Photo By Natalie Cole | After receiving awards and certificates, soldiers with the 326th Financial Management...... read more read more
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CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait – A new group of Soldiers will manage the single point of entry for finance operations in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. The 326th Financial Management Company, a reserve unit out of Bell, Calif., handed over authority Nov. 15 to the 266th FMC, an active-duty unit out of Kaiserslautern, Germany.
While in Kuwait, the 326th managed central funding for U.S. and foreign currencies, supported theater contracting and procurement, and participated in the development of host nation banking systems. Another essential duty was supporting the Near Cashless Campaign, the military’s effort to promote electronic transactions and lessen the amount of U.S. currency circulating in deployed areas.
Lt. Col. Dinah F. Olagbegi, originally from Atlanta, served as the deputy director and senior advisor of the cash management section for the 326th. She said instituting and sustaining electronic commerce was the key to the 362th’s mission.
“I think the unit’s greatest success was to establish policies as far as instituting and promoting e-commerce … . I think through the promoting of that as well as making sure that the finance companies understood why the policies were in place …that we were able to bring down the amount of U.S. dollars that we have, and we were able to pay these vendors using e-commerce,” she said. “I think it was very significant feat for us during this deployment.”
The electronic transactions have eliminated the need for soldiers to stand in lines at finance cages to get cash or get paid, Olagbegi said. “Instead of going and standing in long lines, [a] soldier can just walk up to a machine and get what they need in order to buy their necessities,” she said. “So, that’s been a big plus.”
The shifting U.S. presence on the two main war fronts influenced the mission of the 326th. “We were part of the drawdown in Iraq as well as with the buildup in Afghanistan.” As part of the drawdown from Iraq, the 326th oversaw the departure of one financial management company and the beginning of the departure of another. The 362th will leave with one financial management company remaining in Iraq. While closing operations was the focus in Iraq, the 326th focus in Afghanistan was building the e-commerce infrastructure to sustain more soldiers and stabilize local banking. “We’ve seen in Afghanistan the FEMCO grow from one to two,” said Olagbegi.
Working in the realms of e-commerce and host-nation banking was a chance for professional growth for Olagbegi, who has been in the Army for 25 years. “I’ve been in the military a very long time. I’ve learned how the banking infrastructure is set up. Personally, we take for granted how banks work back home in the States because we’ve always had ‘em. But, for myself … to see how to establish something as simple as a bank, which means so much in the big picture, for me personally, I thought working with the banking team has been tremendous amount of growth as far as understanding how the economy works,” she said, adding, “I’ve tried to make sure that my role was performed at the fullest. We had a good group of people to work with.”
First Lt. Thuc Nguyen, from El Monte, Calif., served as operations officer for the 326th. “As an operations officer I do a lot of the day-to-day [work] and try and make sure everything runs smoothly,” he said. “So, mainly just taking care of the unit readiness report, and then the R and R [Rest and Relaxation] piece for all the soldiers here, and just the daily operations that we have,” he said.
Ha said going to Kuwait, a strategic logistics and travel hub for the Army, turned out differently than he imagined it would be. “I’ve never deployed overseas before, so coming here I thought the op [operations] tempo was going to be very intense,” he said. “I was reading a lot of stories about the op tempo in Iraq, Afghanistan, and I figured maybe Kuwait [would] probably be similar, but it’s not too bad.”
Nguyen said the deployment, which was his first time overseas with the Army, afforded him chances “to learn about the different Army structures and different agencies and how the agencies interact with one another because before all I knew was my unit – what it was below it, a little above it – but that’s about it,” he said.
“But, here I learned, especially with the finance community, you learn a lot about the assistant secretary, the OSD, office of the secretary of defense … there’s just so many … agencies actually working together in the finance community, so it’s amazing.”
While working in Kuwait, Nguyen said he adjusted to the daily stresses soldiers face while deployed. “I’ve learned to be very, very patient. Everything we do here, anywhere you go, you wait in line, especially when you go TDY [Temporary Duty], I mean you could be waiting for days and days and days. The travelling is really a pain,” he said. “I’ve learned you have to understand these situations and … I try not to complain about everything because I know folks in Iraq and Afghanistan have it a lot worse than we have here,” he said.
Sgt. Mike Ha, from Baldwin Park, Calif., served as the 326th Information Management Officer, a role that required him to handle the unit’s information technology needs. The 2009- 2010 deployment was Ha’s second trip to Kuwait.
For Ha, who has a total of 11 years of combined Active and Reserve time, working on a project with the Defense Milpay Office was the highlight of his mission. “The biggest thing I did was … being part of working with DFAS to do their new Midtier Conversion for DMO,” he said. The conversion involved “switching from unsecure to secure transmission back to DFAS” for documents that soldiers email back and forth to the Defense Finance and Accounting Agency, Ha said.
Nguyen said although he is looking forward to going home, he will miss some of his deployment rituals. “Obviously, I don’t want to stay here longer than I need to, but I will definitely miss … the routines that we have to go through: Three meals a day, go workout at night and all the 5K runs.”
Now that he is at the end, Nguyen said “It feels great. I’ve been waiting - it’s been a long time,” he said. “When I first got here, it’s ‘oh my god, it’s like a whole year,’ but as time goes by, it goes by fast. I still remember a couple months ago I was talking to these soldiers [saying] ‘wow, we have like 90 days left, then 60 days, then 30 days,’ and now it’s just like a few more days and we’ll be home,” he said.
Nguyen said he will return to work for the Internal Revenue Service in downtown Los Angeles. “Obviously, since I have some days off, I’m going to be spending some time with my wife and daughter because I have an 18-month-old daughter,” he said. “After that, I’ll go back to work.”
A few days before his final departure from Kuwait, Ha said it had not set in that he is leaving. “I don’t really feel like I’m going home,” he said. “Probably when I reach the States, until then I don’t feel like I going home even though I have like two days,” he said.
Like many other Reserve soldiers who have completed 12-month deployments, Ha said he feels like he has some catching up to do when gets home. He said he plans on getting back into college full-time to complete a degree in cyber security. “I need to just catch up on my studies ‘cuz you lose a lot of time right here.”
“I’ll go back with a sense of pride, um, and just glad to have been part of this contingency operation,” said Olagbegi, who will return to her civilian career as a military finance technician. “The 1st TSC [Theater Sustainment Command] has been a very good support of ours,” she added. As she reflected on the past year, Olagbegi said “[I’m] proud to serve.”
After training and orientation, the 266th will continue the e-commerce mission. They are expected to assume complete responsibility late November.
| Date Taken: | 11.15.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 11.17.2010 02:07 |
| Story ID: | 60294 |
| Location: | CAMP ARIFJAN, KW |
| Web Views: | 244 |
| Downloads: | 14 |
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