Operation Keystone 9 expedites parts delivery for Afghan National Army

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Story by US Army Capt. Monika Comeaux
Deputy Command – Support Operations, Public Affairs Officer
NATO Training Mission – Afghanistan

A handful of service members assigned to the Deputy Commander of Support Operations under NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan have planned and are executing an operation known as Keystone 9.

U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Greg Pierce, a member of the Coalition Forces Sorting Facility team in Regional Support Command-South guides a forklift in Kandahar, Afghanistan, as it downloads cargo June 10 at a yard used to temporarily sort and prioritize incoming and outgoing shipments of critical repair parts for the Afghan National Army. Operation Keystone 9 started mid-summer and is expected to conclude in the fall. (U.S. Navy Photo by Lt. Cdr. Trey Scudder, RSC-South Logistics Training and Advisory Team deputy)

This operation, which started in July of 2012 and is expected to run until late Oct. 2012, rapidly processes repair parts and distributes these parts to Afghan National Army units.
 
“Operation Keystone 9 is a mission designed to expedite the delivery of critical repair parts to the theater in support of the ANA combat operations,” said Lt. Cmdr. Trey Scudder, the senior mentor for the Second Forward Support Depot (under Regional Logistics Support Command-Kandahar) supporting the ANA and also the deputy for Logistics Training Advisory Team South. 
 
The concept is multifold, said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Dempster D. Upshaw, a supply technician who manages repair parts within DCOM-SPO. Instead of all parts arriving from New Cumberland and from Thailand going through Kabul some are now flown into Kandahar where they are prioritized, sorted and pushed out. “It is saving time by eliminating the Depot 0 warehouse (the national-level Class IX repair parts depot)…and essentially doing a ‘direct delivery’ of parts and supplies to the front doorsteps of the customers…These parts hit home to the action level directly,” Upshaw said.

DCOM SPO receives notification of inbound parts approximately 48 hours before they arrive to Kandahar. It allows Upshaw an advanced look at what is on the particular aircraft and match up against on hand supplies and shortages.

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Austin Eckert, a member of the Coalition Forces Sorting Facility team in Regional Support Command-South checks date on a shipping box of spare parts against his inventory listing July 10, 2012 in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Class IX repair parts have been temporarily re-routed to enter Afghanistan through Kandahar Air Field, to clear up a backlog at the Afghan National Army’s Class IX processing center called Depot 0 in Kabul, and to expedite parts delivery to ANA line units. (U.S. Navy Photo by Lt. Cdr. Trey Scudder, RSC-South Logistics Training and Advisory Team deputy)

Once the parts arrive at Kandahar Air Field, they are signed for by a coalition representative. All parts are convoyed to the Coalition Forces Sorting Facility that they affectionately refer to as the “Yard.” Here, service members sort the parts.  “The hard work displayed by a very small team comprised of five Marines, one Sailor, three Airmen and seven Army service members is a true testament to the merits of joint service missions. The level of enthusiasm displayed by the troops involved in this mission literally breathed life back into the ANA repair parts system” said Scudder.
 
Once parts are sorted, Scudder’s team arranges for transportation by either ANA transportation assets to nearby locations or coalition assets to remote locations. By simply bypassing Kabul, Scudder thinks that several weeks are shaved off the traditional processing time.
 
Operation Keystone 9 is a temporary solution, allowing ANA units to receive repair parts in the midst of the fighting season and also allowing Depot 0 to clear up their backlog and conduct personnel training, before all parts are routed through them again, starting late Sep. 2012.
 
NATO Training Mission – Afghanistan, is a coalition of 38 troop contributing nations assisting the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in generating a capable and sustainable Afghan National Security Force ready to take lead of their country’s security by 2014. For more information about NTM-A, visit www.ntm-a.com.

Tags: afghan national army, Afghan National Security Force, afghanistan, ANA, army, Feature, featured, Kandahar, logistics, nato, nato training mission, NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan, NTM-A, training

Category: News - Logistics, News - News