After 22 years with Army in Alaska, new chief at LRC Wiesbaden excited to be in Europe

Photo By Cameron Porter | Hanni Marchuk, the chief of plans and operations at Logistics Readiness Center Wiesbaden, (right) speaks to Haciba Lathrache, an administrative specialist at their office in Wiesbaden, Germany. Marchuk arrived to Wiesbaden in December after 22 years of working for the Army in Alaska. (U.S. Army courtesy photo)  

WIESBADEN, HE, GERMANY

01.22.2024

Story by Cameron Porter 

405th Army Field Support Brigade - Europe & Africa

WIESBADEN, Germany – For the past 22 years, Hanni Marchuk has worked for the Army in Alaska, but her dream to come to Europe was fulfilled recently when she accepted a job position with the 405th Army Field Support Brigade as the chief of plans and operations at Logistics Readiness Center Wiesbaden.

Born in Fairbanks but raised in a little town just outside of Fort Greely, the 43-year-old logistics management specialist spent her last 7.5 years working for the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command. Prior to that, she served as the plans and operations officer at LRC Greely for a few years and then the director of LRC Greely for 3.5 more.

Arriving in Wiesbaden last month, Marchuk said she’s “really excited from a work perspective to get back into the LRC world and support garrisons. And then, of course, there's the location. I've always wanted to come to Europe, but I knew I wanted to do it in this manner.”

“I wanted to work and live here and really get to see Europe from this perspective versus just coming over for a few weeks on vacation,” said Marchuk, whose family on her father’s side are Ukrainian.

“My grandparents on my father's side were immigrants,” she said. “My grandmother was half German and half Ukrainian, and my grandfather was fully Ukrainian. I’m very excited to be here. I have a lot of history here that I'd like to explore, and the thought of getting to see where my family came from is really exciting.”

Marchuk has a lot of history working at LRCs, as well – so far back that when she first started, LRC Greely was designated U.S. Army Garrison Greely Directorate of Logistics.

“LRCs and DOLs is how I came up,” she said. “I started in DOL at Fort Greely as a contractor, and that was really interesting because Fort Greely is one of the only bases to ever be brought back out of BRAC [Base Realignment and Closure] and made operational.”

“When I started, Fort Greely was a warm base. There was nothing,” said Marchuk who has 14 years working as an Army civilian employee and eight more as a contractor.

“Basically, we had to rebuild the DOL from the ground up,” she said. “We had to get things going again, and we needed to take a look at manpower and figure out which positions are inherently governmental. And that’s how I was hired into the [government] civilian system.”

And when the Army made the decision to transition garrison DOLs to LRCs and assign them to Army field support brigades under the command and control of U.S. Army Sustainment Command, Marchuk was heavily immersed in that process, as well.

“I was actually at the 2006 conference at Rock Island [Illinois] when they were discussing transferring supply and services, and transportation,” she said. “And then when that changed to actually transferring entire DOLs, I was there for the administrative control and operational control years, and then for the first 3.5 years after ASC picked up the LRCs.”

Working in an LRC “is my background and my roots so I’m really excited to get back to it with LRC Wiesbaden,” said Marchuk, who as the chief of plans and operations is responsible for five Army civilian and local national positions within her directorate.

Marchuk said she will miss everything living and working in Alaska has to offer, but she’s equally looking forward to exploring Germany and Europe and being a valued member of the team at LRC Wiesbaden.

LRC Wiesbaden is one of eight LRCs under the command and control of the 405th AFSB. LRCs execute installation logistics support and services to include supply, maintenance, and transportation as well as clothing issue facility operations, hazardous material management, personal property and household goods, passenger travel, non-tactical vehicle and garrison equipment management, and property book operations. When it comes to providing day-to-day installation services, LRC Wiesbaden directs, manages, and coordinates a variety of operations and activities in support of U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden, where the U.S. Army Europe and Africa headquarters in located among many other Army organizations and units.

LRC Wiesbaden reports to the 405th AFSB, which is assigned to ASC 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: 01.22.2024
• Date Posted: 01.22.2024 04:16
• Story ID: 462160
• Location: WIESBADEN, HE, DE
• Hometown: FORT GREELY, AK, US