FORT KNOX, Ky. (Army News Service, Feb. 5, 6007) - The Army continues moving units in Europe to the United States as part of the ongoing plan to give the nation's fighting force more flexibility to meet future threats.
Beginning this summer, the 3rd Corps Support Command Headquarters based in Wiesbaden, Germany, will begin moving to Fort Knox. The unit will also receive a new name: 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command.
The 3rd COSCOM has evolved into the Army's only forward-deployed corps support command. In February 2003, 3rd COSCOM Headquarters deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and took on the command of more than 17,000 Soldiers, providing logistical support to Combined Joint Task Force 7.
Today, when a Soldier in central Germany drives a vehicle, flies a helicopter, fires a missile or turns on a radio, chances are that 3rd COSCOM men and women have already ensured that the equipment is in working order.
"Our mission is to be able to deploy to a new theatre of operations and provide the logistical support - refueling, ammunition, feeding and maintaining - for the combat forces in that theatre," said 3rd COSCOM Commander Brig. Gen. Michael Lally said. "We are the higher headquarters, so we are command and control for other units that actually go in and provide that sustainment, maintenance or refueling capability."
The word expeditionary is more than just a new moniker. As it transitions from corps support to an expeditionary sustainment command, Lally said the unit will be smaller, more mobile and more ready to deploy, as opposed to being stationary.
Lally and 3rd COSCOM Command Sgt. Maj. Willie Tennant will bring more than 250 Soldiers with them. The two recently visited Fort Knox to scope out facilities and services their and their families will be using.
"I'm looking at the single Soldier quarters, and seeing what plan they have as far as signing for quarters. Does it go through the first sergeant' Does it go through the installation' And, I'm checking out the housing areas, the junior enlisted as well as the senior enlisted," Tennant said. "I'm also checking out the fitness centers, the PX, the commissary and all the life-support facilities, as well as the headquarters.
"I always tell folks that if you set up a facility for success and you set the conditions for success, then the Soldier will come to work and he'll work hard for you because they're going to a facility that's clean, warm, dry, and all the amenities are there for the accomplishment of their mission," Tennant added.
Tennant, who had never before been to the installation, said he was impressed with what he saw on his first day.
"You take the housing area (Anderson Greens) we were in today; it was awesome," he said. "You would never believe in a million years that was a housing area. It's just not your traditional housing area."
(John Neville writes for the Fort Knox "Turret.")
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