TOBYHANNA ARMY DEPOT, Pa. " Employees here have earned the top Army award for maintenance excellence in warfighter support.
Depot personnel received the 2010 Army Chief of Staff Combined Logistics Excellence Award (Depot Category) for, according to the award citation, “superior performance of duty in depot maintenance excellence resulting in improved combat readiness. Areas of special emphasis are mission accomplishment, effective resource management, innovative logistics management.”
Specifically, the award was given for the depot’s worldwide support of the Command Post Systems and Integration program, or CPS&I;. The CPS&I;mission is to provide standardized mobile command posts for the warfighters from battalion to corps with equal capabilities, common systems, seamless operation and standard training requirements, providing a fully integrated and digitized physical infrastructure to enable battle command and achieve information dominance on the net"centric battlefield.
Depot personnel sustain, reset, field and provide training on all CPS&I;equipment for the headquarters of Army I Corps, III Corps, V Corps and XVIII Corps, plus 18 Divisions, 45 Brigade Combat Teams and 83 Modular Support Brigades. For the Army National Guard, the depot supports fielding to eight divisions and 22 Brigade Combat Teams and Support Brigades. No Active Army or National Guard Corps, Division, Brigade Combat Team or Support Brigade deploys without Tobyhanna Army Depot"supported CPS&I;equipment.
CPS&I;systems supported by the depot include the AN/TSQ-232 and legacy Command Post Platform; the AN/TSQ-243 Command Communication System; the AN/TSQ-259 Command Post Communications System; and the PU-822A/T Trailer Mounted Support System (TMSS) Medium and PU-824A/T TMSS Large.
Tobyhanna Army Depot has supported what is now the CPS&I;program since fiscal year 1988.
Depot commander Col. Charles C. Gibson was the first award recipient among 99 organizations recognized for outstanding contributions to the Army at a May 12 awards ceremony in Richmond, Va.
Gen. Peter Chiarelli, vice chief of staff of the Army; Lt. Gen. Mitchell Stevenson, deputy chief of staff of the Army for Logistics; and Sergeant Major of the Army Raymond Chandler recognized the winners for excellence in maintenance, deployment and supply operations.
Nineteen employees flew by Chinook helicopter to Richmond to witness Gibson receiving Tobyhanna’s award from Stevenson, Chandler and Col. Clark LeMasters, commandant, Ordnance School and Chief of Ordnance.
“This award speaks volumes for the work we do here and I am proud to be a part of that,” said Gene Metz, an engineering technician in the Production Engineering Directorate. “These are very competitive times. Our customers have a choice. We need to exceed their expectations for quality and value. I’ve been with the depot for over six years now. This is by far the best organization I’ve ever been a part of and I hope to see 20 more years here."
“I was and still am honored to have been given the opportunity to attend the ceremony,” Metz added. “The very first award presented was to Tobyhanna Army Depot and Colonel Gibson. As further awards were given you could hear the ever increasing cries of “Hooah” from those in attendance. I regret that we didn’t make some noise as well. It was truly an awesome experience.”
“The award means that we’re effectively supporting the warfighter on this program (CPS&I;),” said Ben Bray, a management analyst in the Business Management Directorate. “If the depot’s vision is to be the DoD C4ISR Logistics Support Center of Choice for Warfighter Readiness and Transformation, then this is a testament to that becoming a reality. Every person I spoke to about the CPS&I;program exuded a genuine passion for what they do and why they do it; you can’t buy or teach that.”
“It was an honor to be part of the depot cheering section!” said John O’Brien, an electronics equipment specialist in the Command, Control, Computers/Avionics Directorate. “Lots of stars and bars down there and once again it was Tobyhanna Army Depot with very positive recognition.”
“Tobyhanna has a worldwide presence and we have a great name out there among the customers and troops we support,” he noted. “So as long as we continue to do great work here and worldwide, Tobyhanna will continue to play an integral part in military missions.”
“I work on many depot award packages such as this and to see us get recognized in person was a great feeling,” said Tammy Strausser, a visual information specialist in the Information Management Directorate. “What can I say about the Chinook ride? WOW! It’s not every day you get to take a flight like that. The view over Washington D.C. was amazing. You can’t get that from any car window.”
Chandler noted that when he was a tanker, he was told that being a tanker is easy, logistics is hard. “I took that to heart,” he said. “Being a logistician is rocket science. I really appreciate what you do, and I appreciate that you don’t always get the accolades you deserve.”
He added that what the organizations being honored have done over the last year is “miraculous,” noting accomplishments that include moving thousands of tons of materiel in and out of Iraq locations.
“Your demonstration of excellence proves you can get it done,” he said. “This year, nearly 100,000 pieces of equipment will be Reset, which in the long run will save us millions of dollars.”
Last year marked the Army’s largest logistics operation in six decades. "The herculean efforts of these units on a daily basis made it all possible,” Stevenson said. “They are examples for the entire Nation of how far ingenuity, determination, teamwork and skill can take us."
Editor’s Note: Parts of this article were taken from a Department of the Army news article.
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