More than 30 Soldiers from the 540th Quartermaster Co., 45th Sustainment Brigade participated in a field competition June 15 - 17, here, that helped them fine tune their shower and laundry set-up skills, exercise their warrior tasks and drills, and overall increase their ability to rapidly respond to a full range of contingency operations across the Pacific and globe.

The 540th is currently the only active duty shower, laundry, and clothing unit in the Army. The Shower, Laundry, and Clothing Repair, or SLCR, teams consist of 12 Soldiers who can be attached to units for support during a deployment or other operations.

"This exercise is something we've been working on for a while now," said Capt. Antwon Parker, company commander for 540th QM. "Our goals for the training where to increase overall readiness and prepare our Soldiers for the demands of this unique mission."

Spc. Johnathan Nelson participated in the training and said, "A lot of people aren't very familiar with our job. We give people that morale they need; just a simple way to get the dirt off you or get your clothes clean. We want to keep people going in a tough environment, keep them motivated."

During the competition, the Soldiers spent three days involved in various tasks and event, and practiced setting up their living areas, a tactical operations center, basic combat lifesaver skills and communications security.

"We wanted to focus on building self-sufficient individual SLCR teams," said 1st Lt. Junior Matthews, a team lead in 540th. "It's really important for Soldiers to trust one another if they ever get deployed on a mission."

"We are first on the list when it comes to SLCR support," he said. "Right now we are on Prepare to Deploy Orders with Special Forces. If a SLCR team is needed it will be our Soldiers."

The physical fitness portion of the competition involved transporting a water jug and performing push-ups, sit-ups, lunges and burpees with on teams.

The shower set up competition was a timed event where teams had to set up a 12-person shower station as fast as possible with the smallest amount of mistakes and a judge examined the finished set up and added time depending on the deficiencies.

"At this point with the training, our job as noncommissioned officers is to step back and evaluate our Soldiers doing their tasks," said Sgt. Eric Ellis. "We want to see how proficient they are with the big picture."

He said these Soldiers and teams must be agile and able to adapt to different environments, realizing that their tactical level mission can make a big difference to overall mission success and the welfare of Soldiers.