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Sembach squadron maintains war reserves

by Master Sgt. John Lasky

Airmen from the 435th Materiel Maintenance Squadron at Sembach Air Base, Germany, store, maintain, account and prepare an incredible amount of war reserve materiel needed to keep U.S. forces supplied.

The materiel is stored at a massive central storage facility in Luxemburg, two collocated operating bases in Norway and at Sembach.

"When the military deploys for whatever reason, we provide them the living facilities and equipment so they can carry out their tasked mission," said Senior Master Sgt. Russell Sittenauer, the squadron's superintendent. "That could be a simple as a truck, or something as complex as an operational air base or Army garrison operation."

More than 100 active-duty Airmen from 34 different career fields ensure the stores are ready to support humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, small-scale contingencies or major theater war.

More than 120 contractors also work at the facilities in Sanem, Luxemburg, and Bodo and Sola, Norway.

The facility in Sanem has more than 850,000 square feet of storage space in 16 warehouses. Thirteen of them are humidity controlled, two are for fuel items and one is temperature controlled.

The Sanem facility contains more than 345,000 items, from the smallest gasket to the largest refueling trucks. The net worth of the material is about $882 million, and includes 85 percent of U.S. Air Forces in Europe's war readiness materials.

"We're constantly preparing for the next war, while supporting what's currently going on," Sergeant Sittenauer said. "We prepare today what the combatant commander needs tomorrow to complete the mission. Major outloads for operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom is an ongoing event."

Thus far the squadron has deployed 8,000 tons of war-readiness equipment valued at more than $76 million to operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

"We have everything you need to make an air base operational when all you have is a runway the surrounding fields and a water source," he said. "We send everything else, like Humvees, refuelers, aircraft ground support equipment, tent cities [showers, kitchens, electrical power generation, latrines, chaplain facilities, mortuaries, etc.], bomb-loaders, ambulances and buses."

The Sembach Annex has six major sections that include aerospace ground equipment, vehicle maintenance, civil engineer, vehicle operations, allied trades and armament systems.

Although they have many vehicles across their compound, they don't have long-term storage. The different sections are constantly scrutinizing armament, vehicles, aerospace ground equipment and civil engineer assets being transported in from the storage facility in Luxemburg.

"All the assets here are in transitory status," Sergeant Sittenauer said, "Ten percent of the inventory is inspected and repair for flightline use tomorrow if necessary."

The unit's civil engineering section also was responsible for standardizing the basic expeditionary airfield resource base kits used in four Air Force commands. The kits include the infrastructure and materials for lodging, dining, shower and latrine units to support 550 people. Currently there are 14 kits on hand ready to deploy to house 6,950 servicemembers.

"More than ever before, today's Airmen are living in bare base conditions," Sergeant Sittenauer said.

Source: U.S. Air Force

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