Name: Mike Stovall
Job title: Director of Maintenance
Assigned: Army Field Support Battalion-Benelux, 405th Army Field Support Brigade
Location: Army Prepositioned Stock-2 worksite Eygelshoven, Netherlands
Experience: I’ve been here at the Eygelshoven APS-2 worksite for about three years. I was a quality assurance inspector until last December when I accepted a job offer to be the director of maintenance. Before I was assigned to AFSBn-Benelux, I was at the 405th AFSB headquarters in Kaiserslautern, Germany, working as the maintenance officer in the support operations directorate for 2.5 years. Before that, I was at Fort Hood, Texas, for seven years where I was a readiness Logistics Assistance Representative running the pre-deployment training equipment set for the 407th Army Field Support Brigade. I was also a LAR with the 405th AFSB.
Other service: I served 22 years in the Army as a heavy equipment mechanic and supervisor and retired as a master sergeant. My last job was the site noncommissioned officer in charge and quality assurance section senior NCO at Combat Equipment Battalion Luxembourg, which was a former APS-2 site. I was the last one out of the gate in September of 2006 when it closed.
Hometown: Kempner, Texas
Q: Can you explain what you do and what you are responsible for at AFSBn-Benelux?
A: I’m responsible for overseeing the host nation maintenance workforce who are all Dutch Ministry of Defense employees. We have over 5,000 vehicles and equipment pieces at the Eygelshoven APS-2 we are responsible for maintaining. We do repairs, perform services, troubleshoot system problems and ensure all of the equipment pieces and vehicles remain at proper 10/20 standards, according to the technical manuals and Army maintenance standards. We work on everything – generators, tracked vehicles and heavy engineer equipment, and we’re doing everything – brakes, wheel bearings, engines, transmissions, electrical, heating and air conditioning systems and a lot more. Every two years we do a bi-annual service – top to bottom – where we pull all the hubs, bearings and brakes and double check them, repack them and put them back together. In general, we make sure everything on that piece of equipment works the way it’s supposed to.
Q: Why is your team’s work at the Eygelshoven APS-2 worksite so important?
A: The Department of the Army and U.S. European Command expects us to have all these vehicles and all this equipment ready to roll out the gate at a moment’s notice in order to support exercises, contingency operations and other missions. My team of maintainers have an obligation to ensure all these vehicles and equipment pieces are good to go.
Q: What do you enjoy about your job, and what motivates you?
A: I immediately started to miss the Army when I retired from active duty, and this has kept me in the loop while supporting Soldiers. When I was a readiness LAR I deployed downrange to Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan. I slept in the same tents as the Soldiers I supported, and I wore a uniform, just like them. I’m still part of the bigger Army team, I’m still supporting Soldiers, and I’m still supporting the Army mission. I really enjoy what I do. It’s what I’ve done my whole life.
AFSBn-Benelux and the 405th AFSB: Headquartered in Eygelshoven, Netherlands, AFSBn-Benelux is charged with providing and coordinating receipt, transfer, storage and maintenance of APS-2 in Eygelshoven and Zutendaal, Belgium, to enable commanders to conduct unified action and a full range of military operations in support of U.S. Army Europe and Africa and joint forces. The 405th AFSB is assigned to U.S. Army Sustainment Command and under the operational control of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, U.S. Army Europe and Africa. The brigade is headquartered in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and provides materiel enterprise support to U.S. Forces throughout Europe and Africa – providing theater sustainment logistics; synchronizing acquisition, logistics and technology; and leveraging AMC’s materiel enterprise to support joint forces. For more information on the 405th AFSB, visit the official website at www.afsbeurope.army.mil and the official Facebook site at www.facebook.com/405thAFSB.
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