Operation Groundhog Day Turn Around Pt 2

The first day of driving a black cloud appears over the clip. While the HETs are sturdy trucks, many of them have been in theatre since operations in Iraq began in 2003. Designed for short recovery missions, the HETs have been used continuously for long-haul missions of some of the heaviest equipment in the US inventory.

The clip leaves its area of operation and departs for the staging area. Before even taking off it is discovered that one of the trucks has a brake with an air leak. While not an intense fix the leak requires taking from the maintenance truck’s supply of extra parts intended for use later on down the road. In less than twenty minutes the brake chamber is swapped out with a new one and the clip leaves on time. After a short stop to pick up a couple of loads the clip heads to Camp Buehring for the night.

Unfortunately the brake incident is not the last issue of the day the clip has to deal with. While in route to Buehring, one of the trucks is struck by on-coming civilian traffic. The accident leaves minor damage to the HET trailer, but totals out the civilian vehicle. Fortunately there are no fatalities, but it does delay the clip’s progress for over an hour.

Another issue also arises sometime during the day, the A/C of the lead truck goes out, making the vehicle no longer mission capable. With summer time temps reaching well over 100* F a vehicle’s A/C is a critical item. The next morning the truck is taken into the shop, but due to a misunderstanding is not repaired until the mid-afternoon. This causes the clip to miss their original departure time and be assigned a later one.

Before they are out of Kuwait the sun starts to set and the clip has a long drive, now mainly in darkness, to look forward to. Fortunately the rest of the night goes smoothly and no large maintenance issues arise. The clip arrives at their destination, CSA Scania, just shy of sunrise, and eagerly beds down for the night after grabbing a meal at the chow hall.

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