Photo By Staff Sgt. Engels Tejeda | Sgt. 1st Class Carlene Frazier, NCOIC of LSA Adder's post office, keeps the lines...... read more read more
CAMP ADDER, Iraq - At first glance, Lt. Col. Kenneth Storz" office at the 408th Personnel Services Battalion's headquarters in southern Iraq probably resembles his vice-president's office in the networking division of J.P. Morgan and Chase in Manhattan.
There is plenty memorabilia from his alma mater, Norwich University. There are pictures from his family, including a class photograph from his 11-year-old daughter's fifth grade class. There is also an assortment of military equipment.
The subject matter of discussions he has with his staff reveals that his battalion's mission is at the core of military operations in Iraq.
"We provide personnel services and postal operations to all branches of the service " Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines - and civilian contractors throughout south and western Iraq," Storz says in between phone calls.
It's a complex mission. For example, Soldiers sending packages out of Adder's post office experience short lines and the postal clerks are friendly.
What they are unlikely to realize is that Storz's troops are processing some 20,000 pounds of mail a week.
Storz explains that his troops operate several post offices, primarily for American servicemembers and civilians, though members of coalition countries can send mail from the facilities.
The post offices function much like the U.S. Postal Services, cashiers and mail weighing machines included.
His troops also process and distribute the incoming mail to the troops and civilians at all the major coalition bases in the south, such as Tallil and Camps Cedar and Scania, as well as those west of Baghdad such as the Marine-run Camp Al Taqqadum.
Normally, each of this post office's missions requires a platoon-sized element.
However, the 408th only has a few platoons, and the command split them into smaller teams.
For example, only two thirds of a platoon runs the post office at Tallil, while the other third runs the mission in Scania.
Most of the troops in the headquarters element are new to the personnel services occupation.
The 408th had barely completed a year-long deployment to Iraq in February 2005 when it was remobilized for this mission in September.
Consequently, while the Reserve unit is based out of Fort Tatum, N.Y., 89 percent of the Reservists were cross-leveled from other military fields in units from New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Eighty percent of them had to re-class and take a six-week course in personnel services.
"Luckily, I have a tremendous group of Soldiers and a tremendous leadership group that makes the job much, much easier for me," Storz says.
"We are all about customer service and we try to please the Soldiers," said the 408th's Command Sergeant Major Armando Cruz.
That may be why such a small and relatively inexperienced staff can direct such a wide-ranging operation, that covers mail and all sorts of personnel management services including promotions, casualty-tracking, identification cards and tags, and officer evaluation archiving.
It also helps that being Reservists, most of the headquarters staff brings many skills to the table.
Cruz and four other NCOs are state officers in New York.
Using their interpersonal skill, Storz and his troops will continue to make the unit's mission as smooth as possible.
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| Date Taken: | 05.05.2006 |
| Date Posted: | 05.05.2006 02:14 |
| Story ID: | 6276 |
| Location: | TALLIL, IQ |
| Web Views: | 245 |
| Downloads: | 49 |
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