Small Post, Big Mission

Soldiers August 1994 Volume 49

Story by Donna Miles

Nestled at the foot of California's Sierra Nevada Mountains, tiny Sierra Army Depot is home to programs with big, Army wide impact.

DON'T let Sierra Army Depot's out-of-the-way location make you think it's Sleepy Hollow. It's the bustling home of three huge projects with Army wide impact. Force Provider, the Army's future field system, is packaged there. So are the Inland Petroleum Distribution System and the Water Support System, miles of pipeline and pumping systems that would supply fuel and water to forward-deployed troops.

And Sierra, the smallest Army depot in terms of its work force, is about to take on two more missions as Colorado's Pueblo Army Depot Activity closes its gates for good. Sierra will acquire Pueblo's jobs of storing and maintaining mobile aircraft landing mats and engineering bridging material.

In light of these projects, carried out by the depot's 800-some civilian workers, sometimes the jobs of Sierra's soldiers get overlooked.

Soldiers who manage personnel and pay records often find themselves filling jobs covered by two or more soldiers at larger posts.

Part of it may be by design: Eight out of every 10 of the depot's 400-some soldiers have a classified mission. They're military police who guard a special weapons and ammunition storage site.

Their job, in a nutshell, is to identify everyone who gets near the place and monitor their activities while they're in the area. The MPs patrol fence lines, operate an elaborate security system, study a bank of television screens that show every nook and cranny of the secured area, report aircraft activity and maintain a quick-reaction team ready to respond to a break-in 24 hours a day.

So far, there's never been one, which some MPs admit can make the mission a bit tedious --- especially toward the end of a shift.

Roving patrols monitor fence lines around the depot's ammunition storage site.

"A lot of people think it's monotonous around here, driving up and down the same fence line," said Sgt. Tim Monahan, who supervises motor patrols. "The biggest challenge is to stay alert and fight complacency."

Civilian workers assemble packages of the Army's Force Provider "tent city" system.

But every once in awhile, the MPs get a surefire complacency-fighter, like when a rabbit or deer, or simply the desert wind, sets off the supersensitive alarm system.

That's when the control room goes crazy. MPs identify the location of the alarm, scan the affected area with cameras and dispatch appropriate motor patrols. The responding soldiers observe the area for the cause of the alarm and report their findings.

All alarms are responded to as though they are the "real thing." The MPs are ready to warn intruders that the area is restricted and that use of deadly force is authorized.

"Around here, there are two basic modes," explained Sgt. Doug Catellier, NCOIC of the control room. "It can be very boring, with no action whatsoever, or it can be where you're pulling your hair out."

Either way, Monahan constantly reminds his soldiers to stay on their toes. "We have an important job here that's vital to national security," he said.

In addition to MPs, Sierra Army Depot hosts an explosive ordnance disposal unit that responds to emergencies in a 30-county region in California, Nevada and Oregon.

The 34th Ordnance Detachment dispatches three-soldier teams for emergencies involving military ordnance or improvised explosives such as letter and pipe bombs.

Once rendering them inert, the teams return the munitions to Sierra, the largest Environmental Protection Agency-certified demolition site in the United States.

Recovered munitions, in addition to outdated or unserviceable ammunition, are destroyed in one of the depot's 14 demolition pits about eight miles from the cantonment area. Each pit will handle 10,000 pounds of explosives, which Capt. Mark Coons, detachment commander, said "will really wake you up."

Most of Sierra's other soldiers support the military community: maintaining vehicles, running the health clinic and managing soldiers' finance and pay records.

Soldiers in these jobs find that duty at a small post forces them to become jacks of all trades. SFC Talo Siatuu, for example, is the lone finance soldier who manages all military pay records. Spec. Sergio Lopez, a dental specialist, does everything from booking appointments to taking X-rays to sterilizing equipment to performing lab work.

"Here, people have to do more than one phase of a job," said Spec. Kelvin Briggs, who processes assignments as well as promotions for the depot soldiers. "It's good for your career because you're forced to take on the job of a higher-ranking person. When you go before the promotion board, this kind of duty looks good on your record."