Editor's note: This is one in an occasional series on area service members deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq - Soldiers with the 298th Support Maintenance Company, 13th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 3rd Sustainment Brigade, 103rd Sustainment Command's (Expeditionary) heating, ventilation and air conditioning repair shop work daily to keep personnel cool in the heat of the Iraqi summer.
The soldiers are working hard and keeping busy because there is a lack of proper preventative maintenance on the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in the Caiman series of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles.
The problem isn't with the service members, but with the technical manual service members use to maintain their vehicles.
"Properly doing preventative maintenance checks and services the air conditioning system isn't in the technical manual," said Hollidaysburg native Chief Warrant Officer 2 Christopher Patrick, the ground support equipment officer-in-charge with the 298th.
"Operators [check] their vehicle using the [manual], and as operators are not usually mechanics, they use the step-by-step instructions listed on how to check and maintain their vehicle, but nowhere in the [manual] does it tell them how to clean and maintain the air conditioning unit."
The biggest problem lies with the cooling fins on the air conditioning unit itself. When the fins are clogged with dust and dirt, they cannot dissipate the heat build-up.
"It's an easy fix," said Staff Sgt. Lee Ripka, the repair shop's noncommissioned officer-in-charge and a Rebersburg native. "Just once a week, take a low pressure washer and just clean it out. Otherwise the dirt builds up, the heat cannot dissipate and the system malfunctions."
The knowledge gained by the technicians has led them to put together a manual, which they sent up their chain of command. It has since become the standard operating procedure for the 3rd Sustainment Brigade.
The soldiers are also looking to have the manual published in P.S. magazine, which is a monthly magazine on U.S. military preventive maintenance, to get the information out to the operator level.
"If you keep your system clean," said Ripka, "it will keep you cool."
Pfc. David Christian is a soldier of the 298th Support Maintenance Company, 13th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 3rd Sustainment Brigade Public Affairs, 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary). Soldiers of the 298th, based in Altoona, left May 12 for pre-deployment training in Texas before leaving for Iraq.
