Photo By Spc. Danielle Gregory | Sgt. 1st Class Amber Johnson with the 159th Finance Detachment, who just returned from...... read more read more
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PHOENIX - The 159th Finance Detachment of the Arizona Army National Guard recently returned home from a successful 12-month deployment to Afghanistan.
The unit had a lot of responsibility, said Capt. Daniel Davis, commander 159th FD. The Finance Detachment supports soldier pay so the soldiers are able to take care of their family back home, and continue to keep focused on the mission.
During their deployment, members of the 159th FD coded more than 7,000 transactions in support of more than 7,500 soldiers. This includes 25,000 cash-card transactions totaling over $7 million.
“As far as dispersing cash, I think we did an excellent job since we never worked together like that in a combat zone,” said Sgt. Benjamin Malcom.
The job of a finance soldier doesn’t consist of sitting behind a desk all day. Soldiers of the 159th FD moved between three different offices in Maz-E-Sarif, Deh Dadi II and Camp Stan to support soldiers.
“They fly or convoy out to remote sites with cash to pay inquiries and other necessary transactions, to keep soldiers from having to go to multiple forward operating bases," said Spc. Janelle Miller. "Soldiers would know when we would be at their location, so if they needed to come see us, we were there for them."
"They handled hundreds of thousands of dollars a day very professionally," said Davis. "The unit had a cash-holding authority of about $7 million between the three sites."
To assist in the troop withdrawal scheduled for 2014, the detachment closed the two offices in Deh Dadi II and Camp Stan and consolidated them at Maz-E-Sarif.
In a month’s time, the closures meant moving all equipment to one site at Maz-E-Sarif, including eight safes equaling 8,000 pounds, to Bagram Airfield.
“The mission went well,” said Malcom. “Our best accomplishment was adapting to our surroundings, in order to accomplish the mission.”
"We're over there doing our mission, doing our best to help Afghan people to get on their feet, train their police, and take care of their business and their people," said Davis.
Aside from soldiers improving at their occupational skills they also conducted physical training classes, taught and practiced jujitsu, trained for and were awarded German Marksmanship badges and became certified in Army combatives.
After successfully completing their mission, soldiers of the 159th FD returned home on Aug. 11, 2012. Since their return, soldiers have attended classes for employment resources, stress management and educational benefits utilizing the Arizona Army National Guard’s Total Force Team. These services are mandatory for all returning soldiers to help the transition from deployment and are a reflection of the AZARNG’s commitment to the resiliency of every soldier.
| Date Taken: | 10.14.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 10.24.2012 23:17 |
| Story ID: | 96415 |
| Location: | PHOENIX, AZ, US |
| Web Views: | 160 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Returning home, by PV2 Elizabeth Fournier, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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