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Fort Hood squadron wins 2009 Phoenix Award

Soldiers from 1st Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, of Fort Hood, Texas, are the winners of the 2009 Phoenix Award, the Defense Department announced Tuesday.

The award, part of the 2009 Secretary of Defense Maintenance Awards, recognizes military maintenance organizations for outstanding performance. The winner was chosen from active and reserve organizations performing unit or field-level maintenance.

The 1st Squadron, 3rd ACR, distinguished itself while continuously deployed to Iraq’s Tigris River Valley in 2008 by maintaining an equipment fleet 75 percent larger than normally authorized and dispersed over 24,000 square kilometers. The unit also provided Iraqi army mechanics with more than 12,000 hours of hands-on maintenance training.

The squadron successfully met these challenges by adopting various innovative techniques, including cross-training maintenance technicians, adjusting operation and maintenance priorities based on feedback from combat experience, and modifying standard operating procedures to facilitate the mission, according to the DoD announcement.

The results of the soldiers’ efforts were reflected in the squadron’s 97 percent operational readiness rate for the entire year.

The Phoenix Award was presented at the 2009 DoD Maintenance Symposium and Exhibition Oct. 26-29 in Phoenix, Ariz.