Email   Print   Share By Capt. Monika Comeaux, 13th ESC Public Affairs

Facebook Digg Delicious September 27, 2012 | Leisure

Command Sgt. Maj. Terry Parham, senior noncommissioned officer for Deputy Command of Support Operations and the 13th ESC; Spc. Ariel Gallarzo, an ammunition handler and the youngest deployed Soldier of the 13th ESC; Brig. Gen. Clark LeMasters, DCOM-SPO and 13th ESC commanding general; and Lt. Col. Ronald Jack, chief of the fuel and ammunition assistance team within DCOM-SPO and the oldest deployed member of the 13th ESC, cut a cake to celebrate the 47th birthday of 13th ESC at Camp Eggers, Afghanistan, Monday. Capt. Monika Comeaux, 13th ESC Public Affairs

CAMP EGGERS, Afghanistan - Service members from the Deputy Command of Support Operations, NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan came together here Monday to celebrate the 47th birthday of the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary).

Although most service members serving in DCOM-SPO were deployed individually, 136 of the U.S. Soldiers in the command come from the same unit, Fort Hood’s 13th ESC.

Participants bowed their heads while one of the 13th officers led them in prayer, and then they watched a short video about the unit’s history, and Brig. Gen. Clark LeMasters, DCOM-SPO and 13th ESC commander, made a short address before cutting the birthday cake.

“I am not here to only celebrate the heritage of the unit that some of us deployed from, I am here to celebrate the accomplishments of everyone in DCOM-SPO,” LeMasters said.

“We have every service except coast guard within our ranks. We have 23 troop contributing nations within DCOM-SPO. You handle infrastructure, you handle network development, and you handle logistics,” LeMasters told his team. “Our Afghan partners are getting better in logistics, they are getting better in sustaining themselves.”

Following traditions of military cake-cutting, the commander asked the youngest and oldest deployed 13th ESC Soldiers present – Spc. Ariel Gallarzo, an ammunition handler, and Lt. Col. Ronald Jack, the chief of the fuel and ammunition assistance team within DCOM-SPO – to assist him and Command Sgt. Maj. Terry Parham to cut the cake with a

sword.

Deployed members of the 13th ESC have a little more than two months left before they reunite with the rest of the unit at Fort Hood.