403rd Army Field Support Brigade Personality Spotlight: Robert Thomason

Robert Thomason serves as the Transportation Branch Chief of the Army Field Support Battalion-Northeast Asia Supply Division. He has led outstanding movement operations with no safety incidents/accidents while supporting a multitude of movement operations during Temporary Loans and Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercises (EDREs) that involve the movement of thousands of vehicles.

In March 2020, Mr. Thomason assumed the additional duties and responsibilities of the Battalion Safety Manager to fill the void created by safety manager’s PCS. Over the past 22 months, Mr. Thomason has successfully and effectively led the Battalion Safety Team, maintained an accident-free environment, continued to maintain the safety operations tempo, and led all safety related events to include the Quarterly Safety Council meetings. His efforts have resulted in a total of 1,378 days of zero reportable accidents for AFSBn-NEA.

As a Global Combat Support System-Army (GCSS-Army) subject matter expert, Mr. Thomason also assisted the battalion during Army War Reserve Deployment System (AWRDS) to GCSS-Army conversion, providing expert knowledge and advice to Supply Division personnel. He played a critical role during AWRDS to GCSS-Army conversion as a trainer and subject matter expert, carefully coordinating and executing myriad tasks associated with the migration within the AFSBn-NEA Supply Division. His efforts resulted in a seamless transition from AWRDS to GCSS-Army to include the training requirements for the Department of the Army civilians and local national employees, Post Go Live activities, and continuous coordination with battalion staff, the 403rd Army Field Support Brigade, the ASC Enterprise Logistics Systems Division, and the GCSS-Army Project Manager. His efforts resulted in a successful conversion with 100 percent completion of all associated task - on time.

Please meet Robert Thomason …

Hometown:

I grew up in a small timber town in Idaho called Orofino with a population of about 2,500.

How long have you been working for the U.S. Army?

I stepped off the bus for boot camp at Fort Sill Oklahoma, on 7 March 1990 so it’s been 32 years and some change.

What other positions have you held with the U.S. Military?

I served as a 92Y unit level supply specialist and held various positions throughout my career from supply sergeant to brigade S4 non-commissioned officer in charge. I was also a certified instructor for the Army Materiel Command Logistics Support Activity (LOGSA). I taught their personnel across their global customer base how to use the tools and applications they developed before they disbanded and it became the Logistics Data Analytics Center (LDAC). My specialty was material distribution and management using the Decision Support Tool (DST).

Tell us about your job and what you do:

I serves as the Transportation Branch Chief of Army Field Support Battalion-Northeast Asia Supply Division. I also manage the high security storage facility/warehouse where we maintain and account for all of the weapons, command, control, communications, computers, cyber and other sensitive items of the 70+ unit level UIC’s that comprise Army Prepositioned Stocks-4 unit sets.

How long have you been in this position?

About two and-a-half years now

What other duties are you responsible for?

I’ve serve as the Battalion Safety Manager, an additional full time position, for the past 22 months, leading all safety related events and training.

What are some of your accomplishments while at AFSBn-NEA? I’ve been recognized for various accomplishments since being assigned but the most valued accolade in my opinion is the 1,300+ accident free days we’ve achieved as a group. Heading up the Transportation Branch and Safety is something I’m proud of, but more importantly it reflects the professionalism of the entire organization

Tell us more about the Army War Reserve Deployment System (AWRDS) to Global Combat Support System-Army (GCSS-Army) conversion: What was your role? How will the migration benefit the Army?

I helped identify some of the capability gaps from the legacy platform to GCSS-Army and helped develop solutions and strategies to help mitigate the challenges we faced bridging those gaps when able. GCSS-Army will provide a common operating picture allowing logisticians at all levels to visualize Army Prepositioned Stocks in a way that was previously unachievable without significant effort. This will directly correlate to better labor utilization, higher readiness ratings and a host of other cost savings and readiness driver improvements, resulting a more modern capable inventory for combatant commanders to conduct contingency operations and/or project power across multiple domains.

What is the best thing about working at AFSBn-NEA?

For me it’s undoubtedly the people. I’m surrounded by experts in all categories active duty, DA civilians, Korean National employees and contractors who are willing to help each other and work towards achieving our common goals.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I enjoy mountain biking, mostly aggressive trail and enduro riding styles, if there’s not a small element of danger involved then it’s not interesting to me.

Do you have a special skill or talent you would like to share (what is something people might not know about you)?

In my quiet time I enjoy building fine scale models as a hobby.