405th AFSB command team conducts battlefield circulation site visit to Bavaria

Photo By Cameron Porter | A Soldier from the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team’s 1st Battalion, 41st Field Artillery Regiment, talks with Col. Crystal Hills, the commander of 405th Army Field Support Brigade, Aug. 9 at Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, about the past six months operating and maintaining an M109 Paladin 155mm self-propelled howitzer he and his battalion received from the 405th AFSB’s Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 equipment set in Mannheim, Germany.  

GRAFENWOEHR, BY, GERMANY

08.11.2022

Story by Cameron Porter 

405th Army Field Support Brigade - Europe & Africa

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany – The 405th Army Field Support Brigade’s command team conducted a battlefield circulation site visit to Bavaria Aug. 9 to meet with Germany battalion and observe Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 turn-in operations at Grafenwoehr Training Area. In addition, the command team met with Logistics Readiness Center Bavaria and Base Support Operations Maintenance leaders to see their facilities in Vilseck and Grafenwoehr and observe their operations in support of the U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria community.

In the morning Col. Crystal Hills and Command Sgt. Maj. Terrell Brisentine received an operations briefing from Army Field Support Battalion-Germany and walked the site to gain a better understanding of the APS-2 turn-in mission between the 405th AFSB and the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, which is redeploying to the U.S. after six months in Europe.

Germany battalion, or AFSBn-Germany, is tasked with mission command of the APS-2 turn-in operation, receiving an entire armored brigade combat team’s worth of heavy armored vehicles and equipment – over 5,000 major end items to include Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and Paladin 155mm self-propelled howitzers – back from 1st ABCT. Once received and signed for, AFSBn-Germany is also responsible for coordinating the shipment of the vehicles and equipment back to the Coleman APS-2 worksite in Mannheim, Germany, where they’re stored and maintained.

Headquartered at Rose Barracks in Vilseck, AFSBn-Germany is responsible for providing and coordinating tactical and operational sustainment to ensure theater readiness and enable commanders to conduct a full range of military operations in direct support of U.S. Army Europe and Africa. The battalion performs this function through the employment of U.S. Army Material Command's Logistics Assistance Program, composed of technically proficient Logistics Assistance Representatives from AMC’s Life Cycle Management Commands. The battalion also maintains oversight and mission command of APS-2 operations at Dülmen worksite, Germany, and is charged with providing and coordinating receipt, transfer, storage and maintenance of APS-2.

In the afternoon the 405th AFSB commander and command sergeant major were escorted by leaders from LRC Bavaria and BASOPS Maintenance to various LRC and BASOPS facilities to observe their operations in the support of the USAG Bavaria community, which stretches from Hohenfels, Germany, to Grafenwoehr and Vilseck, and all the way down to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany – a land mass equal in size to South Carolina.

Areas the 405th AFSB commander and command sergeant major visited on their battlefield circulation belonging to LRC Bavaria included the Vilseck Central Issue Facility, several Regional Supply Support Activity warehouses, the installation property book office, one of the non-tactical vehicle fleet transportation motor pools, the food service management office, a dining facility in Grafenwoehr Training Area where they had lunch and more.

LRC Bavaria is one of seven LRCs under the command and control of the 405th AFSB. LRCs execute installation logistics support and services to include supply, maintenance, transportation and food service management as well as clothing issue facility operations, hazardous material management, personal property and household goods, passenger travel, and non-tactical vehicle and garrison equipment management. When it comes to providing day-to-day installation services, LRC Bavaria directs, manages and coordinates a variety of operations and activities in support of USAG Bavaria.

Areas the 405th AFSB commander and command sergeant major visited belonging to BASOPS Maintenance included the Grafenwoehr privately owned vehicle safety inspection station, one of the construction equipment maintenance and repair facilities, the BASOPS Maintenance headquarters and more.

As a field operating activity under the 405th AFSB, BASOPS Maintenance provides equipment maintenance support to all garrison community organizations and activities in Germany. It provides consolidated material maintenance support for base support operations equipment and mechanical safety inspections for privately owned vehicles. It performs automotive maintenance on a fleet of garrison support vehicles to include special purpose and armored vehicles, fire and rescue, snow and ice removal and construction equipment such as scoop loaders, excavators, scrapers, road graders, tractors, rollers, and more.

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 the U.S. Army Materiel Command 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: 08.11.2022
• Date Posted: 08.11.2022 08:14
• Story ID: 427009
• Location: GRAFENWOEHR, BY, DE