Little-known Army Depot provides significant materiel mission

By Kelly Ann DeWittSeptember 18, 2014

Storage warehouse
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

The commander of the Army Materiel Command recently visited a relatively small AMC entity with a very large mission.

General Dennis L. Via visited Leghorn Army Depot and Camp Darby in Livorno, Italy in early September. Primarily manned by the 405th Army Field Support Battalion-Italy, the depot performs a variety of critical materiel missions.

"I was impressed with the workforce there," Via said. "I came away with a much better appreciation of the strategic importance and significance of the location.

"Leghorn provides tremendous support to European Command, Central Command, Pacific Command and provides growing support to Africa Command," he added. "With Regionally Aligned Forces and ongoing operations, this becomes an ideal location."

Located on the northwestern coast of Italy, the nearby city of Livorno provides a strategic sea port location for the military. This positions Leghorn as a tactically valuable location for the storage and dissemination of humanitarian relief supplies, and for storage, maintenance and shipment of Army Prepositioned Stocks in units in EUCOM, CENTCOM and AFRICOM. Nearby air and rail operations further cement the value of the location.

At Leghorn, the AFSBn-Italy receives stores, maintains and issues Army Pre-Positioned Stocks. APS equipment is stored and maintained in a series of climate-controlled warehouses on the Depot, according to AFSBn-Italy commander, Lt. Col. Joseph W. Greenlee. Leghorn is one of two Army Pre-positioned Stock locations in Europe, and one of five world-wide.

Over the course of two years, the AFSBn-Italy team, which is comprised of 9 Soldiers, 11 Army civilians, and 220 local national workers, will also reset about 1,000 Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles. The MRAPs, returning from theaters of combat, will return to the APS stocks at Leghorn when complete.

"The ability to reset those MRAPs in Italy saves an astronomical amount of transit dollars, as opposed to shipping that equipment to Red River Army Depot and then back to Italy," Greenlee said.

Last year, AFSBn-Italy mechanics reset more than 80 MRAPs. The efforts should increase to about 500 MRAPs in fiscal year 2015, and another 500 in fiscal year 2016, according to Greenlee.

The unit also manages and maintains warehouses of humanitarian assistance commodities.

Equipment for the Humanitarian Assistance Program -- Excess Property, managed by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, is maintained and stored there, as is similar equipment on a reimbursable basis for the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID). The equipment, as well as the APS stocks, is stored in 15 warehouses with more than 620,000 square of humidity controlled storage.

"This facility was improved to support a Heavy Brigade Combat Team," Greenlee said. "However it has proven that it can provide a wide range of support far above that mission."

Following his visit to the depot, Via stressed the critical nature of the organization.

"This depot tends to be forgotten, but it was built where it is for a purpose," Via said. "We need to ensure we address future support opportunities at Livorno -- it is a great location for an intermediate

staging base facility."