LIVORNO, Italy – Come next month, Andrea Chidini will have worked at the Leghorn Army Depot and Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 worksite in Livorno for 16 years. The logistic management specialist and Italian host nation Army employee said he’s seen many battalion commanders, Soldiers and U.S. Army civilians come and go during his time supporting the APS-2 mission there, but without fail the mission and the Army “keeps rolling along.”

Chidini works at Army Field Support Battalion-Africa’s Directorate of Supply. He said his country’s military history dates back to Roman times and before – but still – “250 years is huge” and the U.S. Army should be very proud to celebrate its 250th birthday this year, he said.

“You know, we have many things that are thousands of years old here in Italy,” said Chidini, who was born in Livorno and now lives in Pisa. “But the U.S. Army is the strongest army in the world, and what the U.S. Army has achieved in just 250 years is incredible. It’s a lot. 250 is a lot! Happy birthday, U.S. Army!”

Chidini’s job mostly entails analyzing the workload in support of multiple APS-2 missions and initiatives his battalion undertakes daily. He said the directorate of supply encompassed about 70 personnel, both U.S. Army civilians and Italian local national employees. Together, they are responsible for receiving and shipping equipment, supplies and other materials. Plus, they do all the coordination for all movements at the APS-2 worksite and to locations across Europe, like the upcoming DEFENDER exercise.

“We have a team from the directorate of supply who will travel to Greece to support the DEFENDER 25 mission in May, for example,” said Chidini, who is 40 years old and holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Pisa. “But this is just one of many missions we are responsible for. We continuously meet multiple mission requirements every day, here.”

“We have APS-2 equipment sets prepared and ready to go wherever and whenever they are needed. It’s very important to keep all this equipment fully mission capable and ready for issue – ready to support any mission, anywhere,” he said.

Chidini said he’s proud of the work he does at Leghorn Army Depot and proud to be on the AFSBn-Africa and Army team. He said he appreciates the way the Army manages its employees and enjoys being a part of such a prestigious and important institution. He also said he’s proud to support the Army’s APS-2 program.

The Army’s APS-2 program supports U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command by providing turn-key power projection packages ready to deploy at a moment’s notice. APS-2 sites like Leghorn Army Depot help reduce deployment timelines, improve deterrence capabilities and provide additional combat power for contingency operations.

Leghorn Army Depot is one of six APS-2 worksites across Europe under the mission command of the 405th Army Field Support Brigade. Leghorn Army Depot, a strategic power projection platform, provides 749,000 square feet of humidity-controlled storage space in 16 warehouses, plus four maintenance facilities and about 1.5 million square feet of outside storage.

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 U.S. Army Materiel Command’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.