AFSBn-Germany issues European Activity Set equipment to Combined Resolve III troops | Article | The United States Army
The Army Field Support Battalion-Germany in Grafenwoehr, Germany conducted the second equipment issue from its newly established European Activity Set to Soldiers from the 2-12th Combined Arms Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.
As part of the U.S. Army's European Rotational Force, the troops are in Germany to participate in Combined Resolve III, a multi-national training exercise involving 18 nations, designed to enhance the brigade's ability to operate successfully with NATO allies.
"Just a few shorts weeks earlier, equipment was issued to the 1st Cavalry (Division), and each and every piece of equipment was in stellar shape, and useable immediately," said Col. John DiGiambattista, commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, based at Fort Hood, Texas.
The action initiated an Army plan to regionally align forces with geographic combatant commands around the world. Under the plan, EAS will support two annual eight-week European rotations for stateside brigades. These rotational forces will help offset the inactivation of two Europe-based BCTs and strengthen U.S. participation in the NATO Response Force, which is charged with responding to humanitarian and disaster relief missions and other contingencies.
"The EAS provides a modernized, combat-ready Combined Arms Battalion equipment set for designated CONUS forces to use in support of NATO operations," said Robin Dothager, the 405th AFSB's Support Operations chief for EAS. "EAS equipment must be maintained at Army 10/20 standards and be ready for issue at any time the Army directs."
"The equipment issued to us was 'right out of the box,' and I was very impressed with the state of the art and the almost seamless task of issuing this equipment," said 1st Lt. Crockett Colbert, 2-12th Cav.
Col. Todd Bertulis, commander, 405th Army Field Support Brigade, said he was in awe of the EAS operation and is confident this equipment will put the troops in the right position for success on future deployments.
Taking the lead on coordinating the EAS issue was Curtis Dabney, the battalion S4 (Logistics), who was later promoted to support operations officer. When EAS equipment was dispatched by AMC from locations around the world and began arriving on the battalion's doorstep, the EAS workforce was not yet in place, Mike Printer, deputy, AFSBn-Germany, said. Dabney coordinated with tenant units for help in downloading, receiving, inspecting and bringing to record the Class VII major end items, such as launchers, tanks, mobile machine shops, and vehicles as well 82,000 spare parts.
Among many other contributions, Dabney also ratcheted up coordination to transfer three motor pools with seven buildings from U.S. Army Garrison-Bavaria, Installation Management Command-Europe Headquarters and U.S. Army Europe to Army Field Support Battalion-Germany.
U.S. Army Europe provided about 70 percent of EAS equipment stocks from inactivated BCT's in Europe, and Army Sustainment Command pulled the remaining stocks from its APS sources in CONUS, Korea, Italy, Afghanistan and Kuwait, except for the Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles which were shipped to Europe from Fort Hood. AFSBn Germany took accountability of the equipment, issued the military vehicles and assorted small "basic-issued items" to the rotational force, while the 16th Sustainment Brigade, Baumholder, Germany, also provided technical and force protection support.
Stationing EAS at Grafenwoehr allows the regionally-aligned force to conduct multinational-level training events with its NATO allies and partner nations, stated Lt. Col. Steven Schultz, Commander, AFSBn Germany.
