C O A L I T I O N F O R C E S A N D I R A Q I S W O R K I N G F O R A B E T T E R I R A Q

Dirty Jobs Done Well The 125th QM at Work By: CPT Clifford Cotten, 389th CSSB

Editor-in-Chief: CPT Clifford Cotten 29 March 2010

Top left to right: SFC Dwyer, SGT O’Dell, SGT Smith, SSG Catino, SSG Nykiel, SGT Fleming, LT Bundy, SGT Harding, SFC Vasquez; Bottom left to right: PFC LePage, SGT Harrison, SGT Cummings, SSG Larrabee, SPC Villegas, SGT Havey, SGT Murphy, SSG Millette, SGT Altiery, SGT Falconer; Front leaning rest: SGT Soloperto

Inside this issue:

diately noticed when some-

thing goes wrong or is not

available.

The 125th QM is a National

Guard unit from Worcester,

MA. The 125th here is com-

manded by 1LT Brent Bundy

with acting First Sergeant SFC

Vasquez. This unit and the

personnel exemplify the can do

spirit, no job too small or too

large. The story of all the real

dirty work goes to the junior

personnel though. The 125th

QM works the ROWPU sys-

tems here and the Class 1 op-

erations, both of which keep

this base in operation. Every

twenty four hours they process

75—110 thousand gallons of

water, into bags that hold it for

KBR to pump it to the DFAC

your showers toilet facilities.

The water we drink and use all

comes from a local source that

W ith the many varied

tasks performed here at CSC

Scania many could be shown

on the TV show “Dirty Jobs”.

One such unit

here often goes

unnoticed.

While many

units on this

base have some

very key tasks,

but no other task

could be more

important and

affect more personnel than this

unit 125th Quartermaster. The

125th provides safe drinking

water for the entire base while

providing a quantity of water

that never seems to impact

those that take something less

than the quick shower. Like so

many things it is the hard work

that no one sees that is imme-

recently he cleansed the intake

so that the draw down and the

pumps would have the correct

flow. Not to worry you but the

water in the canal prior to puri-

fication is not a nice swim.

SGT Smith can attest to that.

This is his first deployment

and was new to the unit when

it deployed. With his swim-

ming skills he fit right in.

SGT Harding is another case

and point helping not just with

his units job but almost any-

where a forklift driver is

needed. The construction &

reorganization of the outside

Iraqi market

is purified.

Making sure your water is safe

and come in enough abun-

dance that’s where the job gets

dirty. SGT Robert Smith of

Wrentham, MA is a plumber

back home which can also

make the dirty jobs list. Just

CHAPLAIN 2

GRIDIRON REMATCH 2

LE BON TEMPS 2

MWR WINNERS VOLLEYBALL

3

3

SEEN ON SCANIA 4

The Scania Desert Renegade

SGT Smith demonstrating his audition for Dirty Jobs

Continued pg 4

The Scania Desert Renegade 29 March 2010

By: CH (CPT) Jerald Bass, Post Chaplain

G reetings, CSC Scania Dis week at Scania da Louisana National Guard Calvary unit is

here to replace A Co 2/162. Dey are gonna have problems when dey ride in on da horses,

we don't have any stables here. The Air force unit 37th MCT is left we wish dem da best

of luck. I keep hearing fireworks and i'm trying to figure out what holiday it is, cause we

never have fire works for easter. Good times.

Le Bon Temps: Good times with Yargeaux A Cajun Take on the Weekly Happenings in Scania

like drive, scoring a touchdown in an efficient one minute, 41

seconds. The Avengers swiftly

countered with two touch-

downs, the latter coming on an

athletic interception. The

Avengers’ adhesive defense

was keyed by defensive end

1SG Miotke, who relentlessly

pressured the quarterback with

Renegades Avenge Loss to the Avengers By: CPT Harsha Rao, 389th CSSB

S cania continued its Sun-

day flag football games as the

Renegades beat the Avengers

26-20, avenging their loss two

weeks ago. With seven play-

ers on each side, Scania finally

had enough players to truly

take advantage of the wide

football field. Thanks to the

help of the fire department and

SFC Rausch, the footing on the

field was greatly improved and

there were fewer falls than in

the previous weeks.

The Renegades struck first as

quarterback SSG Melendez

directed a Peyton Manning-

Page 3

29 March 2010 The Scania Desert Renegade MWR Weekly Winners

CPT Clifford Cotten editor. Please send me any stories, announcements, photos, interview requests, or other amusing tidbits for this newsletter to clifford.cotten@iraq.centcom.mil

8 Ball — Jimmy “Stands before his idols”

Texas Hold’em — CSM Cooke

Flag Football

Flag football has arrived in Scania!

Register yourself or your team for the

upcoming weekly league with CPT Har-

sha Rao at harsha.rao@iraq.centcom.mil or

837-1029. It is non-contact so both

males and females are welcome to

participate.

MWR Leagues

T he DFAC Tigers continued their dominance of Scania’s volley-

ball league, winning their fourth straight championship on Wednes-

day, March 17. Despite some early losses in the season, the Tigers

rallied to secure a playoff bye, along with the Tamimi Storm, the

Jokers, and the Air Force Clown Punchers. In the semifinals, the

Storm, who finished the regular season with only one loss, beat the

Air Force 2-1 while the Tigers beat the Jokers 2-1 on the other side of

the bracket.

The stage was set for a furious all DFAC match-up of the Tigers ver-

sus the Storm. Although the Storm had destroyed the Tigers 3-0 dur-

ing the regular season, the Tigers added a key player, Pita Ramasima

of Agility Logistics, for the playoffs. Despite the new addition, the

Tigers were slow to gel as a team as the Storm beat them in the first

game of the finals behind the powerful spikes of Ajmal Hussain and

Mushtaq Ahmed. In the second game, the Storm again jumped out to

an early lead and looked to be running away with the champion-

ship. With their tournament life on the line, the Tigers rallied behind

Zubair Khan’s strong serves to stun the Storm and even the se-

ries. The Storm appeared to still be in shock from the second game as

they allowed the Tigers to quickly build an insurmountable 10 point

lead, eventually losing 21-11. Although the Storm put up a tough

fight, the Tigers continued their reign at the top and Scania continues

to look for a new volleyball champion.

Volleyball

dle into a stunning touchdown

run, cutting the Renegades’

lead to six in only 20 sec-

onds. 1SG Miotke then con-

tinued to press the Renegades

In the second half, the Rene-

gades gained a key addition in

SGT Carvajal, who made the

catch of the day to finally give

the Renegades the lead. With

two defenders all over him,

SGT Carvajal caught SSG

Melendez’s expertly lofted

multiple sacks. Despite the

Avengers strong defense, the

Renegades managed to score

another touchdown before

halftime and the second half

opened with a game score of

14-12 in favor of the Aven-

gers.

pass for a touchdown, and then

caught the two point conver-

sion pass to give the Rene-

gades a 20-14 lead. SGT

Marin then scored a second

touchdown for the Renegades,

breaking SPC Capel’s ankles

on a sick juke to give the

Renegades a commanding 26-

14 lead.

With less than four minutes

remaining and no onside kick-

offs, the Avengers were faced

with the daunting prospect of

scoring twice and also stop-

ping the Renegades’ suddenly

rejuvenated offense. After

returning the kickoff to about

midfield, 1SG Miotke turned

on the afterburners and con-

verted a short pass up the mid-

DFAC Tigers’ Reign Continues By: CPT Harsha Rao, 389th CSSB

9 Ball — Maurice

Renegades Avenge Loss to the Avengers Continued from pg2

Continued on page 4

29 March 2010 The Scania Desert Renegade

Page 4

could not have happened with-

out his efforts. Like many in

his unit back home they have

jobs that are closely related to

their military occupation with

him working at a water treat-

ment plant in South Bridge,

MA.

Being a member of the Na-

tional Guard or reserve often

takes more than standard ef-

fort. SGT Allen travels over 3

hours just to get to the unit in

Massachusetts , form New

York.

Of the members of the unit

only one had prior experience

here in Iraq and that was SGT

Cummings, who back home is

a full time Mil Tech. She

served in 2004 further north

from here and has traveled

throughout Iraq on convoys.

She has noticed the many

changes from that period to the

current situation, but is still

thankful not to be doing con-

voy duty which had grinding

hours of travel with little to no

sleep at times.

The Class 1 facility is another

job that has long and demand-

ing hours making sure the base

and the convoys have enough

bottle water and other supplies

to keep going on the road here

SSG Millette has often held

down the many of the hours.

But when the base needed him

elsewhere he stepped in and

now even covers in the DFAC

too.

This unit has been held to-

gether by a team of senior

NCO’s SFC Dwyer and SFC

Vasquez with a combined ex-

perience of 55 years in the

Army. Both have been with

the 125th for a number of years

and the soldiers of the unit all

felt a sense of safety knowing

that they were going to be lead

by such outstanding NCO’s.

Soriano to come up with a

crucial interception. With

about a minute and a half re-

maining, the Renegades suc-

cessfully ran out the clock and

preserved the victory.

The Renegades are always

looking for new opponents. If

you are interested in playing a

no-contact flag football game,

please contact CPT Rao or

SFC Estevez in the Mayor

Cell.

Seen on CSC scania — Boxing, fight night scania

(below)The Cast of Bruisers & Brawlers Prior to the TMC Visit, MC & Ref

(above) Ring Girls (minus the Ring Guy with MC & Ref

on defense, sacking SSG

Melendez and forcing a fum-

ble, requiring the Renegades to

punt the ball with a little less

than two minutes remaining.

With about two minutes and

one timeout left, the Avengers

had their chance to march

downfield and tie the

game. After a quick outlet

pass to SPC Brooks, Avengers

quarterback SSG Murray exe-

cuted a disastrous throw on a

deep ball, under throwing his

receiver and enabling SSG

SGT Smith takes a bottled water bath after a day at Dirty Jobs

Renegades Avenge Loss to the Avengers Continued from pg3

Dirty Jobs Done Well The 125th QM at Work Continued from page 1