FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- Soldiers from B Detachment, 33rd Financial Management Support Unit (FMSU), assumed the Commercial Vendor Services Retrograde mission from the B Detachment, 9th FMSU, out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., on Jan. 31. The Soldiers will be deployed in place at Fort Drum throughout the nine-month rotation.
The mission processes all contract payments that support Soldiers deployed in U.S. Central Command, said Capt. Shannon Boyle, the detachment's commander.
Boyle emphasized the mission's importance as her Soldiers are expected to make prompt and accurate payments to various foreign service and supply vendors that provide for deployed Soldiers, in order to keep the supply chain funded and reduce overall taxpayer expense.
"As finance Soldiers, our focus is being good custodians of government funds," she said. "Maintaining those relationships with our vendors is the heart of why we do what we do; if we can't do our jobs properly, the warfighter downrange may not get the resources he or she needs downrange to perform that role."
Although Commercial Vendor Services (CVS) missions do also operate in deployed environments, using a deploy-in-place model of mission support reduces the overall cost of operations that comes with deployment, Boyle said, and it reduces the U.S. footprint on the battlefield.
In preparation for the mission, 33rd FMSU Soldiers have trained with various agencies and other financial units over the past four months, said Sgt. 1st Class Emmanuel Dominguez, detachment sergeant. Although CVS missions are the responsibility of financial management Soldiers, he said, they are not part of the Soldiers' routine training. For most of B Detachment, this will be their first experience carrying out CVS missions.
"The military finance world is broad," Dominguez said. "Even myself as a senior noncommissioned officer, I never got to touch a CVS mission before, so by allowing us to do this in the rear, it's a tremendous benefit to our Soldiers in making them more well-rounded in their field."
In order to adjust for time differences between foreign customers and the Soldiers, the unit is working to establish a reverse cycle battle rhythm, Dominguez said, with Soldiers reporting to work early and performing physical training and other requirements in the afternoons.
Spc. Adriene Kearney, the detachment's invoice receipt lead, is one of only two Soldiers in the unit who have performed CVS duties previously, Dominguez said. Kearney was deployed to Kuwait with the FMSU's headquarters, where she performed CVS missions.
Kearney said she feels confident in the Soldiers' ability to perform their duties because of the training they received.
"We're very ready for this mission," she said. "We know it's important -- we see the numbers, we know we're doing good things, and everyone's very willing to learn."
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