October - Library - Central Queensland University

8
Maintenance In Iraq
When it comes to asset care, a war zone and
an industrial plant have much in common
U
Ricky Smith (USA)
This article first appeared in Plant Services
Magazine www.plantservices.com
Apache Helicopter Maintenance In Iraq
ntil recently, I was a company commander of a maintenance company stationed in Kuwait in support of Operation Iraqi
Freedom. My specialty in civilian life is industrial and facility maintenance. My unit supports all U.S. military units (Army, Marine,
Navy and Air Force) stationed in Kuwait, passing through to Iraq, and re t u rning home. We supplied them with all types of maintenance,
including vehicle re c o v e ry, vehicle re p a i r, generator repair (to 1,000 kW), A/C repair (on vehicles and facilities), weapons re p a i r,
and fabrication and installation of armor plates on all types of U.S. Army vehicles.
We provide support in Iraq to coalition forces (Polish, Czech, Mongolian and Bulgarian, among others). My soldiers entered Najaf
by convoy when the big fight was going on there. In fact, the convoy in front of ours was attacked and the convoy behind was
attacked. Ours wasn’t hit. My unit operated under what we call ‘guns up.’ That means we were ready to fight at all times. Most
insurgents are looking for easy prey, not risky targets that may get them killed. Of course, flying our Jolly Roger flag didn’t hurt our
image.
My unit hit the ground running. In April 2005, when all supply convoys in
Iraq were being destroyed, we were ord e red to repair more than 135
broken Military Police Humvees and to armor them for convoy security.
During this time, my soldiers worked more than 35,000 labor-hours to
accomplish this task in less than three weeks. We changed more than
3,000 parts, including engines, transmissions, brake systems and the like
during the mission. Once these vehicles were sent back north, convoys
could begin to roll again.
During the year, my soldiers responded in one way or another to
everything you saw on the news. We are one of two units involved with
adding armor to vehicles going to Iraq. A few months ago, a soldier asked
S e c re t a ry of Defense Rumsfeld about the vehicle armoring program in
Iraq. The soldier, who was complaining about not having armor on military
vehicles, didn’t tell the whole story.
What angered his unit was that they wanted more armor than what was
being given to them. The problem is that the world doesn’t have enough
armor plate to provide every unit with all the armor they feel is needed.
Major Smith with Musket!