Celebrating Good Maintenance

By 1LT Reginald Davis, 1083rd Transportation Company, 541st CSSB, 15th SBDE, 13th ESCApril 12, 2010

Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Melvin Rutledge, the 264th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion senior noncommissioned officer, shakes hand with Spc. James Elledge, with the 1083rd Transportation Company, and awards him for his outstanding performance on missions...
1 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Melvin Rutledge, the 264th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion senior noncommissioned officer, shakes hand with Spc. James Elledge, with the 1083rd Transportation Company, and awards him for his outstanding performance on missions as ... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Chief Warrant Officer Pendley, Alabama, a maintenance warrant assigned to the 2025th Transportation Company, 264th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 15th Sustainment Brigade, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), receives a battalion coin...
2 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Chief Warrant Officer Pendley, Alabama, a maintenance warrant assigned to the 2025th Transportation Company, 264th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 15th Sustainment Brigade, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), receives a battalion coin fro... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
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CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE SPEICHER, Iraq - The maintenance sections from the 1083rd Transportation Company and the 2025th Transportation Company, both with the 264th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, and representatives from Kellogg, Brown, and Root were participants in a ceremony here March 22.

The ceremony, hosted by Lt. Col. Steven DeBusk and Command Sgt. Maj. Melvin Rutledge, the 264th CSSB's commander and senior noncommissioned officer respectively, was held to commemorate their maintenance efforts.

The maintenance teams worked as a joint team to ensure that the primary ground transportation mover, the heavy equipment transporter system, remained on the main and alternate supply routes to support the drawdown operations in Iraq.

Keeping with the military tradition of coins for a job well done, battalion coins were presented to the following Soldiers from the 1083rd Trans Co: Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth Stockton, Staff Sgt. Todd Krebsbach, Sgt. Tequila Ward, and Spc. James Elledge.

Chief Warrant Officer Michael Pendley, Sgt. 1st Class William Boykin, Staff Sgt. Kevin Hanvey and Spc. Richard McRobert, all with the 2025th Trans Co., received coins as well.

After the awards ceremony, DeBusk personally thanked each Soldier of both maintenance sections and the civilian support teams for all the hard work they have done over the 10 months that 1083rd and 2025th have been in country.

"With your attention to detail and distinct skills, you have made the battalion's ability to do business that much better!" DeBusk said to the Soldiers.

Sgt. 1st Class Stockton, an Anacoco, La., native with the 1083rd Trans Co., said keeping the trucks going is hard work, but it is important work.

"Our guys are doing an excellent job. Without regular maintenance, the HET systems would have more issues while on the road." Stockton said, "We work 80 hours a week with rotating shifts and the major thing I wanted to instill in the platoon was to not let a HET system become dead-lined on the side of the road.