SEOUL, Republic of Korea — The U.S. Army Field Support Battalion, Northeast Asia (AFSBn-NEA), the Korean Service Corps, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Far East District cut the ribbon on a new humidity controlled warehouse at Camp Carroll Feb. 10.
“All my life our Soldiers have been my hero and there is nothing more satisfying than ensuring that our Soldiers are fully equipped,” said Lt. Col. John Rhodes, Deputy Commander of FED. “This building is part of that process.”
The facility, which will be known as Warehouse “K,” will house up to 750 vehicles previously stored outside. The humidity controlled environment will extend the care of supplies in storage from a 24 to 48 month maintenance cycle. This will save about $1.2 million annually.
Work on the warehouse began in December 2009 and was completed in January 2012 at a cost of about $23 million. The project was funded by the logistics cost sharing program between the U.S. and the Republic of Korea.
“I’m very proud to complete and hand over such an important facility,” said Capt. Ryu Gyu-seok, Chief of U.S. Forces Korea Construction Management Team, Republic of Korea Ministry of National Defense-Defense Installation Agency. “This facility was completed with the sweat, care, and dedication of FED, MND-DIA, KSC, and Ilsung Construction over the last two years.”
The new facility was constructed by Ilsung Construction Co., Ltd. and is also the largest of its kind in USFK at just over 350,000 square feet.
“Opening this warehouse facility is truly a proud moment in the history of this battalion,” said Lt. Col. Douglas Pietrowski, AFSBn-NEA Commander. “The state-of-the-art building provides a capability that is commensurate with the world-class workforce that we have within our organization.”
The ribbon cutting ceremony was in honor of the Korean Service Corps who will be working in the facility. The KSC is a workforce of Korean citizens who support U.S. Forces Korea units including the AFSBn-NEA. Two special guests at the ceremony, An Su-ok and Chin Bok-kyun, served in the KSC during the Korean War.
“Approximately six decades ago when I was 20 years old in the Korean Service Corps my comrades and I moved to the front line of the battlefield along with U.S. Soldiers to support their fighting,” said Chin. “I will never forget that day in all my life. The members of the KSC were combat warriors who didn’t hold rifles.”
Today the KSC still provides service to USFK in armistice and contingency operations. To the AFSBn-NEA, KSC provides vital and critical support in maintenance, supply, quality assurance, and operations that ensures the battalion can perform its primary mission of receiving, storing, maintaining care of supplies in storage, and issuing equipment and supplies to the war fighter in the best condition.
“This facility will enable us to continue to maintain Army preposition stocks at the highest readiness levels and ensure that our equipment is ready to support any contingency in the Korea theater of operations,” said Pietrowski.
The warehouse is a two-story facility with a cast-in reinforced concrete structure for the first floor and a steel pre-engineered structure for the second floor. The construction of the pre-engineered section consists of a steel structure with protected metal wall siding and steel roof framing, exterior insulation finishing system