MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, Calif. -- Thirty-five Marines converged on Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow in April, their primary objectives: work hard, assist a sister unit and return to home base.
The Marines, assigned to 2nd Platoon, Company A, 7th Engineer Support Battalion, from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, arrived April 26 with one purpose in mind: assist Fleet Support Division in getting a few medium girder bridges operationally ready for the field.
"This bridge is a monster and versatile," said 2nd Lt. Jennifer Hackwith, the detachment officer in charge. "It can be placed over a river, dry gaps and if and someone blows up a bridge already in place, we can build over that."
Each bridge, according to Hackwith, consists of a link reinforcement set, an erection set and the actual medium girder bridge components. When all the pieces are put together, the bridge is good to cross 70-ton vehicles for approximately 10,000 crossings.
"It's sturdy enough to hold an M1A1 Abrams Tank," said Hackwith.
The advance party arrived on April 15 led by Sgt. Ryan Christian, the bridge master, according to Hackwith. His objective upon arrival was to get the unit's work area cleared and ready for work when the main body arrived on April 17.
"When we arrived, our plan was to get the area cleared, in other words, get all the link pins and jacks in one area and the main components in another to make it easier for the main body once it arrived," said Christian, a 24-year-old native of Corvallis, Mont.
By the time the main body arrived Christian and his crew completed two bridges and had them ready to be moved to an area FSD designated for staging equipment ready for deployment.
This all may sound like a simple procedure but it is not when considering the number of bins, boxes and MGB components the unit had to go through to make sure it had all the right parts for each bridge. In addition, each component had to be inspected for serviceability, painted, serialized, weighed and banded together to form one completed bridge in Condition Code "A" and ready for deployment.
"We set the unit up into five teams, Alpha through Echo," said Hackwith, "with each team having certain responsibilities."
For example, Teams Alpha and Bravo were responsible for inspecting the components making sure there were no cracks or other damages; Team Charlie's responsibilities were painting, weighting and staging the components; Teams Delta and Echo were responsible for banding, pin baskets and jacks. As each team completed its assigned tasks it assisted the other teams with their responsibilities.
"The Marines I have here have done a phenomenal job. They've worked hard and put in some long hours," Hackwith explained. "In one day they put together five bridges."
According to the detachment OIC, it got to a point were she nearly had to order them to stop working. But her Marines wanted to continue, working through days of rain, heat and sandstorms while putting in 12-hour days to complete their mission. At their current pace the ESB Marines are already ahead of their scheduled May 17 departure date.
The training opportunity combined with the number of bridges the detachment has put together and staged for operational readiness has saved the Marine Corps approximately $45 million dollars in material and more than $150,000 in labor, according to Hackwith. Instead of having to purchase new equipment, FSD has several completed medium girder bridges in operational condition and ready for deployment if needed because of the efforts of the detachment of Marines.
Hackwith couldn't praise FSD, Maintenance Center Barstow, and MCLB enough for the amount of support they have given her detachment, beginning with the request to bring the Marines in.
"Ruth Schmidt, Supply Team Management Center, also the item manager for the equipment, coordinates what happens to all of these assets and was part of the force behind getting the two of us linked together," explained Capt. Vincent Applewhite, project manager at FSD.
"She manages the items, and once these assets become Condition Code 'A,' she can start fielding them to operational forces," he said.
FSD has also provided all the heavy-lift support the detachment required for loading and moving the completed bridges to the staging area.
"This has been a total team effort," said Maj. Domingo Salazar, director of FSD. "This is not the first time we've teamed with the Marine forces. Another time was when we had a master gunnery sergeant here from LAR instructing our folks on how to drive the LAV."
"So this isn't the first time. We can get the guys in, get them trained, and the Marine Corps wins in the end." he said.