FORT EUSTIS, Va. –
Army watercraft engineers assigned to the Logistic Support Vessel-1, the Gen. Frank S. Besson Jr., "First and Finest," 335th Transportation Detachment, 24th Transportation Battalion are responsible for the overall maintenance and upkeep of all mechanical aspects on the vessel. The team of engineers includes four warrant officers and seven enlisted Army watercraft engineers.
Three-person teams work four-hour shifts twice a day checking the watercrafts mechanical systems and logging each piece of equipment's data. The vessel embarked Fort Eustis' 3rd Port the morning of Aug. 9 in support of the Transportation School's Marine Operations 880A2 Celesitial Field Training Exercise.
The technical expertise required is demanding for the engineers. The mission depends on them; any breakage has the potential to cause mission failure.
"You're trying to keep all the systems of a more than 20-year old vessel in complete working condition," said Chief Warrant Officer Ted McGuire, second engineer for the LSV-1. "Additionally, the vessel has been utilized to field-test new equipment for the Army's watercraft, most notably the air conditioning and marine sanitation systems. Maintenance issues that arise centric to the new equipment present a first-time experience for many of the engineers on board because of the newness of the equipment being tested. There is no established precedence or troubleshooting manual so it's a 'learn as you go' process."