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Show HILLTOP TIMES Hi!!t, MES April 12, 2012 Repairs on the road in Iraq BY MARY Lou Left to right are Staff Sgt. Christopher Balle, Staff Sgt. Michael Ramirez, Tech. Sgt. Joshua Bringhurst and on the ground, Tech. Sgt. Chris Peters, all of the 75th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Hill Air Force Base. GORNY Hilltop Times editor gg I f it will roll, leave it alone till the next FOB. Don't stop more than you have to," said Staff Sgt. Christopher Balle, on the last deployment he served to his replacement in Iraq. The Forward Operating Base or home base 4 always the next destination for a relatively safe haven 4 was the goal, the next place to rest for whatever sleep you could get, whatever meals to be had. Convoy mechanics take nothing for granted. "You actually see a lot more than what you would expect to see as a convoy mechanic," said Staff Sgt. Michael Ramirez, also a mechanic with the 75th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Hill Air Force Base. One mechanic is assigned to a convoy of 40-60 vehicles, and his responsibility is to fix things, a task fraught with the risks inherent in the mission outside the wire. Iraq and Afghanistan bring different stressors, risks and operating conditions. Infrastructure is not so advanced when you're talking road systems in Afghanistan. A road circles that country, and it's not always in great Photo illustration: KIM COOK/U.S. Air Force and Standard-Examiner graphics department Above, a mural of Saddam Hussein can be seen outside a Sadr City, Iraq, checkpoint. Right, Master Sgt. Tommy Cook holds flags he carried with him in Iraq which he brought home for his family. condition, and it is not so easily traversed. Iraq's road system, while easier to navigate, carries its own dangers, with IEDs and crowded areas. "You were always on your toes never knowing what to expect," said Ramirez recalling a convoy run while deployed. "We had a gun truck shoot off a flare as we were going over a ridge and it accidentally hit the turret and went off inside the Humvee so a couple of guys inside started to get burned. We had to pull up; I had to hook up the truck because it was pretty much toasted and we were waiting for them to get Medevaced out. We had to tow that vehicle to the next FOB so everything is just happening, quick, quick, quick," Ramirez said. One of the security guys in the detail threw the flare out of the Humvee, burnt his hand and had to be evacuated for treatment. Army and Air Force serve on the convoys. Air Force mechanics often find that a lot of the military personnel they serve with at home base don't realize they actually go outside the wire. None of the 75th LRS mechanics would call a convoy run typical 4 they're all different. Tech. Sgt. Jason Peters, also from Hill, has deployed nine times, and has served both as a convoy mechanic and as a convoy commander. "We had a gun truck catch fire once," Peters said, describing an incident. "It was minor, (the) brakes got jacked up and started catching fire underneath and we had to tow that back to base. We had another truck that hit a crater in the road and it broke the axle. A pin that holds your suspension together got sheared off. (The damage) pushed the tire back into the wheel well and I had to basically grab that, yank it forward as much as possible, rig a coolant bypass system on it, because it was all tore up and fix it on the spot," said Peters. "(The driver) had pulled off to the side of the road. Usually you don't want to go to the side of the road, just for the IEDs and that was the same side that was broke 4 so basically my butt is hanging off the road trying to do this. I had a gun truck in front of me providing whatever cover they could but I had no cover. If someone had wanted to take a potshot on me 4 my rear end's hanging out there," he said. It took 20 minutes total to fix the coolant system, said Peters, "but it or girl)," he said. Convoy mechanics back at base spent their 48 hours off shift trying to get what rest they could then they were back repairing trucks. If their trucks were fine, they were working on other convoys' trucks. Staff Sgt. Josh Bringhurst served on some particularly stressful runs 4 one in which his convoy left him and the two trucks he was with for a repair in a crowded town. Reunited with his group, that experience in which he was surrounded soon became a "lesson learned" and convoy runs did not leave vehicles and people behind, said Bringhurst The sergeant explained some of the security concerns he faced. Crowds would try to swarm vehicles asking for money or selling items when convoys got bogged down in Iraq. He was particularly wary of those situations, keeping in mind the risks. One convoy all he can remember is flat tire after flat tire after flat tire. Mechanics carry as many extra parts as they can, including a spare front tire for other trucks in the convoy. As many minor parts as they can take including an extra air compressor for air conditioning could be found on the flatbed, which their "bob" or tractor trailer pulled. "Out there when it was 120 degrees it was almost as important as anything else on the truck," said Staff Sgt. Christopher Balle. "(Conditions are) unbearable if you have to drive in the heat without it." He said the training they received on convoys helped but he wanted more training on the vehicles themselves before they left for the AOR. Master Sgt. Tommy Cook praised the professionalism of convoy mechanics. "How the mechanics do it, living out of the back of the bag, Courtesy photos constantly on the road like that, that just takes pure felt like a year." professionalism," he said. While in charge of parts at home That wasn't all of it. "I had a 50 caliber come up, he base in the AOR, he did go on two started firing and he was only eight runs and saw enough to make him feet away," he said. When he saw the appreciate what it was like. As for Peters, one of only 1 perflash and then couldn't hear anything for a moment, Peters thought, "Oh, cent to be a mechanic and then a crap. I'm dead." convoy commander, he was awarded a Bronze Star. He says he gets some There were certain stretches of road where insurgents had started to ribbing for it because he was a meuse a particularly vicious type of IED chanic and then convoy commander called an EFP, which was basically but he's happy he brought back all designed to punch through armor. his people in the same physical condition they left in. Explosively formed pene"Regardless of Each convoy team runs trators motivatthe decisions that ed the convoy I made while I was about 400,000 miles per mechanics and there I was able to 6 month deployment on send all of my guys others to preaverage. home to their famapply tourniily 4 I sent every quets to their limbs. "Just husband back, evin case something happened so they ery son back, every brother back, every dad back the same way I got could be readily available," explained Peters. They carried extras on those them," he said. stretches of road. When asked what he thought oth"This was Iraq," Peters said. "It ers should know about service on a could be pretty nerve-wracking." convoy Peters was direct. He gives credit to the convoy op"All the freedoms that people enerators who spent a lot of time on the joy that some people take advantage road. "One of my guys (his wife) had of aren't free 4 they never were. a baby while he was there, while they And there are some people out there were on the road. We had a satellite doing it and giving their lives so phone to see what the baby was (boy they can have the things they have." |