Shapiro awarded Distinguished Service Medal, prepares for new assignment

By Mrs. Cherish T. Gilmore (AMC)May 26, 2017

Distinguished Service Medal
Army Materiel Command's Commander Gen. Gus Perna presents the Distinguished Service Medal to Maj. Gen. Steven Shapiro, AMC's deputy chief of staff for operations and logistics G-3/4 at AMC headquarters, May 22. Shapiro served in this position since J... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- Nearly 200 people gathered to bid farewell and honor the transition of the two-star general in charge of all of Army Materiel Command's operations and logistics around the world.

Maj. Gen. Steven Shapiro, AMC's deputy chief of staff for operations and logistics G-3/4, is taking the reins at the 21st Theater Sustainment Command in Kaiserslautern, Germany where his command will be responsible for distribution and sustainment operations under the U.S. European Command.

Army Materiel Command's Commander Gen. Gus Perna hosted the awards and farewell ceremony in honor of Shapiro at AMC headquarters, May 22.

After several assignments in Europe, serving at the Department of the Army level and at AMC, Perna called Shapiro the best choice to serve the Army at the 21st TSC.

"My respect for Steven Shapiro is unlimited," said Perna. "I think he is one of our great general officers, and I look forward to all he is going to do with the 21st TSC. In my personal opinion, I think he will be more than a two-star one day."

Perna who has known Shapiro since the rank of lieutenant colonel, reflected on his career.

"I found Steven Shapiro to be a great advocate for me, because he could see things strategically, even as a lieutenant colonel," said Perna. "He could think wide and deep. He had the courage to push back, but he also had the courage to identify when change needed to be made."

During the transition out of Afghanistan, Shapiro worked on retrograde -- a mission that involved the receipt of and determining the ultimate destination of all cargo coming out of Afghanistan. "He single-handedly turned the retrograde in Afghanistan around," said Perna. "It was a success, because of his leadership and his responsiveness for what needed to be done."

In his role at AMC, Shapiro led a team of nearly 2,000 officers, Soldiers, civilians and contractors in support of missions such as: Army Prepositioned Stocks, the Organic Industrial Base, logistics integration and strategic operations planning for the future.

Much like his accolades for retrograde, Perna said that Shapiro was instrumental in shifting AMC's operations in the right direction.

For this and his decisive leadership, unwavering commitment and selfless dedication, Shapiro was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for exceptional meritorious service from June 2016 to June 2017, according to the awards citation.

"The biggest thing we've done is enable mission command," said Shapiro. "We've set the conditions for General Perna to mission command this organization with a proper battle rhythm and strategic metrics."

By setting conditions for the operations and intelligence briefs and conducting operational business reviews, Shapiro says the AMC G-3/4 is able to help General Perna accomplish his end goal of operationalizing the command.

Shapiro credited the AMC command team and G-3/4 staff for the progress they've made over the past year and for ensuring AMC's missions were on the minds of Army leadership at the highest echelons.

He is scheduled to take command of the 21st TSC, June 30.

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