1. DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
UNITED STATES ARMY TACOM LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT COMMAND
1 ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL
ROCK ISLAND, ILLINOIS 61299-7630
REPLY TO
ATTENTION OF
AMSTA-LCS-SL/Tkatch 31 August 2010
MEMORANDUM FOR: Ms. Crystal Converse
SUBJECT: Letter of Commendation
Ms. Converse,
I would like to commend you for your excellent support to the Small Arms
Readiness Evaluation Team (SARET) missions that we executed this past
summer.
The SARET team inspects and repairs soldier’s equipment as they return
from overseas deployment. Inspections/repairs are conducted at the
soldier’s home station with teams of repairmen travelling there to
return their equipment to ‘like new’ condition. It is not unusual for
teams to inspect and repair in excess of 2,000 pieces of equipment, per
mission, per week, with over 99% of the equipment returned to ‘like new’
condition. Our operational tempo and high performance standards are
among the reasons that the SARET team is well recognized and highly
respected by all elements within the Army.
During the months of July and August 2010, the SARET team experienced
the busiest two month period of our existence. During this period of
time we executed fourteen separate missions that inspected/repaired in
excess of 60,000 pieces of soldier’s equipment. The SARET team faced
many difficult challenges as we completed all of these missions as
scheduled; your performance during this time contributed significantly
to our successful completion of these missions.
Although you were employed as a summer hire, your performance was well
above and beyond our expectations for a temporary hire employee. You
worked tirelessly to ensure our repair parts containers were fully
stocked before shipment to repair sites; your efforts contributed to the
timely receipt of fully stocked containers on site to support the start
of our repair missions. You also volunteered on short notice to support
our inspect/repair mission at the 4th
Brigade, 1st
Armored Division at
Fort Bliss, TX between 7-23 July 2010. This mission was challenging as
it was conducted in an open motor pool in the middle of summer in a hot
and dusty climate. You provided excellent supply support to the
mission’s leadership and SARET repairmen by ensuring that the parts

2. needed to repair soldier equipment were quickly and accurately located
and provided to the repairmen. Your performance contributed to our
inspecting and repairing over 12,000 pieces of soldier equipment in a
two week period of time.
In addition to the previous actions, you also provided outstanding
support to the inspect/repair mission at Fort Richardson, AK between 25
July – 8 August 2010. This mission was a challenge to SARET management
because all of our supply leads were busy supporting other missions and
we could not change our schedule without impacting these other missions.
You demonstrated exceptional leadership by volunteering as the supply
lead for this mission. In addition to the duties you performed while
working on the Fort Bliss mission, you were responsible for coordinating
the actions of several supply assistants, ensuring they located and
provided repair parts when needed to support ongoing repair operations.
You also were responsible for tracking inventory receipts and issues and
reconciling and reporting on daily activities at the end of each day.
Your performance on this mission was outstanding; your capable
leadership ensured that all parts were available when needed so that our
repairs were executed flawlessly and within established schedules. You
maintained a 100% accuracy on parts inventory despite processing
hundreds of receipt and issue transactions each day. Your performance
on this mission ensured that over 11,000 pieces of soldier equipment
were inspected and repaired on schedule and to our customer’s complete
satisfaction.
In summary, you provided the SARET team with outstanding support during
your time with us this past summer. Your positive, can-do attitude and
willingness to execute tasks and responsibilities normally managed by
experienced journeymen speaks highly of your competence and work ethic.
I was very pleased to have you work for the SARET team this past summer
and look forward to you working with us in the future.
Thomas J. Tkatch
Chief, Weapons Support Group
TACOM ILSC
(309) 782-7616
thomas.tkatch@us.army.mil