THE JOINT RECOVERY AND DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM IS PROVING SUCCESSFUL IN VEHICLE RECOVERY IN AFGHANISTAN. HERE, SOLDIERS WITH THE 584TH MAINTENANCE CO., 142ND COMBAT SUSTAINMENT SUPPORT BATTALION, 101ST SUSTAINMENT BRIGADE, USE THE JRADS TO RECOVER A DAMAGED VEHICLE. (PHOTO BY SGT. 1ST CLASS PETE MAYES)
better and easier both for their fellow soldiers and for
Afghanis who will remain there long after the American presence is a distant memory.
The editors of DC VELOCITY would like to extend special
thanks to Sgt. 1st Class Peter A. Mayes, who works in the 101st
Sustainment Brigade’s public affairs office at Bagram Airfield.
Sgt. Mayes assembled most of the stories, all of the photos,
and served as an indispensable liaison to our staff during the
process. To him, a sincere “Job Well Done” and a well-deserved “Happy Holidays.”
—Mark Solomon
Vehicle recovery
made easier
Lifeliners put new and improved
JRADS to the test in Afghanistan.
BY SGT. 1ST CLASS PETE MAYES,
101ST SUSTAINMENT BRIGADE
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, AFGHANISTAN—In 2010, soldiers of the 101st Sustainment Brigade teamed up with
the Boeing Co. and U.S. Transportation Command to
test a new vehicle recovery system that would be fielded in Afghanistan.
The Joint Recovery and Distribution System
(JRADS), a flatbed trailer designed to load heavily
damaged vehicles and bring them back to base, was
tested last year by 14 soldiers assigned to the brigade’s
Support Operations team during a two-week training
session at Fort Campbell, Ky., where the 101st
Sustainment Brigade is based.
With the JRADS now in theater, soldiers with the 584th
Maintenance Co., 101st Sustainment Brigade, have taken
the new and improved trailer through its paces.
“All the hydraulics work much better than they did back
at Campbell,” said Sgt. 1st Class Brian Twitty, wheel maintenance supervisor with the company. “On the backside of
the trailer, you’ve got something that allows you to pull
something off the side of the trailer at a 90-degree angle.”
The “lifeliners” began training on the new system in
April 2010, spending two weeks learning the intricacies
of the new JRADS equipment. The soldiers, some of
them veterans of the Iraq war, had definite ideas on
how the equipment could be better fielded in a combat
environment.
During the sessions, the team conducted “snatch and
pull” training, which consisted of hooking a damaged
vehicle to the JRADS and using the winches to pull it
onto the flatbed.
“It’s exactly what it sounds like,” said Chief Warrant
2 Dietor Speaks, maintenance technician for the 584th
Maintenance Co. “Just hook it up to a trailer, snatch it,
and get it out of danger.”
Speaks, who will lead the JRADS team missions for
his company, was not part of the brigade when the first
JRADS training was conducted and is learning the sys-
tem for the first time. He said he did vehicle recovery
back in 2003 while deployed to Iraq.
“Before, all we had was a wrecker. Now, we’ve got this
