Home » Archives » "Combat Repair Team keeps vehicles prepared for battle"

Combat Repair Team keeps vehicles prepared for battle

Jan- 3-2006 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

Link to Full Article
By MARGARET FRIEDENAUER, The News-Miner

FORWARD OPERATING BASE Q-WEST--Americans live on the road and take their cars to mechanics for a myriad of reasons to keep them road worthy. In Iraq, vehicles come to the shop to remain "battle ready."

Here at the home of the Combat Repair Team for the 4th Battalion, 11 Field Artillery, a group of ingenious mechanics keeps a battalion worth of Humvees and Army vehicles running and battle ready. The place cycled 16 Humvees in and out of the shop by noon on Friday.

Staff Sgt. Victor Carrillo is the foreman here, overseeing 43 armored Humvees in the battalion and their upkeep. His team of about a dozen mechanics is not responsible for routine maintenance like an oil change; those tasks are mostly the responsibility of the vehicle operators. Brake work, engine re-builds, transmission overhauls and the like are his team's specialties. Friday morning there were two engines in a state of being rebuilt. And a howitzer mechanic was sending sparks flying as she jumped in to help with auto repairs, using a plasma welder to fabricate a bracket.

It was like the quintessential shop class. [...]


Advertisements