Doing the common, uncommonly well

Camp Carroll, South Korea

Two Battalions from Camp Henry’s 403rd Army Field Support Brigade received a prestigious award during a ceremony on here the morning of April 18th.

The Army Field Support Battalion – North East Asia and The Army Field Support Battalion – Korea placed first and second, respectively, in the Army Award for Maintenance Excellence’s Tables of Distribution and Allowances Units category, marking the sixth time AFSBn-NEA has taken home this award. AFSBn-Korea has also won the award three times.

The 403rd Commander, Col. Henry Brown, presented the awards to the leaders of the battalions.

“Like a championship team that wins multiple titles, our two battalions have demonstrated time and again that they are a powerhouse of innovation, resilience, and unwavering commitment. Their success goes beyond the trophies and accolades. It is about setting a benchmark that inspires all units across our great Army,” Brown said, in remarks at the ceremony.

“Your precision and execution, the processes that you’ve put in place — you’ve been able to create this repeatable and measurable activity of maintenance excellence,” Brig. Gen. Frederick Crist, commander of the 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, said during his comments. “Virtuosity. I think that’s what you’ve demonstrated here. The concept of doing the common, uncommonly well.”

Crist concluded with a challenge for the units. “Are you at the peak of your band of excellence right now? A time where you’ll dip into a valley or trough after this? Or is this the beginning of a new dynasty?” he added.

In addition to the unit awards, Crist and Brown presented 19th ESC Challenge coins to CW4 Gustavo Lombera-Mendoza; Mr. O, Sung Chun; Mr. Pak, Kyong Chu; Mr. Kim, Song Hun; Mr. Yi, Tong Hui; Mr. Chang, Kwang Hui; Ms. Son, In Suk and Mr. Kim, Hi Hyon. They also presented 403d AFSB coins to Mr. Paul Ostrander; Mr. Kim, In Sik; Mr. Pak, Tong Min; Mr. Han, Chae Nung; Mr. Cho, Woo Chan and Mr. Mun, In Ung

The ceremony concluded with the unveiling of the 2023 Award banner on the unit’s banner wall.

About the Program

The award, recognizing the best in Army maintenance operations was established in 1982 by the Department of the Army to recognize exceptional accomplishment in Maintenance and provide added incentive to the competitive programs of Major Army Commands. Active Table of Organization and Equipment, Army National Guard TOE, Army Reserve TOE, Directorates of Logistics, and Table of Distribution and Allowances units compete separately, and the competition in each component is divided into three categories: Small, Medium and Large, based on number of authorized personnel.

The Chief of Staff, Army Award for Maintenance Excellence Program is conducted each year to recognize Army units and/or activities that have demonstrated excellence in maintenance operations. Each unit is evaluated on their effectiveness ensuring that Soldier competency is maintained. Assessments of each unit in the categories of attitude and effective leadership are rated with a benchmark based on those of past winners, and the tenets of exceptional maintenance processes that were exhibited are validated and ranked.

AFSBn-K

 

AFSBn-Korea’s history dates back to the early 1980s with the formal establishment of the Logistics Assistance Office for 2nd Infantry Division at Camp Casey. The battalion provided support to 2ID in all areas of logistics, maintenance, readiness, and warfighter support.

In 1995, the battalion was renamed the Logistics Support Element-2nd Infantry Division, and placed under the control of Army Field Support Brigade-Far East. While the mission of providing support to 2ID did not change, reporting channels were streamlined under a single forward command.

The first two decades of the 21st Century brought a series of changes, culminating in the fall of 2018, when the battalion, in support of the Army Sustainment Command futures concept, merged with LRC–Humphreys, relocating its headquarters from Camp Casey in Area I to its current location at Camp Humphreys. As part of the changing Army doctrine in support of large-scale combat operations, AFSBn-Korea created a Support Operations Division to increase readiness support at the division level. The battalion also absorbed the former LRC-Humphreys’ garrison support mission of transportation, maintenance, and supply support to the installation.

AFSBn-NEA

With nearly 600 personnel assigned in 2024, the AFSBn-NEA’s began operations as the Army War Reserve Management Cell–4 at Camp Carroll in June 1994, managing war reserve stocks in the Pacific Theater. Operations with only four temporary duty personnel from the United States. Permanent personnel would not arrive until the end of that year.

The cell was designated as the Combat Equipment Base-Northeast Asia in July 1996 and became part of the dual command with Depot Support Activity-Far East located in Seoul.

They were re-designated in 1998, becoming the Combat Equipment Battalion–Northeast Asia in recognition of its permanent status and growing responsibilities for almost $8 billion of Army Prepositioned Stock-4 assets in Korea and Japan. These assets serve to enhance peacetime readiness and power projection capabilities.

In October 2005, CEB-NEA was renamed Army Field Support Battalion-Northeast Asia, headquartered at Camp Carroll, South Korea, and assumed operational control of the APS-Support Division from the Materiel Support Center-Korea.

The 36th Korean Service Corps Company was activated in direct support of the battalion’s mission, in October 2006, when they also assumed responsibility for storage and maintenance of APS-4 watercraft relocated to Yokohama North Dock, Japan.

The battalion’s responsibilities increased in May 2007 to include responsibility for storage and maintenance of APS-4 stocks at Sagami General Depot, Japan.