Photo By Cameron Porter | Volker Frey, a heavy mobile equipment repair mechanic and customer service team...... read more read more
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany – The employees from Base Support Operations Maintenance take great pride in their work providing top-tier maintenance support to Army garrisons across Germany. These 405th Army Field Support Brigade employees are some of the best qualified mechanics and maintainers in Central Europe, and one of them was officially recognized recently by local officials for his expertise.
The Chamber of Commerce of Rheinland-Pfalz in Kaiserslautern presented Volker Frey with a Silver Master’s Certificate in recognition for his 25 years as a master mechanic and craftsman.
“I haven’t seen this before. This is very special,” said Stephanie Kramer, the director of BASOPS Maintenance, 405th AFSB. “He is a true role model – not only for his competence on all things technical but also for his soft skills and leadership. I am more than happy and proud to have him on my team and part of the BASOPS Maintenance family.”
Frey, who serves as a heavy mobile equipment repair mechanic and customer service team supervisor for BASOPS Maintenance in Kaiserslautern, said receiving the certificate from the Kaiserslautern Chamber of Commerce was a real honor.
“It’s nice. It makes me feel proud,” said the 58-year-old life-long resident of Kaiserslautern. “The chamber of commerce wrote me a letter and asked if I’d like to receive a certificate recognizing me for my 25 years of training and working in the same trade as a master mechanic, and of course I said yes.”
Frey manages a team of four heavy equipment repair mechanics at his maintenance facility on Panzer Kaserne in Kaiserslautern. Their primary customer is U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz, and their work supports all the Army installations in Kaiserslautern, Sembach, Miesau, Mannheim, Germersheim and more.
“USAG Rheinland-Pfalz is our main customer,” Frey said. “Mostly, we are responsible for the maintenance and repair of the garrison’s fire trucks and emergency rescue equipment. You can say that’s about 90-95 percent of what we do, daily.”
Frey and his team also maintain and repair the forklifts and materiel handling equipment for the garrison and the lawn care equipment and mowers. For the military police, Frey and his team maintain their 4-wheelers and their side-by-side gators.
Frey, who has about 40 years of experience maintaining and repairing heavy equipment, previously worked 11 years for the Civilian Support Group before it was deactivated and now five years with BASOPS Maintenance. He also trained disadvantaged youth for about 10 years, teaching them mechanical repair, and he repaired heavy construction equipment for several years while studying for his master’s mechanic certification.
“Working on the fire trucks and fire suppression equipment is very specialized,” Frey said. “You can’t just take somebody from the streets and say ‘okay, fix these fire trucks.’ I spend a lot of time training employees on this specialized equipment before they can work on the equipment by themselves.”
Frey, who is married for 14 years and enjoys riding his motorcycle and refurbishing his home during his free time, said he really appreciated his job with BASOPS Maintenance, 405th AFSB.
“When you come to work in the morning, you don’t know what surprises you will find. It’s not a routine job, and I like that. Every day you have something new – something may break down and you must find a way to get it fixed. This is something I really enjoy – not sitting at my desk every day,” said Frey.
Frey said his work is very busy, and his team needs more help. BASOPS Maintenance is currently in the process advertising and filling a temporary hire heavy mobile equipment inspector position under Frey’s supervision, and this position is expected to be announced soon.
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. BASOPS Maintenance 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: | 04.28.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 04.28.2023 03:15 |
| Story ID: | 443560 |
| Location: | KAISERSLAUTERN, RP, DE |
| Web Views: | 79 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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