Army firefighters train Airmen for deployments

***image2***“Old is new again” could have been the overall lesson when U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern fire inspectors taught seven Airmen from Ramstein July 10 and 11 at Rhine Ordnance Barracks.

Training was on the AMERTEK Crash, Fire and Rescue fire truck to prepare these Airmen for a four-month deployment to Bulgaria.

The Air Force doesn’t use this type of fire truck, said Tech. Sgt. Don Swiger, from the 835th Civil Engineer Squadron, who was one of the firefighters being trained. He admitted he’s seen one before but never operated it.

“It’s lifesaving,” said Sergeant Swiger on why this training was so important.
He added it’s also a “wonderful coincidence” after discovering that the garrison just received this truck from Vicenza, Italy, a day before his unit requested training from the Army.

The Army has been phasing out the AMERTEK for the last two years, said Klaus Kueppers, a garrison fire inspector and one of the instructors. He and Sergeant Swiger said the Army and Air Force currently use different models of the KOVACZ Motor, Equipment and Water fire truck.

Sergeant Swiger said the AMERTEK is very similar to the KME fire truck. Mr. Kueppers said the AMERTEK is more complicated and confusing than the KME.
“When the Army ordered the AMERTEK, they wanted it to do everything – structural and wild-land fires, and from its name – crash, fire and rescue,” said Mr. Kuepper, who was one of the firefighters who drove these trucks to the U.S. Army Garrison Hanau’s fire department in 1987 – the first year the Army added these trucks to its inventory.

***image1***Another instructor, Olaf Klein-Chazkelewitz, also a garrison fire inspector, said training lasted a couple of hours each day. The training consisted of truck orientation, start-up and braking procedures and nuances of the truck such as water capacity and pump capabilities.

For instance, Mr. Kuepper said, “You have to switch the pump panel back and forth
depending on what kind of emergency you are responding to.”

Garrisons that still use the AMERTEK fire trucks are Baumholder, Mannheim and Ansbach, Mr. Klein-Chazkelewitz said.