The 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command held the 19th ESC FY 16 Combined Logistics Excellence Award ceremony at the Camp Henry Theater on Jan. 11. The ceremony highlighted the accomplishments of the 19th ESC's 2016 CLEA winners and runners-up and recognized them for excellence in their respective competitions and categories.

19th ESC's award ceremonies for the Army Award for Maintenance Excellence and the Supply Excellence Award are combined into a single ceremony known as the CLEA ceremony.

These competitions consisted of organic 19th ESC units competing against one another. The winners and runners-up and are now qualified to compete at the 8th Army level.

The first award presented was the AAME. The AAME program has been an annual competition at the Army level since 1982. Its purpose is to assess the maintenance programs of units and acknowledge outstanding attainment of maintenance sections. It is divided into three categories from small to large, depending on the number of authorized personnel in a unit.

In the Modification Table of Organization and Equipment Medium category, the 557th Military Police Company was the winner of the AAME. It demonstrated a 97% operational readiness rate well exceeding the Department of the Army's goal of 90%.

The winner of the AAME for the Table of Distribution and Allowances category was Materiel Support Command -- Korea. MSC-K provides theater sustainment maintenance, supply, ammunition, distribution and transportation coordination support for forces operating in the Republic of Korea. The 498th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion was selected as the runner-up.

"This award is important to us because it validates that all our time and effort are not in vain, and also justifies that we are not only meeting standards but exceeding them. I hope our achievement will set the bars for other organizations to strive for in order to make themselves more effective," said Mr. Lawrence S. Ranches, Maintenance Chief, MSC-K.

In the All Others category, the 7th Korean Service Corps (Heavy Equipment Transportation) Company received the AAME. Among the KSC Battalion's 17 companies, 7th KSC (HET) Company is an unarmed paramilitary force that was activated with 24-HET systems in 2005 in support of the 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea and transports heavy equipment to various U.S. military bases on the Korean Peninsula. It has successfully achieved a zero at-fault accident record since its activation. The Busan Storage Center was the runner-up.

The next award category was the Supply Excellence Award. The SEA program has been conducted by all U.S. units every fiscal year since 1984. It recognizes supply excellence at various units and organizational levels and increases awareness of supply excellence in the U.S. Army.

The Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 176th Financial Management Support Unit received the SEA in the Level 1A Modification Table of Organization and Equipment Company category. The 176th FMSU achieved a supply management rating of over 95%. The 17th Ordinance Company Supply Room received the runner-up.

The winner of the SEA in the Level 1B TDA User category went to the Busan Storage Center. It consistently maintained a 99% operational readiness rate of the tactical, non-tactical and material handling equipment critical to the unit.

"The reasons the BSC could win the award are because we have our official documents such as hand receipts and property books in a perfect shape and maintain our office environment under a very concrete system. We check our inventory every two days and since our supply management division directly coordinates with the maintenance division, it is always easy to monitor the current status of our documents," explained Mr. Chin-yong Yi, Supply Technician, Supply Management Division, BSC.

MSC-K was awarded the SEA in Level 2B TDA Property Book Operations category. MSC-K achieved a supply management rating of over 95% on property book accountability, responsibility and publications organization. The runner-up went to the U.S. Army KSC BN.

In the Level 4B TDA category, the Direct Support Unit, 498th CSSB won the SEA. The DSU, 498th CSSB provides maintenance support to their customer base of 40 units with a density of over 10,000 pieces of equipment throughout Area IV.

"This award may become the last supply excellence award as the 498th CSSB because our maintenance division is transferred under the MSC-K maintenance. So, getting this award is very symbolic to our battalion and I want to show gratitude to all our co-workers and commanders for a great cooperation. We will think of this award as an encouragement for us to become more professional in a new work place," said Mr. Jong-nak Yim, Heavy Mobile Equipment Mechanic Senior Leader, 498th CSSB.

The winners and runners-up of the 19th ESC will now prepare themselves for the 8th Army level CLEA program inspections.