67 COMBAT SUPPORT GROUP TRIP REPORT

File: aacad_09.txt
Page: 09
Total Pages: 14
         

          Lesson's Learned
         
          -Take a First Sergeant or suitable substitute - We had major
          problems with personnel adapting to the harsh environment and
          dealing with homesickness, short tempers, personality conflicts,
          fear, and overall stress. It took alot to adapt to the
          environment there and a first sgt was a must...we did not have
          one and needed one full time, we shared CES's for a few months
          but he definitely looked out for his own people and slacked on
          ours, we tried our own several times but circumstances occurred
          such as departures, conflict, and not having a capable individual
          trained or willing to try to take on the responsibility and it
          hurt. The younger troops really needed a shoulder they could lean
          on and the commander and myself were not appropriate yet tried to
          comfort in a limited capacity...A full time individual with no
          other duties is absolutely called for.
         
          - Order Equipment Needed ASAP - Time was not on our side. The
          beauracracy still existed even in war on the big money items like
          the ones mentioned before for the dining ball. Funding was no
          problem for anything,  but it took a month for our list to get
          approved and at least two months after that for the arrival.
          Order immediately.
         
          - Limit Dining Hall Hours - We started out slowly by having two
          hour meal periods but eventually with increased shifts and
          changes we expanded hours but never served midnight, it would
          have been difficult with our resources.
         
          F. Mortuary Affairs really only came into play twice for us at
          KKMC.  The first was an F-16 crash in the middle of the desert
          north of Hafer Al Baten, or about 100 KM from tent city-it was
          remote. I was briefed in the middle of the night by Col Vanmeter
          and we were on the road by 0400. We searched for hours driving
          through the desert in two Jeep Cherokees, I brought another
          individual for HR recovery , a fire dept. guy, two EOD folks and a
          medic. We finally found the site at about 0930 to find it
          surrounded by 4 MPs with about a 800 yard radius. A medical team
          of 5 personnel was there from King Fahd, the home unit of the
          Hill aircraft, they arrived by helicopter. We all performed a
          Search and Recovery and recovered approx 40 lbs that day. I sent
          the FOD guys back to KKMC and told them to send a SR team but the
          team was lost in the sandstorm and never made it to the sight. I
          returned the next day and day after that to recover what was
          left. The remains were placed in a refer at our morgue,
          inventoried by the flight surgeon from King Fahd who signed the
          death certificate, and the remains were transferred to Daharan
          via the Bateen Star. The other aircraft accident fatality we
          had involved an A-10 at our airfield upon his return from
          hostilities. Major problems resulted in this Search and Recovery
          involving our airfield neighbors the Army medical group. They