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Maxwell ACSC instructor accepts DoD award

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Erica Picariello
  • 42nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs
MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. --  Alexander Haig, a former Army general who also served as the U.S. secretary of state under President Ronald Regan, once said, "Practice rather than preach. ... Dare to the level of your capability and then go beyond to a higher level."

An Army instructor at Air Command and Staff College, who took that adage to heart while he served in Afghanistan, accepted the Department of Defense's highest maintenance award for best practices, collaboration and advisory efforts on behalf of the task force he commanded.

Lt. Col. Brian Beckno accepted the 2014 Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence in Maintenance Training, Advice and Assistance of Foreign Security Forces (Ministerial Category) on behalf of the men and women of 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, or Task Force Catamount, which earned the award for their work with the Afghan National Army's 4th Brigade, 203rd Corps last year.

  "Our mission was training, advising and assisting the Afghan National Security Forces in Logar Province, consisting of the Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police and the National Directorate of Security, Beckno said. "It was TF Catamount's decisive operation and the reason we deployed. Collectively, with our Afghan partners, we were a team; we trusted each other and worked together for the people of Logar Province, especially as concerned providing security for both Afghan presidential elections."

The task force was deployed to Forward Operating Base Shank in the province.

Beckno and his small Security Force Assistance and Advisory Team, as part of TF Catamount, trained, advised and assisted the ANA on how to streamline their maintenance operations.  However, the entirety of TF Catamount, 925 Soldiers strong, were also charged with maintaining security around FOB Shank and maintaining "freedom of movement" throughout Logar Province in support of coalition retrograde operations.

"TF Catamount had the key task to defend FOB Shank against all enemy threats," Beckno said. "Throughout our deployment, enemy forces were extremely active conducting attacks against coalition forces on FOB Shank, primarily with rockets and mortars, but they would attack ANSF and coalition forces throughout Logar Province. While combat operations occurred outside of FOB Shank, the TF Catamount SFAAT team aggressively sought to train, advise and assist all pillars of the Afghan National Security Forces. Our success was overwhelming due to our relationship with our Afghan partners."

One of the biggest victories for TF Catamount was implementing a training program that helped fix key areas of the ANA's vehicle maintenance program, he said. One key area the task force focused on was the procedure for acquiring equipment parts.

Army Staff Sgt. Emmett Facquet II, the hand-selected motor sergeant for the 2 BAT, 87 INF, TF Catamount, described the process as one that took too long, resulting in the need for ANA soldiers to cannibalize parts from scraps.

"While walking through the motor pool, I noticed a bin of used parts that appeared to be scraps," Facquet said during the DoD 2014 Maintenance Symposium in Birmingham, Alabama, Nov. 18, 2014. "I initially thought this crate was a recycling bin, but was told that the bin was used to collect reusable parts. They reused parts to save money and because the supply chain took weeks or months to get new repair parts to the ANA's motor pool."

Though it seemed resourceful, according to Facquet, this set the entire maintenance program up for failure.

"Used parts will fail faster, leading to more faults and fewer working vehicles," he said.

TF Catamount worked to get the approval authority for Afghans ordering new parts pushed down from their version of a brigade commander to their battalion commander equivalent.

"We were able to get approval authority for ordering new parts pushed to the toli commander, or battalion commander, which drastically shortened approval time from four to six weeks to sometimes an hour," he said.

Also, the manner in which the operating instructions were written to fix the vehicles wasn't working for the Afghan maintainers. The task force updated instruction manuals so they could be easily followed no matter the skill level of the soldier performing the task.

The Afghan drivers were also given training to mitigate simple vehicle accidents.

"We focused on three areas: hand and arm signals and two driving tracks designed to teach the drivers how to properly slow or stop their vehicle with narrow turns and variable terrains. After several iterations of this course, vehicle accidents in the brigade were reduces from eight per month to just one," Facquet said.

TF Catamount dared to the level of their capability then went beyond to a higher level.

Because of its successes, the TF Catamount Security Force Assistance and Advisory Team was co-recipient of the award.

"My time with TF Catamount serving as an infantry battalion commander in a joint, coalition environment during Operation Enduring Freedom will allow me to provide very real-time experience to ACSC and the Department of Joint Warfighting," Beckno said. "I'm proud of all the men and women I served with during my time at FOB Shank, including our two fallen heroes, Specialist Kerry M.G. Danyluk and Specialist Christian J. Chandler, who died defending FOB Shank. Ultimately, TF Catamount was successful because we critically thought about our advisory and tactical problems and adapted ... and that is exactly what ACSC is about - creating critical thinkers who act."