by Melissa Anne Czarnogursky
Behind every Army vehicle, weapon, night vision device and communication equipment is a maintainer ensuring our fighting force is prepared to execute complex operations on an ever-changing battlefield. Equipment readiness is at the heart of every operation and in every unit, making it a key component to the U.S Army’s sustainment mission. As we prepare to conduct future logistics operations in a complex, multi-domain battle space, all Soldiers need increased tactical training to hone the ability to anticipate, respond, adapt, and survive in forward deployed environments.
Currently, the sustainment community – especially the maintenance community – focuses on critical repairs instead of tactical training. It is imperative that we shift our maintenance training focus in garrison from an exclusive emphasis on occupational specialty duties and prioritize dynamic training to maintain a cutting edge advantage in austere environments.
Putting the “Field” Back in Field Maintenance
Over the last few years, I have served as a maintenance platoon leader, battalion maintenance officer, and maintenance company executive officer. In that time I have seen two distinct approaches to managing maintenance operations. One manages maintainers time to repair and service as much equipment as possible in garrison while transitioning them immediately into operational environments with unchanged skill sets. The other strikes a balance between combat readiness needs, job-specific training, and tactical environment development.
The first approach is a narrow focus on the task at hand. Maintaining equipment is an unyielding mission for our maintainers, whether it is being done for preventative or reactionary purposes, or as a reset for follow-on missions. As a result of this grinding operational tempo (OPTEMPO), leaders choose to assume risk with maintainers by prioritizing work on high visibility, non-mission capable (NMC) equipment and services in the motor pool instead of balancing that time with low density or other non-MOS specific training and field work.
Alternatively, I have seen units take a broader and more effective approach in “training to maintain” by creating time to practice maintaining equipment in realistic battlefield conditions. I have participated in large tactical convoy movements at night across the Korean peninsula, a deployment across a combat theater, and execution of localized and displaced joint operational field training. One thread is interwoven between all of those operations: turning a wrench in a maintenance bay is not the same as turning a wrench in an operational environment.
Maintainers generate combat power daily and must be able to support forward field maintenance, fabrication, and dedicated recovery operations. My 91B wheeled vehicle mechanics and maintainers who hold the additional skill identifier (ASI) of H8 wheeled vehicle recovery operations often found themselves in very active and complex situations that required experience through training and repetitions so that they could react with confidence, expertise, and speed. They encountered a myriad of dynamic scenarios, including assessing a broken tactical vehicle stuck in deep mud on an impassable unimproved road in less than 15 minutes, repairing a key generator for a mission critical system, and being called to recover a damaged vehicle in the dark on a dangerous highway. I saw first-hand the dangers and cognitive rigors presented by their duties in operational environments. Contact teams of maintainers move to the point of impact as field level maintenance should be conducted as far forward as possible.
Realistic Training to Prepare for The Fight
There are several areas where I strongly believe my maintainers, and ultimately the supported unit, benefitted from tactical field training. First, environmental changes can lead to hesitation or confusion on proper maintenance actions. By training more in realistic environments, maintainers will be better prepared to effectively transition from garrison to operational environments. This enables them to act quickly and think critically while mitigating risk of personal injury or further damaging equipment. While this deliberate training comes with opportunity costs like longer estimated completion dates for repairing equipment, improving Soldiers’ field effectiveness is invaluable.
Additionally, I believe that more comprehensive training will expand Soldiers’ creative thinking and minimize the duress experienced when Soldiers face new tasks. Repetition builds confidence and muscle memory, and being comfortable with standard procedures enables Soldiers to flex what they know when presented with new situations. We do not have enough time to practice every situation or course of action while working in a deployed combat environment. However, the more scenarios we practice, the more muscle memory, confidence, and proficiency we build.
When my units assessed a lack of tactical training and we knew our units had upcoming field training, our team planned and executed training exercises to ensure we were ready. It was critically important that we received support from senior leaders in our organization to shut down normal motor pool operations, enabling us to focus on low density, non-MOS specific training. Gaining the chain of command’s buy-in was vital to our success.
When choosing training tasks, I looked at inherent maintenance tasks in an operational environment as well as common tactical tasks such as convoy movements, navigation, reporting, and reacting to direct or indirect fire. Maintainers are constantly moving during the fight, especially moving to the location at which equipment has become non-mission capable. Accordingly, we chose to train on tasks like hasty emplacement of a refuel on the move site, how to use a battle damage assessment and repair (BDAR) kit for “quick fixes”, and how to move and employ two-level maintenance systems such as mobile repair shops. We also incorporated training focused on tasks inherent to convoy operations, an often-overlooked area for maintainers who find themselves moving throughout the battlespace.
Assessing the Changes – Where Are We Now?
The revamped training we implemented served several purposes. It protected tactical training time and fostered an environment for senior maintainers to focus on teaching and coaching junior Soldiers on troubleshooting and best practices. Additionally, the exercises forced the use of certain tools and kits in a field environment. We ensured training aligned with the reality of repairs, anticipated recovery operations, and environments our Soldiers might experience, similar to rehearsals for battle drills before a mission. To maximize the learning environment, we ensured that all training included multiple events and that it was realistic, simple, and digestible. We asked the following questions when we developed training. “What three things do I want Soldiers to remember from this training?” “Does this training require our maintainers to use maintenance and common Soldier skills?” Well developed training exercises ensured our Soldiers were better prepared for holistic operational environments while making the most of limited training time.
As a result of our revamped training, we found that our maintainers lacked experience across 5 critical skill sets, including BDAR, off-loading two-level maintenance systems repair shops from palletized Load System (PLS) vehicles, navigation to and from a non-mission capable vehicle, and reaction to contact during tactical convoys. If not corrected, these deficiencies could have resulted in delayed troubleshooting and repair times, incorrect application of tools and/or equipment, and increased risk of injury and vulnerability in a contested and hostile environment. After our first iterations of training we reprioritized and advised our higher headquarters and subordinate leaders on where our training should focus in the coming weeks.
Looking Ahead: Where Do We Need to Go?
There is never a comfortable point to request a pause in motor pool operations for Soldiers to train more realistically. However, the risk of not accepting any detriment to normal motor pool operations to enable tactical training for our maintainers is higher than the risk we assume when we do not train our maintainers to operate in a tactical or forward environment.
Leaders across maintenance organizations must increase field training even if it means a temporary degradation to the efficiency of garrison maintenance operations. Maintainers’ daily jobs cannot be translated seamlessly on the battlefield. During an operation, a maintainer’s job is dangerous, multifaceted, and continuous. Investing in quality training will pay dividends in sustainment operations by increasing technical proficiency, mitigating risk of injury or equipment damage, and exposing maintainers to successful methods and solutions for the field operations. We must provide our maintainers quality training and repetitions, build up their technical knowledge and experience, and give them the confidence and competence to roll into any operational environment ready to maintain the fight.
Melissa A. Czarnogursky is an Active Duty First Lieutenant Army Ordnance Officer at Fort Liberty, North Carolina. A prior enlisted Field Artillery Noncommissioned Officer, she has spent years in uniform building and leading teams through garrison, training, and deployed environments, to include taking two teams through competition at Headquarters Department of the Army level for the Army Award for Maintenance Excellence (AAME). She received her commission from Seton Hall University’s Army ROTC program as a cross-town student, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a Minor in Cognitive Science from Montclair State University.
Photo: U.S. Soldiers assigned to 299th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division maneuver a M88A2 Hercules Recovery Vehicle during Decisive Action Rotation 22-09 at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif., June 25, 2022. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Daymeon Evans, Operations Group, National Training Center)
