An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Air Force mechanics a 'driving force' behind Laghman PRT success

  • Published
  • By Capt. Tony Vincelli
  • Laghman Provincial Reconstruction Team
LAGHMAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan --  A trio of Air Force vehicle maintainers have a major impact on efforts to bring peace, prosperity and justice to the people of Laghman province in eastern Afghanistan.

That is according to the Laghman Provincial Reconstruction Team's commander, Lt. Col. Jayson Allen, a Portland, Ore. native. He says it is because their expertise and innovation have been a driving force behind the PRT's ability to conduct daily missions throughout the entire province.

Typical PRT missions range from meeting with Government Islamic Replublic of Afghanistan officials about ongoing security, development and governance issues, to inspection of current construction and development projects in Laghman Province.

"We need our vehicles in order to conduct missions and have had to face some unexpected challenges from (Improvised Explosive Device) blasts and other things," said Allen. "They have come up big for us every time."

With more than 25 years of experience and 10 deployments under their collective belts, Tech. Sgt. Samuel Pastor and Staff Sgts. Tim Husketh and Dmitriy Burshteyn have kept the team's vehicle fleet fully mission capable since the team arrived at Forward Operating Base Mehtar Lam early this summer.

For Pastor, who hails from Fairfield, Calif., the challenges his team face are small in comparison to the satisfaction of getting the job done under pressure.

"There is a lot of pressure, getting vehicles up and running all the time knowing that the mission won't happen unless the vehicles are ready to go, but we don't take shortcuts because we know lives depend on it," said Pastor, a 13-year Air Force veteran, who also repairs first responder vehicles at his home station.

When they aren't busy performing routine interval maintenance, they might be called on short notice, sometimes in the middle of the night, to repair vehicles and make sure they are ready for the next morning's missions.

"We're always in the 'ready' mode, to react at a moment's notice," Pastor said.

Their work ethic is not lost on the people who rely on them most: the soldiers of the 3rd Platoon, Company A, 1st Brigade 182nd Infantry Regiment deployed from the Rhode Island Army National Guard who plan and conduct the security and movement portion of all PRT missions.

"The vehicles are extremely important to us," said Sgt. 1st Class Brian Lancey of Norwich, Conn. "As infantrymen, next to our weapons the trucks are the most important thing for us in order to operate outside the wire."

Lancey said he couldn't give the maintainers enough praise for their knowledge and their dedication to the mission.

"I've seen them work until 3 a.m. to get ready for the mission with no complaints," said Lancey.

Perhaps the only quality that matches that dedication is their innovation. A great example of the kind of "out-of-the-box" thinking is an improvement they made that will likely save the U.S. taxpayer thousands of dollars This maintenance crew developed a new and more cost-effective method by using items they had available to fix a broken side or rear window of an RG-31 which normally costs thousands of dollars to repair.

"The first time it happened, it took us three weeks to get a replacement window," said Pastor.

After the third time a vehicle came back with a broken window from a rock, the maintainers knew they had to do something. They used an 1/8 inch-thick clear acrylic glass, cut to fit over the side and rear windows and secured them in place. Now, when a rock hits the window, it breaks the acrylic, but not the glass underneath. It has already saved one window.

"It takes us 20 minutes to replace and saves $3,000 each time," said Pastor, who submitted his improvement to the Army's suggestion program.

They also developed an additional headlight with a no-drill design that can be attached to any tactical vehicle that they say increases visibility by as much as 50 percent.

For Burshteyn of Walnut Creek, Calif., it's all in a day's work for the Laghman PRT vehicle maintainers.

"This deployment has been nice because we are always following the regulations, but we have some freedom to look at our specific mission and our people who are relying on these vehicles and try think of ways we can help them out," said Burshteyn.