KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany - Soldiers from the 21st Theater Sustainment Command’s 266th Finance Management Support Center departed for a nine-month deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom from Ramstein Airbase, Germany, Jan. 19.
Most of the soldiers will deploy to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, but two will be in Afghanistan. The center’s mission is to conduct all financial services required to support U.S. Central Command, including soldier pay inquiries, financing purchases and contracts for deployed units, and conducting accounting operations, said Lt. Col. Glenn T. Simpkins, the 266th FMSC deputy director and a native of Jacksonville, Fla.
“We are sending forward a military element to have oversight of the financial management mission in the U.S. Central Command theater of operations,” Simpkins said. “Even though we are moving forward, the 266th will still have a presence in Germany to continue the finance mission here.”
The detachment of soldiers will also assist in properly dismantling the financial systems in Afghanistan to prepare for the drawdown of U.S. troops. They will also conduct inspections of financial centers in Afghanistan and focus on removing U.S. currency from the region, said Col. Thomas J. Seelig, the director of the 266th FMSC and a native of Wilmington, Del.
“We are the largest financial organization in the active duty Army and we are very well prepared for this mission,” Seelig said. “Our mission downrange will be very similar to the one we perform here at home station and I am very confident in our soldiers to accomplish this task. I am very excited to deploy with these soldiers.”