Vehicle maintainers keep Wolf Pack rolling

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Patrice Clarke
  • 8th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
KUNSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --  When it comes to contingency and accomplishing the Wolf Pack's mission of defending the base, accepting follow-on forces and taking the fight North, vehicle maintainers are integral to the execution of each part of this mission. With a fleet of 364 vehicles worth more than $30 million, the maintainers have their work cut out for them.

"During a contingency the focus of our mission shifts from maintaining base vehicles to keeping the contingency vehicles up and running," said Master Sgt. David Guthrie, 8 LRS vehicle maintenance manager.

Contingency vehicles consist mainly of flight support vehicles and base security support vehicles. If one of those vehicles has a maintenance issue there are mobile vehicle maintenance teams that can be dispatched.

"These teams can go out to any vehicle, assess and repair on the spot," said Sergeant Guthrie. "If the vehicle is able to start we would drive it back to our shop to complete the repair."

In a chemical environment, vehicles still need to be repaired.

"There are some intricate repairs that have to wait till after the vehicle has been decontaminated," said Staff Sgt. Harvey Taylor, 8 LRS vehicle maintainer. "Whether we are wearing our mission oriented protective posture gear or not, the vehicles still need to be rolling."

Every member of the Wolf Pack can help keep the vehicles rolling contingency or not.

"The most important thing I can tell the Wolf Pack is to take care of their vehicles," said Sergeant Taylor. "The better members take care of their vehicles the quicker they can get up and running and back out to assist with accomplishing the mission."