Courtesy Photo | CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait (Jan. 3, 2007) - Sgt. Mario Vega, a unit adminstrator with the...... read more read more
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By Spc. Debrah A. Robertson
40th Public Affairs Detachment
CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait (Jan. 3, 2007) - After saying goodbye to their families, their children and their parents, and days of travel with no showers and living on trail mix and airplane food, Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen and Coast Guardsmen drag their duffle bags onto buses and prepare to travel to Camp Buehring for weeks of training with Third Army/U.S. Army Central and other units in the extreme temperatures of Kuwait.
Loaded with heavy equipment, plated protective vests, rifles, advanced combat helmets, sleeping bags, ruck sacks and scores of necessary gear, weary troops drag themselves into a large tent and take their seats before a projection screen.
To their relief they are met with the smiling, friendly faces of fellow servicemembers who have been in their position, tired and a little nervous about the unknown.
"We're the first people in uniform they see when they get on the ground," said Sgt. Kasey Schmidt, a supply sergeant with the 40th Personnel Support Detachment.
The Soldiers of the 40th PSD, 678th Personnel Services Battalion work as a bridge from the garrison environment to the theater; introducing servicemembers into Kuwait and eventually Iraq.
Other than making sure servicemembers' paperwork and therefore their promotions and pay go smoothly, the 40th is there to greet those who are new to theater, said Sgt. Shawn Anderson, the noncommissioned officer in charge of personnel service support of the 40th PSD.
Swiping their common access card is the first step to kick off their countdown in theater, and then servicemembers are given the necessary briefings they need in order to stay as safe as possible and help everything run efficiently for them on the ground, said Anderson.
As a whole, the detachment's job entails working promotions, making identification cards, completing enlisted and officer record brief updates, processing noncommissioned officer evaluation reports and managing the deployed theater accountability software, which tracks servicemembers on the ground so they receive their pay and all their entitlements as a deployed servicemember, said Sgt. 1st Class Fernando Cisneroz, the 40th PSD's first sergeant.
The 40th is also responsible for actions, such as name changes, managing foreign language details, the married couples' programs and applying skill level identifiers to the enlisted record briefs of Army Soldiers, said Noah Radley, a personnel services clerk with the 40th PSD.
Simply put, "Our function here is taking care of Soldiers before they go up north," said Cisneroz of his unit.
So when servicemembers are weary and travel worn, the last thing they have to worry about is whether or not they will receive the correct pay or whether they will make the next rank even though they are in the field.
| Date Taken: | 01.03.2007 |
| Date Posted: | 01.03.2007 09:54 |
| Story ID: | 8727 |
| Location: | CAMP BUEHRING, KW |
| Web Views: | 269 |
| Downloads: | 179 |
This work, Kuwait Soldiers give warm welcome to fellow troops, by SPC Deborah Ledesma, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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