Parts r us

When it rains...


After four full attempts at finding our place in the Army supply system, we finally managed to receive some stuff. The other day an entire pickup truck load of mostly shop stock items came in. I'd already turned in my resignation (which was ignored) and vowed that if I had to re-order our entire log of 400-plus items and growing, for a fifth time, I'd never be seen in this office again, but it seems like the persistence finally paid off.

Only about a third of this pile belongs to us. One of the great things about the Army's system is that maintenance sections get to be the order point for all "Class IX" or maintenance and repair supplies, so we get to order everyone's stuff for them. In the Army, a supply clerk is assigned to maintenance to take care of this whole process, but it's all we can do to get our supply folk to drop off our "order disks" and pick up stuff when it comes in.

Of the third of this stuff that does belong to Vehicle Maintenance, none of it will take any of our collection of deadlined vehicles off of the deadline list, but try explaining that to someone who sees us unloading parts and wants their truck back. Most of the pile is shop stock that should have come with the Darby equipment package, but like vehicle historical records, manuals, and previously ordered parts, still hasn't made its way to us 7 months later. Ah well, life goes on.

So we got some parts in. Today is a good day. I managed to get some more pictures to load up and I had a great breakfast with Greg, Bob, Daryl and Todd. We switched things up and went to the DFAC #2 where I enjoyed French toast with peaches, succulent ham, fried potatoes, grits, and sliced kiwi as well as OJ, powdered milk and strong coffee. Greg unknowingly sat at a table reserved for contract workers and their escorts so we all followed his lead, but decided to move after everyone sat down and someone noticed the sign on the table. Our new table already had two TACOM reps at it and the one recognized me and asked if I had any luck finding a fuel injection pump for an Air Force-only air compressor... on Sunday morning... at breakfast... on my day off. They're both pretty good guys and they've been helpful, so it didn't bother me nearly as much then as it does as I sit here typing about it. In fact, I hadn't seen them in a while and it was actually a friendly, pleasant, brief exchange.

After breakfast we headed over to the local mall (PX, barber shop) where we got our hair cut, did some shopping, but no buying, and then came back to the office to catch up on some news on the TV and email. And I guess that's about it. So I'll stop boring the living crap out of you now and move on.

Luth