20061227 What is Task Force AVCRAD?

What is Task Force AVCRAD?

December 27^th, 2006

Previous posts about Command Sergeant Major Tom Beyard; the Westminster Director of Planning and Public Works on active duty in the Middle East, include a reference to “TF AVCRAD.”

Several folks have inquired; just what is “TF AVRAD?”

CSM Beyard was kind enough to e-mail me an explanation; which I have pasted below.

Meanwhile, last December 18^th, 2006, commanding general Brigadier General Patricia McQuistion; Colonel Tim Gowen, and Command Sergeant Major Tom Beyard participated in a “Combat Patch ceremony,” all pictured in the top photgraph.

In the bottom photograph, you can see the combat patch on CSM Beyard’s right shoulder.

CSM Beyard writes, “It is patch with large A inside of black circle. This is patch of Third Army, the combatant commander we fall under. Third Army is Patton's Army, in honor of General George Patton, Jr. and his command of Third Army in WWII.”

He continues, “BG McQuistion wears many hats. First, she is Commanding General of Army Materiel Command (Forward) - Southwest Asia. Second, she is the C-4 (Army terminology for the staff officer responsible for logistics and supply) for Coalition Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC). Third, she is Director of Operational Sustainment for US Army Central, the Army component of Third Army.”

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Task Force AVCRAD (TF AVCRAD) 06 – 08

November 18^th, 2006

TF AVCRAD 06 – 08 was officially formed on July 11, 2006.

TF AVCRAD consists of over 220 soldiers from fifteen different states.

Soldiers come from HQ, ADMRU from Edgewood, Maryland; F Company, 135^th Aviation from Frankfort, Kentucky; 1106^th AVCRAD from Fresno; California; 1109^th AVCRAD from Groton, Connecticut; 1107^th AVCRAD from Springfield, Missouri; and soldiers from Alabama, Pennsylvania, Texas, Illinois, Iowa, Tennessee, New York, Virginia, Hawaii and Ohio.

TF AVCRAD 06 – 08 was formed to become the “fifth” AVCRAD.

To date, the four AVCRADs already deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF).

TF AVCRAD tests a new concept for Army aviation logistics – to bring together a command and control cell and match it with an enhanced AVIM plus – to perform the mission of an AVCRAD.

The command and control cell comes primarily from HQ, ADMRU and the enhanced AVIM plus comes primarily from F Company, 135^th Aviation, with supporting maintenance and supply soldiers from the 1106^th, 1107^th and the 1109^th AVCRADs.

This unique organization required intensive post-mobilization training for TF AVCRAD soldiers to reach the required level of individual and collective skill.

TF AVCRAD 06-08 executes the Theater Aviation Maintenance Program (TAMP) mission in support of OIF/OEF. TF AVCRAD soldiers provide:

1) National Maintenance Program (NMP) repair management capability;

2) back-up Supply Support Activity (SSA) operations;

3) “limited” Depot level maintenance support; and

4) on order, provide Aviation Intermediate Maintenance Support (AVIM) support to aviation units located in Kuwait and perform Air Port/Sea Port of Debarkation (APOD/APOD) operations.

Our soldiers are executing their mission at various locations including Camp Arifjan, the SPOD, Udari Army Airfield at Camp Buehring and Ali Al Salem Air Base and Kuwait Naval Base in Kuwait; in addition to the work of the fix forward teams at Balad, Iraq and Bagram, Afghanistan and other locations in those countries.

POC: CSM Thomas Beyard

Cards, coffee, cookies and stuff from home can be sent to:

CSM Thomas Beyard
Command Sergeant Major
TF AVCRAD 06-08
Camp Arifjan, Kuwait
APO AE 09366

…Tom is sure to see that it gets to good use… What he doesn’t need in his unit, is sure to be distributed in Iraq and Afghanistan…

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