14 June 2009 Update

I was told yesterday that I'm overly tenacious by one of our do nothing officers who works with us from the Navy. I looked at him, smiled real big and said, thank you for the compliment. He just looked at me shook his head and turned away. This interesting comment which I took as a compliment was the result of three months of pestering the chain of command to open a special gate so that force protection barriers and gravel could finally flow onto the installation. The challenge is that bringing the required supplies through the normal gates have proven to be so time consuming that I decided to work on building a special yard with its own gate so that we could receive our materials in a timely manner.

As one might guess there is an inherent danger in having such a gate. The reason is that the normal entry control points force all of the trucks through a total search with scanners, dogs and troop sensuring that there is no possibility of any dangerous item entering the base. The gate I proposed would have no search requirements which would totally speed up deliveries however increase the risk to those working the new yard. Such a yard has to be limited to items that are in and of themselves considered low risk such as gravel trucks or these huge force protection barriers. Even though these items themselves maybe low risk the trucks and drivers could harbor dangerous items for use on the yard's workers. Anyway, I finally got the gate approved and open which,is called a gravel/barrier transfer yard. This allows these items,which I might add I was put in charge of back in March for the base, to finally get through the perimeter gate so that the troops can accomplish their work. The transfer yard is a big operation as it requires a security over watch which ensures that none of the trucks entering try to run out of the special compound. It requires yard management which is a group of soldiers who direct the traffic and basically take the trucks receipts. And it requires troops to maintain the yard such as heavy equipment to constantly push up this ever growing pile of gravel. It requires a team who will issue the stock pile of barriers and gravel and watch the drivers as they unload. Customers are allowed to come and get the barriers or gravel from the backside where the materials have sat for a few days and basically cooled off as it's called. Those working the yard are the ones in potentially harms way and end up wearing their body armor all day long. So I now have the reputation for having pushed all the right buttons of leadership and finally convinced those who matter that such a yard would reduce the traffic at the normal gates, not be to dangerous and in the process allow us to get our jobs done. We have been operating the yard for about three weeks and it has put smiles on numerous people as the required materials are finally flowing and the normal gates are less busy which allows other required supplies to reach the troops. This yard is not a new concept yet one that is used only rarely due to the obvious dangers. What happens if just one truck or its driver decides to bring in something bad? Granted such a yard is remote from the rest of the base and few would be harmed,except those working the yard. The fact is that 99.9999% of all of these drivers just want to make a living. We rely upon those drivers to point out others who might be interlopers or want to cause harm.

Anyway, I constantly have to remind various commanders of their commitment to help with the yard which is what got me the original compliment. I liked the compliment even though the officer's goal was to jab me in the so called ribs. If he did his job with half as much tenacity we would be way down the road towards more of our goals. So here's to more overly tenacious people if what they are working toward is right.

I love you all and hope you have a great day. Lincoln Lincoln M. Stevens, CMSgt