ADRP 4-0 defines sustainment as the provision of logistics, personnel services, and health service support as necessary to maintain operations until successful mission completion. A soldier can only soldier for so long without food or water. A helicopter can only fly for so long without fuel or maintenance. Most people consider the soldier on the front lines as the most important part of the battle. While they hold a very important role of the warfighter, they would not be permitted to do their job without the people standing behind them supporting their efforts. Something I learned early on in the Army is that the warfighter is very important, but for every trigger puller on the front line there are ten people behind them the assets they need…show more content… Before 1-229th AV was the “first unit equipped” with the AH-64E, 1-1 ARB was. I first arrived to the unit in August of 2011. Immediately following RL Progression we jumped right into the AH-64E testing which we conducted in the Fort Irwin restricted area in conjunction with China Lake. The AH-64E was not officially being fielded yet, but would be immediately following the testing. This was a very controlled process; everything was under strict observation and recording, maintenance included. I bring up maintenance specifically because whenever a part was needed for repair on the E-model, Boeing would fly it out to Barstow within a few hours. This would happen several times a day, and began to raise a few eyebrows as it went…show more content… As time went on the maintenance situation didn’t change. Boeing would FedEx parts overnight for any required maintenance, with nothing coming from the Army supply system. Fast forward a year, the unit’s completely trained and fielded and we’re four months away from the E-model seeing combat in Afghanistan for the first time. Due to the maintenance logistics package still not being in place, the Army decides to transfer the E-model to 1-229th and give us D-models
