MANNHEIM, Germany –
After more than a couple of decades in the Pacific working for U.S. Army Installation Management Command at garrisons in Hawaii, Korea and Japan, Ken Chang decided he wanted a change of scenery.
Now assigned to the 405th Army Field Support Brigade’s Army Field Support Battalion-Germany, the general engineer is the first employee from AFSBn-Germany to be permanently located at the Coleman Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 worksite in Mannheim.
Germany battalion, which is headquartered in Vilseck, Germany, is responsible for the APS-2 worksite at Dülmen, Germany, and later this year the battalion will take mission command of the Coleman APS-2 worksite, as well. There now, Chang is helping with that transition and working multiple facility engineering improvement projects.
In January, the director of Global Posture Policy from the Office of the Secretary of Defense visited Coleman to get a firsthand look at the site’s future infrastructure. And even more recently, the lord mayor of Mannheim visited Coleman to learn how the infrastructure upgrades will impact the local economy, environment and area.
Chang, as Coleman’s resident engineering expert, is directly responsible for helping to execute those infrastructure upgrades and improvements, plus more.
“One of the side projects I’m working on right now is purchasing multiple portable vehicle exhaust extraction systems for one of the maintenance facilities on Coleman,” said Chang, a retired Army Reserve lieutenant colonel whose last job was in Iraq with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in charge of reconstruction in southern Baghdad.
“The building is laid out in such a manner that putting in a regular exhaust system does not work,” said Chang, who commissioned in the Army in 1981. “The reason being because the facility is actually an old aviation hangar and not a vehicle maintenance facility.”
“There’s a safety and environmental issue with that building because the vehicles being maintained and repaired there are creating a lot of fumes,” said the graduate of the Air Force War College and Purdue University.
Chang, who holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue, said he had to consider the size and layout of the facility, especially the length, when he developed a structural implementation plan to facilitate the new exhaust extraction systems.
“It’s a very long building so the only way to install them efficiently is through the roof, so that’s the plan,” said the 66-year-old husband of 30 years, who has two daughters and two granddaughters.
Being AFSBn-Germany’s resident engineer at Coleman doesn’t mean Chang is solely focused on that APS-2 site, alone. He recently submitted a work order for an improved lighting system at the Dülmen APS-2 worksite that will help with operations and safety, and at the battalion headquarters in Vilseck, Germany, Chang was responsible for the installation of a new climate control system in the battalion’s secure room.
“I came here with strong conviction,” said Chang, a native of Hawaii who relocated to Europe from the Pacific a little over a year after Russia invaded Ukraine. “I will continue to ensure my work is in line with the commander’s vision while supporting the headquarters, both APS-2 sites and both site directors. I’m fully committed to providing all the general and facility engineering support needed, and I’m fully committed to the APS-2 mission here in Europe.”
AFSBn-Germany is one of four battalions assigned to the 405th AFSB and is headquartered at Rose Barracks in Vilseck. In addition to its APS-2 mission, AFSBn-Germany is responsible for U.S. Army Materiel Command’s Logistics Assistance Program in Europe. The program is operated by Logistics Assistance Representatives from AMC’s four Life Cycle Management Commands – Aviation and Missile Command, Communications and Electronics Command, Joint Munitions Command, and Tank-automotive and Armaments Command. LARs provide subject-matter expertise on all Army fielded systems and assist Soldiers with troubleshooting and early detection of faults. These LARs serve side-by-side with supported tactical units and are currently deployed in support of multiple operations across Europe.
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 AMC’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.