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Award-winning shops keep Army rolling along
Story and photos by Staff Sgt. Jeff Lowry, Indiana National Guard
Posted: April 24, 2008
CAMP ATTERBURY,
Ind.
- The song says it all: the Army goes rolling along.
Two Indiana
National Guard maintenance shops at
Camp
Atterbury
Joint
Maneuver
Training
Center keep Army units
rolling along. Field
Maintenance Shop 2, and Unit Training Equipment Site, won first
place and first runner-up, respectively, in the Army's national
maintenance excellence award.
To the
chief warrant officers who manage the shops, it is the Soldiers
below and above them that made it happen.
"They work hard, and they deserve it (the
award)," said Chief Warrant Officer Linda Clayburn of her Soldiers.
Clayburn is the FMS 2 supervisor.
Chief
Warrant Officer James Black, the UTES supervisor, credited his
Soldiers' dedication and his superiors' support.
"Our success here at the UTES can be attributed
to Lt. Col. (Randy) Read and his support staff," said Black.
Read oversees all maintenance shops throughout the state.
"I'm proud of the people I
got," said Black. "I have some of the best maintenance technicians
in the state."
Other than rolling vehicles, the Soldiers repair weapons and radios
too. "Anything the unit has, like special
equipment, we support," said Clayburn. Having a
variety of equipment on which to work is an obstacle the mechanics
overcome by working as a team.
"Everybody
works together; we're all family here," said Staff Sgt. Daniel
Thomas, a wheeled mechanic at FMS 2. "If I know something another
Soldier doesn't, he can come to me, or if I don't know something I
can go to others."
It's much
the same way at the UTES according to Black, who trains his Soldiers
to perform other jobs besides the ones they're assigned to do.
"If this was a union shop, I'd be stuck," said
Black. The UTES was hit hard by deployments with 30 of its 51
Soldiers deployed overseas. The same is true of the FMS with 10 of
its 23 Soldiers deployed.
"We still met mission; that's
our job, and that's what we'll do," said Clayburn.
In the last
fiscal year, for which FMS 2 won its award, the shop
inspected, serviced or repaired 953 customer
maintenance job orders and calibration transactions. It also
performed 29 recovery missions on Indiana
highways and on Camp Atterbury.
In addition,
the shop assists units training and based at Camp Atterbury
with maintenance support beyond a unit's capabilities. This support
extends to all branches of the military services.
FMS 2 is
available, on average, 48 weekends out of the year with maintenance
assistance ranging from technical advice and performing non-mission
capable repairs. "We're your
first place to go for maintenance when you're training on post,"
said Clayburn.
While the
FMS is like a local shop, the UTES is like a rental car store that
loans, maintains and repairs unit equipment. In
fiscal year 2007, the UTES serviced or repaired 786 maintenance jobs
orders, and performed 30 recovery missions on Camp Atterbury.
Both shops also helped with mobilized and
deploying units, and units coming back from overseas.
The
Soldiers were proud of the awards the shops received.
"I can't believe it," said Sgt. Daniel Rendon, an FMS 2 surface
maintenance mechanic. "It shouldn't blow my mind, because I know how
good we are."
Rendon has
more than 16 years of maintenance experience and has worked at the
FMS 2 for 11 years.
"It's real
good; I'm quite pleased," said Staff Sgt. Larry Hammons, a UTES
heavy equipment repairer. "It's a great reflection of the people at
this shop," he said.
The FMS and
UTES, two award-winning shops, keeping the Army rolling along.
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