Unit supply specialist Pfc. Alice Stokes, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, watches as Spc. Dwayne Jones, automated supply specialist, A Company, 27th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th BCT, 1st Cav. Div., moves Stokes’ unit supplies to her vehicle April 12 on Forward Operating Base Marez, Mosul, Iraq. Stokes makes the journey to the Supply Support Activity warehouse daily to pick up valuable supplies for her unit. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Bradley J. Clark, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs)


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SR# 041507- 52
April 15, 2007


By Pfc. Bradley J. Clark
4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs


FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAREZ, Iraq— The Soldiers of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, are always in need of supplies to make their jobs run smoothly. It’s the job of the automated logistical specialists of A Company, 27th Brigade Support Battalion to make sure the Soldiers get the supplies they need in a timely manner.

Company commander, Capt. Courtney Sugai, is in charge of the Supply Support Activities warehouse here and says the almost 4,400 items that the SSA stocks regularly, helps provide direct support to the 230 Department of Defense Activity Address Codes in the 4th BCT, 1st Cav. Div. area of operations.

The 230 different DODAACs each represent a different company’s supply sergeant or motor pool.

“After a soldier has requested something from their supply sergeant, the supply sergeant puts the order in the SARSS (Standard Army Retail Supply System),” said Sugai. “Once the order is in the SARSS, we check to see if it’s one of the items that we stock, if it is, then the storage section takes it over to the issue section and they put it in the unit’s pick-up box. If we don’t stock the item, then the SARSS system sends out the order to the company to have it shipped,” said Sugai.
Once an item has been ordered, it gets shipped to the SSA warehouse and the Soldiers in the receiving section are the first to see it.

“We wait for the trucks to come in,” said Spc. Margot Sinti, who works in the receiving section. “After the trucks come in, we pull the pallets down and sort through everything. After we sort through it all, we take it to where it needs to go, the storage section, the issue section, or the turn-in section. We do this pretty quickly. Sometimes it only takes us 30 minutes.”

“We have 24 hours to get everything to the different sections, but normally it only takes us a few hours,” said Pvt. Andre Barbosa, who also works in the receiving section, “We try to have everything ready the same day it comes in because we have customers that come in everyday. We get five to six trucks a day, seven days-a-week, at any time of the day. When the trucks come in, we have to check everything to make sure it’s accurate. If a box says it has 100 screws in it, then we have to count all 100 of them.”

After an Item has made its way through the receiving section, if it is something that the SSA warehouse stocks, it heads over to the storage section.

“When we get an item, we find out what it is and stock it in its proper location,” said Sgt. Theresa Sutton, storage section noncommissioned officer-in-charge. “If an item doesn’t have a certain location, then we create one for it, put the location in the SARSS, and then put the item in that location. After we see that a supply sergeant has placed an order for something that we stock, we send it over to the issue section so they can pick it up. We used to get 97 percent of the items that the receiving section would process, but now we only get about 5 percent of the items that come in due to authorized stock increases.”

The final stop an item makes before a supply sergeant can pick it up, is the issue section.

“After items have been received and checked in, they get brought to us,” said Spc. Dwayne Jones, who works in the issue section. “When we get the items, we sort them and put them in the proper customer pick-up areas. We have customers that come in everyday and then we have some that come only once a month because they are always in the field.”

When it comes to items that stand out in the SSA warehouse, the crew has thousands to choose from.

“We get anything from nuts that cost 1 cent to circuit cards that cost $20,000,” said Pfc. Ivan Martinez, also a member of the issue section. “Those circuit cards come in small boxes and you don’t think it’s anything, but it’s something.”
Even though the little items make a big impression in the storage and issue sections of the SSA warehouse, it’s the big stuff that stands out in the receiving section.
“We get everything from pens to engines,” said Barbosa. “The thing that amazed me the most was a tank engine that took up a whole pallet.”

Whatever it is that Soldiers need, the SSA warehouse makes sure that they get it as quickly as possible.


Automated supply specialist Spc. Dwayne Jones, A Company, 27th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, moves a pallet of supplies to a customer’s vehicle, April 12. Jones works in the issue section of the Supply Support Activity warehouse on Forward Operating Base Marez, Mosul, Iraq. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Bradley J. Clark, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs)


Specialist Dwayne Jones, automated supply specialist, in the issue section of the Supply Support Activity warehouse, loads a pallet of supplies onto a vehicle for Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, April 12. Jones is just one of the many Soldiers from A Company, 27th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th BCT, 1st Cav. Div. who run the SSA warehouse on Forward Operating Base Marez, Mosul, Iraq. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Bradley J. Clark, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs)


Soldiers from A Company, 27th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, like Spc. Dwayne Jones, who is loading a pallet of supplies onto a customer’s vehicle April 12, work in the Supply Support Activity warehouse on Forward Operating Base Marez, Mosul, Iraq. The SSA warehouse provides direct supply support to the 230 different companies in the 4th BCT, 1st Cav. Div. area of operations. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Bradley J. Clark, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs)

Labels: 1st Cavalry Division photos, 2-7 Cavalry, 27th Brigade Support Battalion, 4BCT, FOB Marez, heroes, Iraq, Mosul