HEADQUARTERS Service Company Readiness NCO Sgt 1st Class Kandy Gorsuch of the 960th Brigade Support Battalion, Wyoming National Guard inspected the fueling line organized by Petroleum Supply Specialist Pvt Annabelle Mowery during annual training at National Guard Camp Guernsey, Wyoming, in mid June. While the team of nervous Soldiers waited, Gorsuch eventually gave a thumbs up.
“I felt they were efficient,” Gorsuch said about the Wyoming logistics unit from Powell, which supported the Soldiers of the 1742nd Transportation Company of the South Dakota National Guard during their annual training. The 960th provided bulk fuel and set up the fueling line as part of Golden Coyote, a South Dakota-based training exercise.
Mowery organized her team for cross training, instructing four Soldiers to prepare a 5,000-gallon tanker for a thirsty convoy of trucks. Two fuelers and two mechanics took up posts as a plethora of vehicles arrived.
Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic Spc. Audie Marsh guided the trucks using hand signals, hooking ground cables to the lug nuts on wheels as they came in to prevent electrical discharges. Petroleum Supply Specialist Jonathan Richards and Sgt Alaor Viera, another wheeled vehicle mechanic, carried over fuel nozzles, drip pans, and hoses to fill the empty fuel tank.
Mowery ordered the starting and stopping of the pump and tracked the team’s progress as it recorded the amount of fuel being dispersed. In the last step, the tracking forms were signed by either the truck driver or truck commander.
“She hasn’t worked the 5,000-gallon tanker,” Gorsuch said. “The mechanics get to know the tanks. It helps their understanding of when they need to drain the tank trailer.”
Richards pointed to a vehicle larger than the tractor-trailer rigs which were already in line. “Mowery normally drives the HEMTT (heavy expanded mobility tactical truck),” he said. “It has a 2,500-gallon cargo tank and pumps from the rear.”
The HEMTT is an eight-wheel drive, diesel-powered, 10-short-ton (9,100 kilogram), tactical truck used by the US military and others. In evolving configurations, it has been in continuous production since 1982.
Comparing the HEMTT fuel tanker to the 5,000-gallon tank trailer which Mowery trained on, he said the “5K” tank trailer has two pumps and two side-mounted pumping stations.
“I’ve been driving it for two years,” Mowery said. “Before that, the biggest I’d driven was a pickup. The HEMTT was a new experience.”
As the 1742nd’s truckers drove out of paddock Number 3 on Camp Guernsey, Mowery and her team tended to the cleanup—getting hoses and equipment back to where they belonged.
They had wrapped up another long day during annual training, and it was mission accomplished.