB at Baumholder, Germany, in 2023, and to assign it the 317th SMC, the only RA SMC in Europe, away from the 18th CSSB at Grafenwoehr. Hence, a force tracking number (FTN) was established for an RAF SMC attached to the 18th CSSB to augment its maintenance capability. From July 2024 to April 2025, the 758th SMC served as the RAF SMC at Grafenwoehr, Germany. For the 758th SMC, this is its first mobilization in more than a decade after its previous deployment to Iraq in 2007.
Mission-Oriented, Doctrinally Correct Force Posture for the Deployed SMC
Leadership’s priority is to understand its mission. As outlined in the operation order and its deployment FTN, the objective for 758th SMC’s USEUCOM mobilization is to sustain theater equipment readiness. Therefore, the mobilized SMC’s leadership must align its priorities with the objective of providing maintenance capabilities to customer units to sustain equipment readiness across its AO. By observing tenets such as mission command and the eight principles of sustainment, the 758th SMC tailored its force posture, fulfilling its obligation to all customer units throughout its mobilization.
After receiving the initial deployment warning order in 2022, the 758th SMC conducted several exercises, including a trip into “the box” with an RC CSSB at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California, and company field training exercises at Fort Knox, Kentucky. These exercises drastically improved the unit’s mission-essential tasks in base defense and Soldier resilience. However, the lack of military occupational specialty (MOS) training hindered the 758th SMC’s ability to execute its core maintenance missions. Particularly for Soldiers in low-density MOSs, such as 91J Quartermaster and Chemical Equipment Repairer, a lack of MOS-specific training, plus the actual shortage of deployable Soldiers, have persisted over the years. For instance, while the 758th SMC’s modified table of organization and equipment lists three slots for 91J, there was only one 91J Soldier ready to deploy. For the sole deployable 91J Soldier, who started as a private in the company and eventually advanced to staff sergeant, she has only performed MOS maintenance tasks at the schoolhouse, rather than at the unit during weekend battle assemblies or annual training. Even for high-density MOSs, such as 91B Wheeled Vehicle Mechanics, their MOS proficiency has also atrophied over time, because their primary MOS experience was conducting basic Level 10 preventive maintenance checks and services (PMCS) on the company’s organic rolling stock during battle assemblies.
Recognizing the capability gap between MOS-specific proficiency and the demand for the theater equipment readiness, 758th SMC’s leaders realized the importance of MOS competency. They implemented a multi-pronged approach throughout the mobilization to address the deficiency while sustaining maintenance combat power for the CSSB.
Train as You Fight
As the strategic context in USEUCOM fluctuates between competition and crisis, and drawing from the latest LSCO lessons from Ukraine, the 758th SMC has adapted itself to mimic how the 18th CSSB operates in theater. From establishing dispersed, multi-nodal maintenance sites to setting up an expeditionary weld shop with the forward repair system next to the customer’s M88 tracked wrecker, the 758th SMC worked with 1st Army Division East during its pre-deployment training at Fort Hood, Texas, to sharpen its proficiency. The armament section chief organized mobile repair teams to offer 24/7 coverage for customer units in theater. With dispersed shops in permanent buildings and an armament repair shop set, plus mobile teams equipped with gage kits and tool sets in M1097 trucks responding to customer units’ urgent request for maintenance support amid their live fire exercises in the field, Soldiers sustained readiness and practiced maintenance operation in an expeditionary setting.
Train to Maintain
Unfortunately, RC Soldiers’ MOS proficiency slowly deteriorates due to a lack of hands-on training during typical battle assemblies, partly because commanders must balance a multitude of demands from higher headquarters. Hence, it is critical to train to maintain Soldiers’ MOS capability with all resources. The 758th SMC tapped into its Soldiers’ civilian expertise, yielding drastic improvement to MOS proficiency.
RC units commonly include in their ranks military technicians (MILTECHs) who are federal civilian employees and are required by law to maintain reserve military status, and other Department of the Army civilian employees (DACs). There are MILTECHs who work in RC regional Army maintenance support activities or equipment concentration sites, doing the same job on the civilian side as their military MOS, focusing all their work hours on their MOS-specific jobs, rather than splitting time between maintenance-related tasks and general Soldiering tasks like their active-duty peers. By setting up teams led by those MILTECHs and DACs who mentor junior Soldiers with their MOS wisdom, the 758th SMC enables cross-leveling of domain knowledge throughout its mobilization.
The Citizen-Soldiers in RCs provide a pool of civilian skills that SMC leadership needs to discover and translate into combat power. A private first class in the 758 SMC’s ground support equipment platoon works on the civilian side as a licensed heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) technician with multiple certificates. Realizing his talents from his civilian education and work experience, leadership encouraged the private to mentor all other 91C Utilities Equipment Repairer in their MOS proficiency. At first glance, it might astonish observers that a 91C staff sergeant was consulting a private on how to braze copper tubing around sensitive electronics, yet both Soldiers benefited from the knowledge symbiosis: the staff sergeant polished his MOS proficiency, while the private gained firsthand Army leadership experience.
Fight to Train
The 758th SMC took the initiative to seize training opportunities. It did this by following the 18th CSSB commander’s intent on reviving the skills of correctly diagnosing and repairing, instead of merely replacing damaged parts under allocated maintenance expenditure limits. These skills had gradually diminished when the old Level 30 direct support maintenance merged into field-level maintenance back in 2005 during the transition to current two-level, field verse sustainment maintenance processes. When Maintenance Activity Vilseck, a local office of the Theater Logistics Support Center – Europe, experienced backlogs of load testing, the allied trade section took the initiative to design, fabricate, and implement a lift apparatus, enabling the CSSB’s organic loading testing capability for various pacing items, such as M984 wreckers and all-terrain lifter Army system 10K forklifts. Assisted by the 18th CSSB support operation, the 758th SMC’s maintenance control team sourced commercially available components from stateside vendors for the apparatus. Consequently, the 758th SMC generated new maintenance combat power for the CSSB while simultaneously practicing fundamental MOS skills for multiple sections.
Besides fighting to train its own maintainers, the 758th SMC also involved low-density maintenance MOS Soldiers from other companies within the CSSB and its Soldiers in support MOSs to strive for additional training opportunities. After synchronizing with leadership across the CSSB, the 758th SMC incorporated the lone 91C Soldier in the 23rd Ordnance Company and several 91D Power Generation Equipment Repairers in the 493rd Quartermaster Petroleum and 221st Field Feeding companies into the SMC’s respective maintenance team to refresh everyone’s MOS proficiency with hands-on workloads. On the other hand, the CSSB’s S-6 team took in an RAF SMC’s 25U Signal Support System Specialist to enhance her proficiency in tactical and operational communication. For its single 74D Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Specialist, the 758th SMC tasked her with calibration on the SMC’s CBRN detectors alongside the DACs at the Vilseck TMDE shop.
The 758th SMC also adjusted its weekly battle rhythms, shifting the day of PMCS for its organic equipment from the traditional Monday to Thursday. By having all maintainers ready on Monday to address any questions raised by customer units’ operators during their motor pool Mondays, the 758th SMC’s Soldiers were exposed to various platforms, enhancing their breadth of MOS domain knowledge. Consequently, the customer units received continuity, integration, and responsiveness. As customer units engaged in sergeant’s time training on Thursdays, the 758th shifted a majority of its Soldiers to conduct internal PMCS, while still preserving a skeleton crew of experienced maintainers for all commodity shops in anticipation of any urgent customer requests.
Counterarguments abound regarding how RC SMCs must operate while attached to RA CSSBs. Disagreement emerged when leaders have conflicting views on the unit’s actual priority. Nevertheless, since the overarching objective for the 758th SMC as USEUCOM RAF is to sustain theater equipment readiness, it is evident that the unit’s priority is general support via maintenance sustainment to EAB customer units on an area basis. Hence, SMC leaders should reach consensus and, if necessary, leverage appropriate intervention from the CSSB to empower overall mission success.
Reserve SMC: Ready Today to Shape Tomorrow’s LSCO Fight
As the Army readies all echelons amid the paradigm shift to LSCO, maintenance is playing an increasingly crucial role in achieving dominance on tomorrow’s battlefield. As with the latest Army 2030 Force Structure Initiatives and its Transformation in Contact, the Army maintenance enterprise is steadfastly evolving to meet the challenges posted by LSCO. By successfully mobilizing RC SMCs to active-duty CSSBs throughout the conflict continuum, the Army can unlock the full potential of maintenance capability while ensuring reserve maintenance Soldiers are ready today to shape tomorrow’s fight.
Author’s note: Special thanks to Mr. Jeffrey Martin, deputy director, Fielded Force Integration Directorate, Combined Arms Support Command (CASCOM), Ms. Amber Smith, director, Analysis, Assessment, and Integration Directorate, CASCOM, MAJ Albert Farley, then 18th CSSB executive officer, CW4 Daniel Bish, then 758th SMC automotive chief, CPT Robert Wooldridge, 310th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) public affairs officer, and 1LT Suzi Lee, 23rd Ordnance Company platoon leader, for their generous contributions and critique to this article.
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MAJ Albert Farley III is a logistics officer currently serving as the G-4 for the 7th Army Training Command. He has 16 years of military service, including 14 years as a commissioned officer and two years as an enlisted member. He has served in a variety of assignments, including tours with the 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command (Korea), the 82nd Airborne Division, the 10th Mountain Division, the Army Sustainment University, and U.S. Army Europe and Africa. He holds a Master of Arts degree in transportation and logistics management from American Military University. He has completed the Command and General Staff College and the Combined Logistics Captain Career Course.
1LT Ya Xing He is a petroleum officer in the support operations section, headquarters and headquarters company, 354th Quartermaster Group of the U.S. Army Reserve. When he wrote this article, he served as the maintenance control officer for the 758th Support Maintenance Company, a reserve unit out of Whitehall, Ohio, during the unit’s mobilization to Europe in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve. He was commissioned via Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning and completed the Basic Officer Leadership Course in the Ordnance branch at Fort Lee. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the Ohio State University.
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This article was published in the winter 2026 issue of Army Sustainment.
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