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Blackanthem Military News
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Last Updated:
Mar 19, 2010 - 6:16:21 PM |
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Blackanthem Military News
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| Namer Noori Saied, welder, Iraqi army, welds a repair plate onto the frame of a humvee, as part of a project between welders from the Army Material Command and the Iraqi army to repair more than 800 damaged vehicles to be given to the Iraqi forces, Aug. 5, at the Taji National Maintenance Depot, Camp Taji, Iraq. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Alun Thomas, 1st ACB, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs) |
CAMP TAJI, Iraq - Iraqi and American welders at the Taji National Maintenance Depot recently completed more than five months of repairs on 800 Humvees and helped to save more than $7 million in contractor costs by completing the work themselves.
The project came about through the M1114 transfer program, which was created to deliver upwards of 7,200 vehicles to the Iraqi army as part of the ongoing transition between U.S. forces and the Iraqi army, said Lt. Col. Jimmie Swims, from Memphis, Tenn., deputy commander, Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq, J4 Taji.
"We came across 800 of those vehicles that unexpectedly needed a manufacturer's work order," Swims said. "The work order was supposed to be completed by the coalition forces prior to being submitted into our program here."
The 800 damaged humvees had cracks in their frame rails, Swims said, which required modification to withstand the weight of the vehicles armor equipment.
"We had to get this done because the contractors, in their statement of work, are not required through the transfer program to do this work," Swims said. "So we would have to pay the contractor millions of dollars to do this."
A team was put together using trained welders and technical experts from the Army Material Command, MNSTC-I J4 personnel and the Iraqi army to repair the frames in the shortest time possible, Swims said.
"We scrounged equipment from all over post, got a location locked in and started to train the Iraqi's on this particular modification," Swims said. "We started this knowing we had at least 600 vehicles to repair and we have ended with 820 (repaired) in this program."
By using American and Iraqi welders, the amount of money saved was phenomenal, Swims said.
"This program ended up saving the U.S. government more than $7 million by having Iraqi forces participating," he said. "It's been a great success."
It also helps the Iraqi's in their future development, Swims added.
"What this has been able to do is put an additional two months of work back into the fight of vehicles being used by the Iraqi Army," Swims said. "This increases their security efforts and obviously lets the Iraqi's sustain themselves."
ADDITIONAL PHOTO:
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| Sherman Crittenden (right) from Red River Army Depot, Texas, M1114 Transfer Project supervisor, holds a tire steady for Baha Zuhiv Mohammed (left), welder, Iraqi army, as he replaces the tires bolts before tightening the wheel of a humvee, at the Taji National Maintenance Depot, Camp Taji, Iraq. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Alun Thomas, 1st ACB, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs) |
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