Soldiers with Ice Company, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (LI) show off their first-place awards for the Army Award for Maintenance Excellence (AAME) at the Headquarters, Department of the Army, XVIII Airborne Corps and U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) levels at a ceremony held in their honor, Nov. 25, 2019. (U.S. Army photo by 27th Public Affairs Detachment)
1st Brigade Combat Team Soldiers capture Army Award for Maintenance Excellence
Staff Sgt. James Avery
1st Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs
FORT DRUM, N.Y. (Nov. 26, 2019) – Soldiers of 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (LI), have won an Army Award for Maintenance Excellence, or AAME, maintaining their now three-year winning streak, setting the standard in the division and U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM).
In a ceremony honoring Ice Company, a forward support company (FSC) attached to 1-32 Infantry, Soldiers received an award for U.S. Army Active MTOE Small Category from the Chief of Staff of the Army, the XVIII Airborne Corps commanding general and the FORSCOM commanding general. All three awards were for the 2018 fiscal year.
Earning this award is not an easy feat. It requires long hours and dedication to the mission as well as discipline from all levels of the command.
“We have a good blend of talent and a company command that was interested in competing and wanted to do well,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Joshua Cameron, Ice Company’s maintenance chief. “We reinforced maintenance standards (that) enabled the team to work together seamlessly and achieve a common goal. From point A to point Z, I always had the support I needed to attain a high level of maintenance standards required to win the AAME at the Army level.”
At the level Ice Company competed, its Soldiers and leadership worked tirelessly to maintain the standards required to win. This ethic has translated to how Ice Company does business on a daily basis, thus redefining how not only 1-32 Infantry operates, but up the supply chain to 1st BCT and beyond.
“The first indication that we were on the right path was CW2 Cameron leaning forward on where the Army was heading with maintenance, and that started with ordering new truck tires for the brigade,” said Capt. Thomas Di Tomasso, Ice Company executive officer.
“We were able to replace 344 tires across the brigade, which allowed the completion of live-fire exercises, because they could not drive their vehicles without these new tires,” he continued. “It would have been a complete showstopper. Without Chief leaning ahead on maintenance, the brigade’s mission would have failed.”
As a light infantry brigade, 1st BCT needs to be able to deploy anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice. They will need to move the entire brigade and its equipment to the other side of the world, without losing a single piece of inventory or personnel. With the lessons learned through the AAME competition, 1st BCT will be ready to move swiftly, take on, and accomplish any mission, knowing it has award-winning maintenance teams in its ranks.
“We’re an enabler for the battalions, so being successful in the maintenance arena enables the infantryman to get to the objective, shoot the objective, speak to the objective, without worry of failed equipment,” Cameron noted. “Ultimately it allows them to accomplish their mission with confidence in their equipment.”