SAGAMI DEPOT, Japan, April 5, 2011 -- Army Sustainment Command's 403rd Army Field Support Brigade is providing support to the Japanese tsunami relief efforts.
Since mid-March, the 403rd has been issuing Army Prepositioned Stocks-4, known as APS-4, equipment from its warehouses at Sagami Depot, south of Tokyo.
The equipment was requested by United States Army-Japan and was approved by Headquarters, Department of the Army, for use in the relief efforts.
Among the APS-4 materiel requested and issued are: generators, heaters, forklifts, a food sanitation center, floodlights, cargo bags, cords, webbing, tie-down straps, skid boards, pallets, and a number of trucks to haul the equipment and supplies.
The materiel was signed over and picked up by the 35th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, located at Sagami Depot, and transported north to an operating base near the vicinity of Sendai, said Robert Foster, logistics management specialist from ASC's Field Support Directorate.
"There are a number of units up there - Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force - it is a real joint effort," Foster said. "The folks operating up there are outside the 50-mile radius that the U.S. State Department has warned of radiation from the Fukushima Reactor."
Providing command and control over APS operations at Sagami Depot for Army Sustainment Command is Lt. Col. Douglas Pietrowski, commander of Army Field Support Battalion-Northeast Asia, who traveled to Japan from Korea.
Foster emphasized that once the APS-4 equipment is signed over, it can be used in any number of ways.
"We are not sending personnel, just loaning equipment," said Foster. "Once there, it can be used for a variety of requirements."
Besides heavier equipment, Sagami Depot has also issued sling-loading equipment for helicopters to deliver supplies to remote villages in northern Japan. It has also issued more than 93,000 cases of meals, ready-to-eat to feed tsunami-stricken victims.
Some dependents of ASC personnel have been voluntarily evacuated back to the United States from Sagami Depot as well as the nearby Yokohama North Dock in Tokyo Bay.
If the need arises to evacuate more personnel, 8th Army-Korea has requested and been approved to draw APS-4 inventory such as cots, sleeping bags, blankets, and generators to set up evacuation centers in Korea.
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