LIVORNO, Italy – When Cecilia Balleri started working for the Army she was barely out of her teens. First, she volunteered at Army Community Service and the Red Cross on Camp Darby, then she took a temporary position as a local national employee and typist in the housing office. Finally, she was hired permanently to work at Leghorn Army Depot.

That was more than 35 years ago. Now, the supply technician with Army Field Support Battalion-Africa is responsible for all government purchase card transactions and local supply acquisitions for AFSBn-Africa’s directorate of supply.

The 57-year-old resident of Livorno who has lived there her entire life said this year is special for her as an Italian host nation employee with the U.S. Army because the Army is celebrating its 250th birthday.

“This is an important year, not only for the American Soldiers but also for me and my coworkers – the Italian workforce – here at Leghorn,” Balleri said. “It’s a big milestone to reach 250 years, and what the Army has done all these years is extremely important, including helping to liberate my country during World War II.”

“It kind of goes without saying, but of course we are excited to celebrate this milestone and achievement. Happy 250th birthday, U.S. Army!” she said.

Balleri, who worked for 15 years as an administrative assistant for the director of supply before taking a promotion three years ago and becoming a supply tech, said one of the reasons she likes her job so much is because she enjoys working on a team and she enjoys her coworkers and supervisors.

“I like my job because I like working with people. I love to talk to people, and I have a really good relationship with everyone on the team here,” said the mother of two adult sons, one who works on one of Italy’s ferry lines and the other who is a software engineer.

“Also, the culture – this job is nice because I get to work with people from different cultures and learn a little bit about each of them, which I really enjoy. Working with so many different people from so many different places and cultures is very interesting to me,” Balleri said.

About 70 people work in AFSBn-Africa’s directorate of supply at Leghorn, both U.S. Army civilians and Italian local national employees. The directorate of supply is responsible for receiving and shipping equipment, supplies and other materials as well as coordinating vehicle movements at the depot and to locations throughout Europe.

Leghorn Army Depot is one of six Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 worksites across Europe under the mission command of the 405th Army Field Support Brigade. As a strategic power projection platform, Leghorn 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. APS-2 sites like Leghorn help reduce deployment timelines, improve deterrence capabilities and provide additional combat power for contingency operations.

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.