Meet your 405th AFSB Commander

Photo By Elisabeth Paque | Army Col. Crystal Hills, the new commander of the 405th Army Field Support Brigade, provides remarks at the 405th AFSB change of command ceremony on Daenner Kaserne in Kaiserslautern, Germany, June 30. Hills assumed command of the 405th AFSB from Col. Brad Bane whose next assignment will be deputy director of the J4 logistics and engineering directorate, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii. Hills last assignment was chief of staff and senior fellow with New America in Washington, D.C., where she advanced research in the Army’s adoption of semi-autonomous warehouses. (photo by Elisabeth Paqué)  

KAISERSLAUTERN, RP, GERMANY

07.13.2022

Courtesy Story

405th Army Field Support Brigade - Europe & Africa

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany – Colonel Crystal Margie Hills assumed command of the 405th Army Field Support Brigade June 30, 2022.

COL Hills is a proud 1998 graduate of South Carolina State University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in English. She participated in SC State’s ROTC program where she served as Cadet Battalion Commander and was subsequently commissioned (Distinguished Military Graduate) as a Second Lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps.

COL Hills was first assigned to Fort Bragg, NC where she held the following positions: Executive Officer, Automotive Platoon Leader, and Technical Supply Platoon Leader in the 503d Maintenance Company, 1st Corps Support Command. She then served as Supply Officer and Operations Officer for the 264th Corps Support Battalion.

In 2003, COL Hills moved to Camp Humphreys, Korea where she served in the following positions under the 23 Area Support Group: Supply and Services Officer, Wartime Host Nation Officer, and Commander, 348th Quartermaster Company, 194th Maintenance Battalion. While in command, COL Hills earned the General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award and was inducted into the Association of Quartermasters’ Honorable Order of Saint Martin.

In 2008, COL Hills earned a Master of Arts in English, with honors, from Georgia State University. She then served as an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Philosophy for the United States Military Academy. In 2011, she relocated to Schofield Barracks, Hawaii and served as the Brigade Logistics Officer for the 45th Sustainment Brigade and the Executive Officer, Special Troops Battalion, 45th SB. During this tour, she deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan. Upon redeployment, COL Hills was assigned to U.S. Army, Pacific where she served as the command speechwriter.

In 2014, COL Hills was reassigned to the Pentagon as the Logistics, Special Assistant to the Director of Army Staff aka “Dwarf.” While there she served on the Army Transition Team for the 39th Army, Chief of Staff—GEN Milley. COL Hills left the Pentagon to assume command of Army Field Support Battalion-AFRICA in Livorno, Italy 2016-2018.

After command, COL Hills was reassigned to Fort Knox, KY where she served one year as Branch Chief, Quartermaster Enlisted Personnel. She then attended War College at National Defense University’s, Dwight D. Eisenhower School (Washington, DC). Here she earned an MS National Security and Resource Strategy (Global Supply Chain and Logistics Management concentration); supported COVID-19 relief efforts with the White House Supply Chain Task Force and as a mentor for John Hopkins’ COVID Design Challenge; and she maximized the opportunity to also earn an MBA from Webster University.

In 2020, COL Hills served as Senior Supply & Logistics Officer (G4) for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Rapid Deployable Corps Headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey. While in this position, she was selected as a Defense Ventures Fellow where her diverse skills and training aided Structure Capital and defense innovation hubs to leverage dual use technology. Most recently, COL Hills served as a Chief of Staff, Senior Fellow with New America (Washington, DC) where she advanced research in the Army’s adoption of semi-autonomous warehouses.

The 405th AFSB is assigned to U.S. Army Sustainment Command and under the operational control of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, U.S. Army Europe and Africa. The brigade is headquartered in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and provides materiel enterprise support to U.S. Forces throughout Europe and Africa – providing theater sustainment logistics; synchronizing acquisition, logistics and technology; and leveraging U.S. Army Materiel Command’s materiel enterprise to support joint forces. For more information on the 405th AFSB, visit the official website at www.afsbeurope.army.mil and the official Facebook site at www.facebook.com/405thAFSB.

• Date Taken: 07.13.2022
• Date Posted: 07.13.2022 08:24
• Story ID: 424859
• Location: KAISERSLAUTERN, RP, DE