Photo By Cameron Porter | Joshua Calvert is an Army Field Support Battalion-Benelux quality assurance specialist...... read more read more
EYGELSHOVEN, Netherlands – Due to an injury, his time with the Marine Corps was cut short after two years but that didn’t stop him from continuing his service. He landed a contractor position at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, as a tactical communications lead, which he did for 10 years before gaining the experience needed to easily transition over to Army civilian.
And Joshua Calvert didn’t stop there. After serving at Yuma as an Army civilian employee for almost three years, he applied for a position in the Netherlands at the Eygelshoven Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 worksite with the 405th Army Field Support Brigade and got the job.
“I believe my service with the Marine Corps helped me get my first job as a contractor,” Calvert said. “And then spending 10 years as a test support service contractor – building relationships and achieving a high level of experience – this aided me in getting a job as a civil service employee with the U.S. Army.”
“I was looking for new opportunities to serve, and I saw the chance to come over to Europe on an overseas assignment. I applied and here we are,” said Calvert, an Army Field Support Battalion-Benelux quality assurance specialist for tactical U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command equipment at the Eygelshoven APS-2 site.
If that wasn’t enough, Calvert is currently serving on a special detail assignment as the APS-2 site’s accountable officer.
“I’m the primary hand receipt holder for the site. I monitor equipment authorizations, on-hand quantities, and outbound and inbound shipments,” said Calvert, who has been at the APS-2 site in the Netherlands for about 3.5 years. “I work closely with our host nation partners here and a team of folks who assist me in maintaining accountability of all the equipment on the hand receipts and preparing the equipment for issue during DEFENDER-Europe exercises, real-world missions and more.”
In total, Calvert is responsible for the accountability of about 4,000 pieces of equipment – tens of millions of dollars of equipment – including engineer machinery, Humvees, trailers, light medium tactical vehicles, mine-resistant ambush protected-all terrain vehicles, CECOM communications sets, and various other supporting equipment sets that gaining tactical units need when drawing APS-2.
“We have a great group at Eygelshoven – both U.S. personnel and our host nation counterparts with the Dutch Ministry of Defense,” Calvert said. “There’s so much talent here, and everyone works well together. Since we’re a relatively young APS-2 site still, it’s very impressive – all the growth I’ve witnessed over the past three and a half years has been amazing.”
Calvert – who is 36 years old and calls Yuma, Arizona, home – has some advice for anyone considering joining the U.S. military, whether that’s the Army, Marine Corps or the other services.
“Take advantage of as many opportunities as you can to learn and develop a solid skill set and see the world,” said Calvert, who is two classes shy of finishing his master’s degree in business with a concentration in project management from the University of Phoenix.
“Joining the Marine Corps was a good decision for me,” Calvert said. “Unfortunately, medically I wasn’t able to continue my career as a Marine so my plans needed to change. But I was able to find an alternative way to serve and still have that feeling of being a part of the military team.”
“I wouldn’t be where I’m at now without enlisting in the Marine Corps. It turned out to be great decision for me, my career and my family,” said Calvert who is married to his wife, Jessica, and has three children, ages 4 to 10.
“And I’m still serving,” he said. “I’m serving as an Army civilian.”
The Eygelshoven APS-2 site provides 450,000 square feet of climate controlled warehouse space in nine warehouses as well as 50,000 square feet of hardstand storage to hold and maintain APS-2 equipment sets.
Battalion Benelux is one of four battalions assigned to the 405th AFSB. The battalion provides mission command of APS-2 operations at Eygelshoven and Zutendaal, Belgium, and is charged with providing and coordinating receipt, transfer, storage and maintenance of APS-2. This enables commanders to conduct unified action and perform a full range of military operations in support of U.S. Army Europe and Africa.
The 405th AFSB is assigned to U.S. Army Sustainment Command and under the operational control of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, U.S. Army Europe and Africa. The brigade is headquartered in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and provides materiel enterprise support to U.S. Forces throughout Europe and Africa – providing theater sustainment logistics; synchronizing acquisition, logistics and technology; and leveraging the U.S. Army Materiel Command materiel enterprise to support joint forces. For more information on the 405th AFSB, visit the official website at www.afsbeurope.army.mil and the official Facebook site at www.facebook.com/405thAFSB.
| Date Taken: | 11.17.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 11.17.2022 05:52 |
| Story ID: | 433428 |
| Location: | EYGELSHOVEN, NL |
| Hometown: | YUMA, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 70 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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