Courtesy Photo | Hiram Gillyard is the acting director of maintenance at the Coleman Army Prepositioned...... read more read more
MANNHEIM, Germany – The acting director of maintenance at the Coleman Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 worksite in Mannheim believes in the benefits of the Army Expeditionary Civilian Workforce program so much that he’s now on his second AECW tour to Europe in just over a year.
Hiram Gillyard, who normally works as a supervisory production manager at the Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania, is in the middle of an 11-month deployment to his second APS-2 worksite in Europe supporting the 405th Army Field Support Brigade.
Gillyard first served six months at the Eygelshoven APS-2 site in the Netherlands working in supply and services for Army Field Support Battalion-Benelux, and now he’s back in Europe managing the maintenance program at the Coleman APS-2 site for Army Field Support Battalion-Germany.
“We just finished up an important mission preparing 97 Bradley fighting vehicles that were transferred from Mannheim to multiple locations in Europe. Now, we are starting the process to have 50 more Bradleys readied and completed for another mission by March,” said Gillyard.
In addition, an entire armored brigade combat team’s worth of APS-2 was recently moved from the Coleman site to the new APS-2 worksite in Poznan, Poland. Gillyard said that mission required about 30 line-haul transporters a day over a period of several weeks to move the APS-2 equipment to Poland.
Overall, Gillyard’s primary responsibility as an AECW deployer and acting director of maintenance at the Coleman worksite is coordinating and communicating with the contracted APS-2 maintenance workforce there, he said.
“The contractors do the work while I’m responsible for guiding them on exactly what we need executed. It’s all about working as a team and building cohesiveness as we work together to support the warfighter,” Gillyard said. “I’m a Lean Six Sigma guy so I’m good at facilitating, and that’s what I’m able to bring to the table, here.”
Gillyard said the AECW program is a great opportunity for him because he’s able to deploy forward and be inserted into a critical organization supporting U.S. Army Europe and Africa as a value-added member performing an important piece of the overall mission.
“I love the AECW program. It’s been a great opportunity for me. It’s a win-win situation for everyone,” said the 61-year-old resident of Clifford Township, Pennsylvania. “It’s good for the supported location and unit, and it’s good for the AECW deployer.”
“I understand manufacturing, and I understand maintenance,” said Gillyard, who has 20 years of government service at the Tobyhanna Army Depot and two more as a contractor, plus four years in the Air Force. “AECW understands my skills and expertise and offers me ways to grow and become even more value added to the Army.”
The AECW program has deployment opportunities in a temporary duty status for six, nine, or 11 months available to permanent and term Army civilians worldwide, to include many with the 405th AFSB in Europe. AECW offers opportunities to work and live overseas, opportunities to experience work challenges not found in day-to-day jobs in the U.S., and opportunities to make a difference supporting Army missions worldwide.
Army civilians who are interested in applying for the AECW program may submit a resume, recent SF-50, DD214 (if former military), and a signed request for deployment form available at https://home.army.mil/cavazos/application/files/9916/5816/1164/Request_for_Deployment_RFD_17_Mar_22.pdf through their supervisor and human resources department. For more information, contact the AECW program office by email at usarmy.in.hqda.mbx.aecw-deployments@army.mil.
The 405th AFSB is assigned to U.S. Army Sustainment Command and headquartered in Kaiserslautern, Germany. The brigade provides materiel enterprise support to U.S. forces throughout Europe and Africa – providing theater sustainment logistics; synchronizing acquisition, logistics and technology; and leveraging U.S. Army Materiel Command’s 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: | 09.04.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 09.04.2024 09:07 |
| Story ID: | 480033 |
| Location: | MANNHEIM, BADEN-WURTTEMBERG, DE |
| Hometown: | TOBYHANNA ARMY DEPOT, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 40 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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