When not collecting fragrances or at soccer matches, BASOPS employee enjoys his work

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany - The 405th Army Field Support Brigade's Base Support Operations Transportation Division manages the inbound and outbound transportation shipping appointments for service members and their families assigned to units and organizations within the U.S. European Command area of responsibility.

The team of experts works with the transportation service providers to ensure service members' household goods shipments are professionally and safely delivered to and from the European theater. The team is comprised of host nation local national employees and Army civilians, and one of those experts is Jens Heil.

For the past 2.5 years, Heil has been working side-by-side with the BASOPS Transportation examiners, responsible for ensuring all the transportation invoices submitted by the transportation service providers though the Defense Personal Property System are 100 percent accurate and error free.

"The invoices we receive are from inbound and outbound shipments. If something is not correct, we'll dispute it or we'll let them know we need this document or that document to validate the accuracy of the invoice," Heil said.

"It can happen. Humans sometimes make mistakes," Heil said, "but we're there to help. We're there to help catch any of their mistakes."

"What we do is really important because, you know, in the end it costs the government money, and it's our responsibility to ensure the government only pays what's required and doesn't overpay," he said.

The 43-year-old, whose home is just a few miles from Daenner Kaserne where he works, said he enjoys going to professional soccer matches in the evenings and on the weekends. In fact, he's a big fan of FCK and a proud season ticket holder, he said.

Married to his wife, Tatiana, for 11 years - together they enjoy traveling to places like Italy, France and Spain where he often pursues another passion - collecting colognes, perfumes and fragrances. He also does a lot of fragrance collecting online and has a coworker at BASOPS Transportation who enjoys it as much as he does. In fact, they often collect together, he said.

Heil enjoys his job with BASOPS Transportation, even though it can be difficult at times. Sometimes situations develop that are not easily resolvable, he said, but that's when he feels most needed and enjoys what he does the most.

"That's what I like best," he said. It's the challenge, for me."

Heil, who is a lifelong resident of Kaiserslautern, first started working at Ramstein Air Base in 2003, and for 10 years he worked with security forces at Ramstein and at Vogelweh.

Due to a reduction in forces mandate, Heil was let go but a couple years later he was rehired at Theater Logistics Support Center-Europe with the Army. Within a year, he took another job at the Kleber Post Office as a postal clerk and after nearly five years there he accepted a position at BASOPS Transportation, 405th Army Field Support Brigade.

With its Consolidated Personal Property Shipping Office and European Official Travel Branch, BASOPS Transportation is a field operating activity under the 405th AFSB, providing back office support functions for personal property shipping, official travel services and quality control disciplinary actions for U.S. military communities in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, and more.

The 405th AFSB is assigned to U.S. Army Sustainment Command and headquartered in Kaiserslautern. 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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