PSAB equipment gets 2nd chance

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. A.J. Bosker
  • Air Force Print News
PRINCE SULTAN AIR BASE, Saudi Arabia --  As the 363rd Air Expeditionary Wing here draws down and inactivates this summer, there is a large amount of equipment that must be accounted for, organized and disposed of.

That job falls to four airmen from the base’s 363rd Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron who oversee the defense reutilization and marketing office yard.

Their mission is to collect all the government-purchased property, organize it into similar lots and make sure any garbage or hazardous material is disposed of properly, said Master Sgt. Scott Hoskinson, the office superintendent.

However, before any property gets turned into the yard, it must be processed to see if it can be used elsewhere at a deployed location in-theater or within the Central Air Force’s area of responsibility. If it still cannot be used, officials check within Air Combat Command or finally anywhere Air Force-wide, Hoskinson said.

Only after officials determine there is no need for the equipment does it come the yard, said 1st Lt. Richard Henderson, the 363rd ELRS distribution flight commander.

“We’ve sent millions of dollars’ (worth of equipment) downrange that potentially could have come to the yard,” Henderson said.

Although every effort is made to reuse equipment, if the cost to move an item to a given location exceeds its total value, it gets placed in the yard, he said.

Hoskinson and co-workers began collecting items once officials announced the wing would inactivate and the American and coalition presence here would end.

“The first thing we did was to have the original supply holding area expanded roughly four or five times,” he said. “Today, it’s approximately 1.2 square miles.”

As far as the actual total value of equipment in the yard, Hoskinson can only offer a guess.

“Our low estimate is just under $10 million, but it’s probably closer to $15 to 20 million,” he said.

This week, representatives from the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service will arrive to take over yard operations from Hoskinson and his co-workers.

Once the 363rd AEW inactivates and the last piece of equipment is placed in the yard, DRMS representatives will coordinate with a local auction house to sell the remaining unused property, Henderson said.

The equipment may be sold in lots by type or it may be sold in its entirety to the highest bidder, he said. The winning bidders will coordinate with the Saudi government to pick up their lots.

“(The airmen) who’ve run the DRMO yard have done an amazing job,” Henderson said. “They’ve endured the heat and blowing sand, put in 12- to 16-hour days and (taken) personal accountability for every asset that’s been placed in the yard. They (made this) DRMO yard run as smoothly as possible.”