Troops unfurl the new Army Materiel Command Field Support Brigade-Europe colors during a redesignation ceremony in Seckenheim, Germany, on Thursday. (Jessica Inigo / S&S)
Troops unfurl the new Army Materiel Command Field Support Brigade-Europe colors during a redesignation ceremony in Seckenheim, Germany, on Thursday. (Jessica Inigo / S&S)
U.S. Army Materiel Command commanding general Gen. Benjamin S. Griffin, center, Brig. Gen. Jerome Johnson, commander of the Army Field Support Command, right, and Col. Xavier Lobeto, the commander of Field Support Brigade-Europe, left, stand before guests at the redesignation ceremony in Seckenheim, Germany. (Jessica Inigo / S&S)
SECKENHEIM, Germany — Troops in Europe now have a more focused way of getting everything from beans to bullets after a merger of units within the U.S. Army Materiel Command.
The Army Materiel Command Forward-Europe and the Combat Equipment Group-Europe combined to form the new Army Materiel Command Field Support Brigade-Europe.
The consolidated brigade will continue delivering technology, equipment and sustainment to forces, only in a more effective manner, according to AMC officials.
During a small ceremony Thursday in Seckenheim, with only a handful of soldiers participating and the U.S. Army Europe brass quintet playing, the two smaller units cased their colors, while the new brigade unfurled its flag.
Gen. Benjamin S. Griffin, who became the AMC commander Nov. 5, said during the redesignation ceremony that AMC troops were the key to the warfighter’s success.
“I want to provide you what you need to support the soldiers,” said Griffin, who was visiting from the AMC headquarters in Fort Belvoir, Va.
He said that he would talk to troops and leaders to find out what they need to make the Army more deployable, agile, versatile, lethal and survivable.
He explained that AMC touches every soldier throughout every mission, every day, and thanked the troops for their hard work.
He wasn’t the only general to laud the command.
“To use a term of General Griffin’s: ‘If a soldier eats it, shoots it, drives it, or fights with it, AMC provides it,’” said Brig. Gen. Jerome Johnson, commander of the Army Field Support Command, a major subordinate unit of AMC based in Rock Island, Ill., after the ceremony.
Johnson explained that the merger makes the organization better synchronized.
“We’ll be more effective. Whatever a soldier needs, they’ll get it on time and in the quantity they need it,” he said.
Johnson added that the new brigade boosts the overall Army fighting power, since some soldiers from the two former units will be freed up to move to other Army units.
AMC has about 149 locations worldwide, including in more than 40 states and 38 countries, with a workforce of 50,000 military and civilian employees.
