BATTLE CREEK, Mich. –
55,165 pounds of heavy and light steel, aluminum, tires, and appliances identified, sorted, and loaded onto 20 trucks in just a few days. A level of assistance not uncommon when warfighters reach out to Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services for a helping hand.
This summer, when Army safety officials from Camp Zama in Japan inspected a Logistics Readiness Center – Honshu long-term storage facility at nearby Sagami General Depot, they declared the warehouse unsafe and stressed that it needed to be quickly condemned.
Luckily, division leaders from within the 403d Army Field Support Brigade had developed a strong working relationship with the local DLA property disposal team and immediately reached out for assistance. 403rd A&M Division Chief Rene Davila said the building had become cluttered by maintenance materials accumulated over the past 15 years and a rapid removal of all the built-up property stores looked too daunting to tackle without DLA assistance.
“LRC-Honshu would have struggled for an extended period organizing and relocating the vast amount of items and equipment within the storage building,” said 403d Army Field Support Brigade Maintenance Support Branch Chief Kevin Coleman.
Army Sgt. 1st Class Billy Cassis is an automated logistical specialist with nearly 20 years of service who supports fellow warfighters as a demilitarization and scrap operations specialist at the DLA’s Sagami team. He said the condemned LRC building, called “Plant One,” had primarily been used as a holding area for equipment awaiting parts for repair. Cassis accompanied Sagami Operations Branch Chief Tre Washington and Warehouse Supervisor Winston Carolino to evaluate the Army’s needs and make a support determination.
Once a team decision was made to help the LRC expedite its property removal process, Cassis and others spent the better part of a week with the customer, assisting with turn-in document generation, with the actual physical sorting and identification of equipment, and even with providing transport containers for the Army’s use.
“[Cassis’] professionalism and knowledge of how to categorize our abundance of items resulted in LRC-Honshu saving time, monies, and many headaches,” Coleman said. “He expeditiously developed a plan to sort items into containers and arranged their transport with LRC-Honshu to the DLA site. Through his coordination and due diligence, [DLA] worked seamlessly with LRC-Honshu employees to unload, weigh, and empty the containers before reusing them.”
Cassis said it was a purely team-driven DLA effort that included himself, Washington, Carolino, Property Disposal Specialist Takashi Saito, Crane Operator Nobuhiro Miyajima, and Forklift Operator Mineko Kosaka.
“The Disposition Services team in Sagami Depot is top notch,” Cassis said. “I’m honored to be a part of such an astounding group of professionals.”
The 403rd AFSB, whose job it is to sustain U.S. Forces Korea, U.S. Forces Japan, and the 8th Army, expressed thanks across the board for DLA’s responsiveness to their sudden loss of usage of the legacy warehouse.
“I'm thrilled to witness the incredible collaboration between these two outstanding teams as they join forces to achieve a monumental mission,” said 403rd Maintenance Division Chief Michael Moore. “A special shout-out to SFC Cassis for his exceptional leadership and dedication in spearheading this remarkable event. His efforts have truly united us and set an inspiring example for what can be accomplished through teamwork and determination.”