Pacific Sands Salutes the Men and Women of the “Pirate Platoon” for their bravery and their ingenuity for carving out just a small bit of luxury in a hostile environment.
(From SFC Bryon Lindsay)
The Pirate Platoon
We are a Maintenance platoon for a FSC (Forward Support Company), In the 7th 101st Aviation Battalion or GSAB (General Support Aviation Battalion) under the 159th Aviation Brigade, in support of the 101st ABN Division. (Man that was long.)
As a Unit we are only about a year and a half old, we were the first Company of our kind in the Army to stand up under the Army’s new Modularity Transformation.
Our company known as the Iron Dogs consist of three Platoons, Maintenance, POL (Fuel handlers, they fill the helicopters) and our Headquarters Platoon, they take care of all our administrative stuff. We support a Battalion’s worth of helicopters and then some. They run missions in the Fifth Corp area of operation.
Our Platoon, over 30 strong, is responsible for the scheduled and unscheduled maintenance on over 145 vehicles, to include 18 Hemtt Fuel tankers. We have a welding and fabrication shop; AC shop, Generator Shop, an ATV small engine repair shop or as we call it the Gator shop, the Automotive Shop and 3 CRT (combat repair teams). We feel we are the best maintenance facility on the base. Maybe a little arrogant but the Soldiers have a right to be, they deserve it as it is them who make us all look good.
I am the Motor Sergeant, the Senior Noncommissioned Officer in the Platoon. (E-7, Sergeant First Class).
The Platoon logo is the Pirate Platoon; we all have a lot of fun with it. We have pirate names and a pirate chest that we bring out on Pirate day, about once a month we have a time we set aside to get us all together (as Pirates and recognize Soldiers for their accomplishments or promotions) some times it’s to welcome a new Soldier aboard and give him a Pirate name. We have every thing from Commodore Red Eye, Commander James, T. Kirk to Catwalk Kate and Black Tom Rackham. Like I said we like to have fun with it.
The tub idea came about as more of a joke at first, we were looking for a project to occupy our free time and improve our areas to most benefit the Soldiers and us. We were looking for a place to go and unwind. 
That’s when someone said “let’s make a hot tub.”
At first I was skeptical about it, thinking we couldn’t really make a hot tub but only a few weeks later we had the basic components we needed, after that it just took off.
We are planning on putting in a grill, shower and a small cantina or Bar in over the next few weeks.
The hardest item to get was the filter system, we had even entertained the idea of using a fuel water separator tank out of the junk yard as a filtration system, but on closer review we determined that would not work, then we just stumbled across a swimming pool filter assembly that someone thrown out. So we used that outer filter casing and ordered the water filter that applied over the internet.
Now we were set. 
We had several ideas on how to heat the water but after trying them all the best solution to this was to run 1/3rd of the cold water through a hot water presser washer then back into the tub. It worked. Then we set our goal of having it up and running by New Years Eve. 
It turned out nice, and a good time was had by all. To date we have had 3 baptisms and two hot tub parties.
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