Securing the military's financial success

Courtesy Photo | Sgt. 1st Class Kendall T. Booker, detachment sergeant of Alpha Detachment, 125th Financial Management Company, and native of Lanett, Ala., confirms the count on two bricks of $100 bills before filling the new safe.  

BAGHDAD, IRAQ

09.15.2009

Courtesy Story

13th Armored Corps Sustainment Command (13th ESC)

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq — Alpha Detachment, 125th Financial Management Company, 10th Sustainment Brigade Troops Battalion, hit the ground running.

First, training with the 101st Financial Management Company, then, after the transfer of authority they smoothly assumed their new responsibility as if they had been handling a task of this magnitude their entire time in theatre.

However, there was always a handicap holding them back. Their safes were not large enough to hold the funds they needed to conduct business properly.

Though they could more than handle the new responsibility, the safes that had been provided could not. They were small and could only handle a few days worth of business, if that. In fact the safes that had been provided had only been used to hold one days worth of business for the previous unit. Their disbursing agents chose to return their cash daily instead of holding a small accountability over night and then getting another advance mid-day if they needed one.

Often this need would hinder, if not cripple, the mission. Disbursing agents would have to put work on hold to get funds for paying agents. Personnel had to be tasked out as guards for cash transport. Alpha Detachment sought to solve this problem aggressively and they did.

On Aug. 12, Alpha Detachment received two new 1,500-pound safes and one 500-pound safe. The work to have the safes installed was difficult to say the least but thanks to the ingenuity and strength of our junior and senior finance Soldiers, they were successfully installed. The installation was a family event in which everyone took part.

Now that these new safes are installed, Alpha Detachment, 125th Financial Management Company can provide uninterrupted world-class service to our paying agents seven days a week.

• Date Taken: 09.15.2009
• Date Posted: 09.21.2009 10:30
• Story ID: 39087
• Location: BAGHDAD, IQ