DULMEN, Germany - Army Sgt. 1st Class Joe Cajigal's first duty station was Vilseck, Germany. He was newly married at the time, and he and his wife lived in Army housing on Rose Barracks. That was 2012. When they found out last year they would be returning to Germany for a second tour, they were very excited. They just didn't know how different the experience would be this time around.

The senior supply noncommissioned officer is assigned to Army Field Support Battalion-Germany and stationed at the Dülmen Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 worksite in North Rhine-Westphalia. He and his wife and their 12-year-old son live in Münster, Germany, and he commutes 30 minutes to and from work each day.

There are no U.S. Army installations nearby, besides the APS-2 worksite. There's no post exchange services, no commissary, no Army medical treatment facilities and almost no family support services. Their son goes to an international school in Münster - their only option, according to Cajigal - and they do all their shopping and receive everything they need on the local economy.

"We knew it was going to be different, but we didn't realize it was going to be this different," said Cajigal. "It was tough at the beginning. On our first tour, we were living on post. We'd see Americans every day. But over here we're completely immersed into our local community, and we see almost no Americans."

"It was quite challenging at first, but we're getting used to it," he said.

"We enjoy learning about the history and culture of Münster, and we enjoy shopping on the local economy," Cajigal said, "and every time I have an appointment at the NATO air base in Geilenkirchen or I go to Brunssum [Netherlands] or Kaiserslautern [Germany], I'll stop by the commissary on post to get a few American things. Otherwise, we enjoy being completely immersed into Germany."

At work at the Dülmen APS-2 worksite, Cajigal is one of the contracting officer representatives for the directorate of supply. The noncommissioned officer with 12 years of active-duty Army service is also the directorate's senior supply sergeant, and he's the primary hand receipt holder at Dülmen for all the table of distribution and allowances, or TDA, equipment and property.

This includes everything that's not APS-2, such as some of the test sets and tool kits, the automation equipment and computers, and some of the support vehicles and material handling equipment. In total, the TDA equipment Cajigal is responsible for is valued at about $5 million, he said.

Originally from Subic Bay in the Philippines, the 35-year-old Soldier moved to San Diego after college and considers southern California his home. But being assigned to AFSBn-Germany, working at Dülmen and living in the heart of Germany is proving to be a once in a lifetime, new and interesting experience for he and his family.

"We enjoy it here, and at work I'm soaking up all the knowledge and information I can," he said. "This is a great opportunity to learn from every aspect of logistics. I'm just trying to learn as much as I can and be an asset to the team."

The Dülmen APS-2 worksite is under the mission command of Cajigal's battalion, AFSBn-Germany, and is comprised of about 140,000 square feet of hardstand space and approximately 480,000 square feet of humidity-controlled warehouse space with an additional 140,000 square feet of storage in the maintenance and storage swing space areas. In addition to Dülmen, earlier this month AFSBn-Germany assumed mission command of the Coleman APS-2 worksite in Mannheim, Germany, as well.

AFSBn-Germany is one of four battalions assigned to the 405th Army Field Support Brigade, which is 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 and the official Facebook site.

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