HEIDELBERG, Germany - It's often said that hard work pays off. And that adage rings especially true for three years in a row as Soldiers of Headquarters Support Company (HSC), U. S. Army Africa (USARAF), took top honors in the U. S. Army Europe (USAREUR) Supply Excellence Awards.
Capt. Craig Porte and Cpl. Ben Roalson represented their unit at the USAAEUR Combined Logistics Excellence Awards (CLEA) ceremony at Patrick Henry Village Pavilion Tuesday.
CLEAs recognize the year's best logisticians in Europe in several categories that include supply excellence.
Lt. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, USAREUR commander and guest speaker for the event, provided prospective to the event by using a quote attributed to many historical military leaders from Napoleon to Clausewitz to Gen. Omar Bradley.
"'Amateurs study tactics, while professionals study logistics,'" Hertling said. "Win or lose, just taking part in the CLEA makes process and organizations better by improving readiness and efficiency [thus]reinforcing good use of resources and saving money."
Porte, HSC company executive officer, said the supply team provides quality service daily.
"Our supply team consistently does a great job," Porte said.
"It's the hard work done every day that pays off. We don't do anything special to prepare for this competition except for double checking some paperwork," he said.
Porte credited much of the success of the section to HSC supply clerk, Cpl. Ben Roalson.
"Roalson is a motivated and excellent supply clerk," Porte said. "He does a fantastic job and he's an important element in the success of the supply team for HSC."
Roalson, who has been with the unit for a little more than a year, said the success of his section is that everyone works together and supports each other.
"Staff Sgt. [Tasha] Falcon, Sgt. [Joseph] Hernandez and Sgt. [Jeremy] Newman had many of the systems in place when I started here," Roalson said. "One of the things you really have to do is [make sure] the paperwork is up to date and to standard," he said.
To note, USARAF's Property Book Office (PBO) also earned a Supply Excellence award during the CLEA, for supporting the HSC supply section.
PBO's winning this award was no surprise to Roalson.
"PBO has always supported HSC, and they're always there to help us out with any kind of assistance or guidance," he said.
Porte echoed Roalson's sentiment.
"Having PBO expertise so close to home is a great advantage," Porte said. "The PBO section does a great job of nesting with us, developing new systems and keeping us on track."
PBO will compete at the Army level for small Mission Table of Organization and Equipment (MTOE) supply support competition in the Chief of Staff's Army Award for Supply Excellence.
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