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http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/258262.html
Army spends $43 million to reset strykers An important makeover
MICHAEL GILBERT; mike.gilbert@thenewstribune.com
Published: January 18th, 2008 01:00 AM | Updated: January 18th, 2008 07:15 AM
Mechanics are working over the fleet of Strykers just home from Iraq to get them back into the hands of soldiers for whatever comes next. About two dozen Strykers were returned to soldiers at Fort Lewis on Thursday – cleaned up, repaired, renovated and then inspected with something close to the white-glove treatment.
Contractors working for General Dynamics Land Systems Inc. are putting in 10-hour days at Fort Lewis to get the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division’s recently returned fleet ready for duty again. The 270 or so armored vehicles arrived at the Port of Olympia in November after 15 months of hard duty in Iraq.
The reset process began earlier this month and typically takes about seven days per vehicle.
Engines and transmissions are pulled and tested, repaired and reinstalled. All the other systems get looked over and new parts installed where needed, along with new software and hardware. Armor plates snagged by shrapnel and bullet holes are replaced.
Nineteen of the brigade’s hardest hit Strykers were sent to the General Dynamics plant in Anniston, Ala., for structural repairs. Another 20 destroyed in Iraq are being replaced with new trucks, officials said.
As for each of the 268 to be reset at Fort Lewis, “when it leaves here, it is in the best shape it can be,” said Tony Conoscenti, a former Stryker infantry platoon leader who now is the project lead with Jacobs Technology Inc., a contractor to the Army’s Stryker program.
The process isn’t cheap. The Army’s reset contract with General Dynamics is $43 million – which works out to about $140,000 per truck.
The whole fleet is due to be finished by April, Conoscenti said, but the first trucks are being returned as quickly as possible to the brigade’s 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment. The battalion has orders to be ready by June 1 to go on standby as part of the Army’s global rapid-response force.
Otherwise, 3rd Brigade soldiers are busy unpacking the shipping containers that brought all of their gear home from Iraq. All across the brigade’s area on Fort Lewis, soldiers are pulling out gear, inspecting it, restocking and getting ready to get back into the training cycle.
The brigade’s next mission hasn’t been announced. If Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ policy of 12 months of “dwell time” for redeployed units is the rule, the 3rd Brigade won’t be up for another overseas tour until late this year, at least.
Spc. John Premo, a team leader in the 2-3 Infantry, was part of the detail sent Thursday to pick up the refurbished trucks. His old Stryker from Iraq, Bravo 3-1, was among those ready to return to work.
During the last deployment he was a machine gunner and filled in as a Stryker driver and vehicle commander.
“On our last mission – the very last one – we were coming out of Sadr City, bringing some detainees out, when all of a sudden … ‘Bang!’,” Premo said. “I thought I was all done. The compartment was all filled with smoke and dust.”
They made their way back to their combat outpost and found that the roadside bomb had done nothing more than put shrapnel into the tires. “We got hit a few times but it never really did any damage,” said the 21-year-old from Saginaw, Mich.
Now that he’ll have the truck back, he and the other veteran soldiers can start to train the new guys, he said.
Conoscenti said mechanics are working six-day weeks, and in some cases running shifts around the clock. The brigade wants its trucks back as quickly as possible; the longer they go without, the longer they have to wait to train.
And ultimately, he noted, they’ll need them to deploy again, presumably bound for a war zone.
“The sooner we can get them a truck that they can go out and train their guys on,” he said, “the more prepared they’re going to be when they go.”
Army spends $43 million to reset strykers An important makeover
MICHAEL GILBERT; mike.gilbert@thenewstribune.com
Published: January 18th, 2008 01:00 AM | Updated: January 18th, 2008 07:15 AM
Mechanics are working over the fleet of Strykers just home from Iraq to get them back into the hands of soldiers for whatever comes next. About two dozen Strykers were returned to soldiers at Fort Lewis on Thursday – cleaned up, repaired, renovated and then inspected with something close to the white-glove treatment.
Contractors working for General Dynamics Land Systems Inc. are putting in 10-hour days at Fort Lewis to get the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division’s recently returned fleet ready for duty again. The 270 or so armored vehicles arrived at the Port of Olympia in November after 15 months of hard duty in Iraq.
The reset process began earlier this month and typically takes about seven days per vehicle.
Engines and transmissions are pulled and tested, repaired and reinstalled. All the other systems get looked over and new parts installed where needed, along with new software and hardware. Armor plates snagged by shrapnel and bullet holes are replaced.
Nineteen of the brigade’s hardest hit Strykers were sent to the General Dynamics plant in Anniston, Ala., for structural repairs. Another 20 destroyed in Iraq are being replaced with new trucks, officials said.
As for each of the 268 to be reset at Fort Lewis, “when it leaves here, it is in the best shape it can be,” said Tony Conoscenti, a former Stryker infantry platoon leader who now is the project lead with Jacobs Technology Inc., a contractor to the Army’s Stryker program.
The process isn’t cheap. The Army’s reset contract with General Dynamics is $43 million – which works out to about $140,000 per truck.
The whole fleet is due to be finished by April, Conoscenti said, but the first trucks are being returned as quickly as possible to the brigade’s 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment. The battalion has orders to be ready by June 1 to go on standby as part of the Army’s global rapid-response force.
Otherwise, 3rd Brigade soldiers are busy unpacking the shipping containers that brought all of their gear home from Iraq. All across the brigade’s area on Fort Lewis, soldiers are pulling out gear, inspecting it, restocking and getting ready to get back into the training cycle.
The brigade’s next mission hasn’t been announced. If Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ policy of 12 months of “dwell time” for redeployed units is the rule, the 3rd Brigade won’t be up for another overseas tour until late this year, at least.
Spc. John Premo, a team leader in the 2-3 Infantry, was part of the detail sent Thursday to pick up the refurbished trucks. His old Stryker from Iraq, Bravo 3-1, was among those ready to return to work.
During the last deployment he was a machine gunner and filled in as a Stryker driver and vehicle commander.
“On our last mission – the very last one – we were coming out of Sadr City, bringing some detainees out, when all of a sudden … ‘Bang!’,” Premo said. “I thought I was all done. The compartment was all filled with smoke and dust.”
They made their way back to their combat outpost and found that the roadside bomb had done nothing more than put shrapnel into the tires. “We got hit a few times but it never really did any damage,” said the 21-year-old from Saginaw, Mich.
Now that he’ll have the truck back, he and the other veteran soldiers can start to train the new guys, he said.
Conoscenti said mechanics are working six-day weeks, and in some cases running shifts around the clock. The brigade wants its trucks back as quickly as possible; the longer they go without, the longer they have to wait to train.
And ultimately, he noted, they’ll need them to deploy again, presumably bound for a war zone.
“The sooner we can get them a truck that they can go out and train their guys on,” he said, “the more prepared they’re going to be when they go.”
