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Vehicle maintainers keep expeditionary wheels rolling

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Evelyn Chavez
  • 455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan --  With their grime greasy hands, they turn wrenches, clean oil spills and keep hundreds of wheeled vehicles rolling day in and day out - these Airmen are Bagram's vehicle maintainers.

The 455th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron vehicle maintenance is comprised of Airmen trained to repair, inspect and maintain mission essential vehicles.

"I like contributing to the mission here at Bagram because you see more of the impact," said Staff Sgt. Jay Csurilla, 455th ELRS non-commissioned officer-in-charge flightline vehicle maintenance who is deployed from Aviano Air Base, Italy and a native of Pittsburgh, Pa.

The maintainers are responsible for more than 350 vehicles which includes maintenance support for six forward operating bases. Among the vehicles they care for, cargo loaders, de-icers, aircraft tow trucks and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles.

"Almost every job uses vehicle assets and if we don't fix them they can't do their job," said Senior Airman Michael Siters, 455th ELRS vehicle maintenance journeyman who is deployed from Yokota Air Base, Japan and a native of Port St. Lucie, Fla.

"The base probably could not operate without us."

Here, vehicle maintenance is divided into seven different shops. Material Management coordinates and orders parts. The Tactical Shop maintains about 100 MRAPs. The Customer Service Shop works on work order requests requiring less than two hours of work. The Flightline Maintenance Shop ensures more than 130 aircraft sustaining assets are operational. Refueling Maintenance provides support on all vehicles dealing with gasoline pumping operations. The General Purpose Shop, which provides oversight and repair of all vehicle maintenance assets. Finally, the Vehicle Management and Analysis manages and controls all workflow.

Each of these shops work together to accomplish the same mission: to keep wheels rolling.

Although the work is largely the same as homestation, according to Csurilla, certain tasks need to be completed more quickly.

"We try and push vehicles faster here because the mission is more direct... all vehicles on the flightline are supporting all the aircraft and we have to make sure we take care of them," said Csurilla.

With their training and experience, the vehicle maintainers are equipped to fix the wear and tear of most vehicles here. The average repair time depends on the type of fix and availability of parts.

"It is different here from my home station as it faster paced... we also support a lot more vehicles, but I like doing my job here," said Csurilla.

"We get to really see the mission being accomplished."