 Civil service mariners aboard the USNS Leroy Grumman repaired a hydraulic ram in preparation for a series of underway replenishments in the Mediterranean Theater. Today we was changing out a hand pump on the ram. We had some issues with it before it was clogged up, so we had to take the hand pump off, take the box apart and clean out the hydraulic fluid that was inside and put fresh hydraulic fluid inside, and then we had to do tests on it. The ram is used to keep the right amount of tension and lines between the ships as they drift closer and further apart during the transfer of fuel or cargo. Scott LaBreck, the ship's cargo engineer, explains how the ram works and the use of the hand pump during the process. When you ram up, you open a line up where you send some of the hydraulic oil back to the reserve tank. If it doesn't send the oil back, then you've got air in it, so then we've got to keep running it, draining it until we get the oil in it. But eventually that reservoir tank fills up, so we've got to actually keep the oil in the system by being able to pump it back into the ram. Maintenance on the ram is just one of the jobs these mariners are responsible for, but no matter what task or challenge they are faced with, they all work together to ensure a safe and successful mission. Each of these stations they use to fuel the other ships. We're in charge of all the maintenance for those stations, so it becomes our priority when things start breaking. We had to make sure we get cargo and fuel back and forth to the Navy ship, so we had to get it done one way or another. From the U.S. and as Leroy Grumman, I'm Petty Officer Donovan Petubo.