Since fielding an entire armored brigade combat team’s worth of Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 equipment last year, Army Field Support Battalion-Mannheim hasn’t taken its foot off the gas and work at the Coleman APS-2 worksite in Mannheim hasn’t slowed down.

     Over the course of about a year, the battalion has issued more than 7,000 APS-2 vehicles and equipment pieces in support of U.S. European Command’s mission to enable the rapid deployment of troops to the European theater and show support to our allies, said Jason Todd, AFSBn-Mannheim’s deputy support operations officer.

     According to Maj. Steven Waugh, AFSBn-Mannheim’s executive officer, this includes equipment used to train Ukrainian forces, such as the recent movement and issue of dozens of M2A2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles for training

     Staff Sgt. Elizabeth Cox recently became the first female Army National Guard Soldier to graduate the Army National Guard Warrior Training Center’s M1 Abrams Master Gunner course, earning the title and additional skill identifier of Abrams Master Gunner.

     The 53-day course at Fort Benning, Georgia, upskills accomplished armor crew members like Cox,  and hones their proficiency in tank gunnery and maintenance. Cox’s desire to impart knowledge to her home tank crew motivated her to attend the course.

“I really enjoy the fact that you have one crew, and you become a family,” she said. “You have to take care of your track. If you don’t, you or a member of your family could die.”

     Two dozen New York National Guard Soldiers helped spread the holiday spirit by volunteering to load donated Christmas trees bound for service members and their families across the country.

     The Soldiers joined veterans and Gold Star and Blue Star families at Ellms Family Farm in Ballston Spa to load 100 trees. These trees go to military bases and are distributed to military families as part of Trees for Troops, a Christmas Spirit Foundation charitable initiative.