LIVORNO, Italy – CJ Jacoby comes from a long line of Army service. His mother was a career Army officer who retired at the rank of lieutenant colonel after 20 years of service. His father served with the Army for 37 years and retired at the rank of general and was the commanding general of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command.
Jacoby himself graduated from West Point in 2013 and served for 9.5 years as an Army infantry officer at both the 82nd Airborne Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Now, he’s a major in the U.S. Army Reserve assigned to the 2500 Digital Liaison Detachment, 7th Mission Support Command, and he’s an Army civilian employee with Logistics Readiness Center Italy in Livorno.
At LRC Italy, Jacoby serves as the liaison between the LRC headquarters in Vicenza, Italy, and his team of about two dozen LRC Italy personnel at Livorno responsible for providing transportation, supply and services, and maintenance support to the U.S. Army Garrison Italy community at Camp Darby, plus Leghorn Army Depot and the Ammunition Supply Area, there.
Jacoby, who was hired as a government civilian employee with the 405th Army Field Support Brigade’s LRC Italy in November of 2022, said his team in Livorno is almost exclusively Italian host nation employees, everyone except him and two others.
“They’re the master professionals, here, and they’re the ones getting things done. Some of them have been here for decades. They know everything. It’s a real privilege to be working with these consummate professionals. They’re incredible – real life heroes,” said Jacoby, who completed a combat deployment to Afghanistan in 2017 right before he volunteered for U.S. Army Ranger School.
Jacoby said four of the LRC Italy host nation employees in Livorno work in the maintenance warehouse and are responsible for the privately owned vehicle inspection program for the USAG Italy Darby military community. They also do all the maintenance on much of the garrison equipment located there.
Next, Jacoby said his team has two technicians in supply and services at Leghorn Army Depot who work with the computer systems and Global Combat Support-System Army, a web-based logistics and finance system used Army-wide. In addition, in supply and services there are two warehouse workers who manage the property books for the garrison and LRC Italy in Livorno. Jacoby serves as the primary hand receipt holder for the property books they manage.
Jacoby also has a team of Italian host nation employees working transportation. They manage the transportation motor pool and are responsible for dispatching all the non-tactical vehicles supporting the USAG Italy Darby military community, and they also support the community members with their Italian driver’s licensing requirements.
In addition, there’s a team of transportation assistants and quality assurance specialists who support the community with their household goods and unaccompanied baggage shipments, both inbound and outbound, plus customs. Jacoby said his customs team works directly with the Italian customs officials to ensure everyone and everything stays in compliance.
“I’m not necessarily their boss,” said the 34-year-old husband of nearly three years and expectant father of their first child due next month. “I’m a liaison. I assist with our integration to the garrison and the tenants here and report back to the director of LRC Italy. I maintain the information flow. If there are any issues, I will report them back. If there are any unique requests from a tenant unit or the garrison outside of our baseline services, I will ensure they are blessed off by higher headquarters before execution.”
“I think a lot of people don’t realize how important Camp Darby is with its infrastructure and specifically its geographic location,” said Jacoby. “We are four hours away from the flagpole and most of the units we support, but we are an extremely important logistical hub and critically important to the U.S. Army Europe and Africa and the Southern European Task Force, Africa missions.”
LRC Italy is one of eight LRCs under the command and control of the 405th AFSB. LRCs execute installation logistics support and services to include supply, maintenance, transportation, and food service management as well as clothing issue facility operations, hazardous material management, personal property and household goods, passenger travel, property book operations, and non-tactical vehicle and garrison equipment management. When it comes to providing day-to-day installation services, LRC Italy directs, manages, and coordinates a variety of operations and activities in support of USAG Italy.
The 405th AFSB is assigned to U.S. Army Sustainment Command and headquartered in Kaiserslautern, Germany. The brigade provides materiel enterprise support to U.S. forces throughout Europe and Africa – providing theater sustainment logistics; synchronizing acquisition, logistics and technology; and leveraging U.S. Army Materiel Command’s materiel enterprise to support joint forces. For more information on the 405th AFSB, visit the official website and the official Facebook site.
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