After 25 years in corporate finance, Italian host nation employee returns to Army

LIVORNO, Italy - He started working for the Army in Livorno in 1980, but after 10 years in ammunition surveillance as a material handler he decided to leave and take a corporate job in business finance and insurance.

Practically tied to a desk for 25 years, Remo Romiti longed to return to the Army and the Camp Darby military community. After applying for more than a couple of vacancies, the Italian host nation employee was selected to work as a material handler and forklift operator with Army Field Support Battalion-Africa at Leghorn Army Depot in 2016. And he's been there ever since.

The 63-year-old local national employee in the Directorate of Supply said he enjoys working at Leghorn with AFSBn-Africa because every day there's something new and he's always busy. His job as a material handler and forklift operator includes spending much of his time in the shipping and receiving area at Leghorn.

"For example, my work includes palletizing material and completing all the required documentation for shipment. I also receive shipments, and when I do, I check to ensure everything is correct," said Romiti. "I'll verify all the serial numbers, stock numbers and quantities by checking the items and the paperwork before delivering the material to the various locations at Leghorn."

If everything is correct, Romiti said he calls his supervisor and "we bring all this material to the designated areas. We have a lot of material and equipment in many warehouses across Leghorn, all divided up by UIC [unit identification code]. For example, if we receive some parts for UIC whiskey mike charlie three alpha alpha, we must bring this material to the right warehouse as soon as possible so the maintainers and mechanics can begin making the repairs or upgrades, immediately."

"I tried and tried to get back to working with the U.S. Army many times so when I was hired as a material handler, I was very happy. I love working for the U.S. Army," said Romiti, who has a 29-year-old daughter and is from Castiglioncello, Italy, just 20 miles south of Leghorn on the Mediterranean Sea,

When Romiti is not working at Leghorn or spending time with friends and family, he said he enjoys riding his bicycle and participating in road races. For the last 15 years, he averaged three big races per year.

"It's a good way to stay active, and I enjoy it," Romiti said. "It's my number one hobby."

AFSBn-Africa, one of four battalions under the command and control of the 405th Army Field Support Brigade, is charged with receiving, maintaining, and storing Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 at Leghorn Army Depot, which includes 16 warehouses with 749,000 square feet of humidity-controlled storage plus four maintenance facilities as well as 1.5 million square feet of outside storage.

Organizations AFSBn-Africa directly support - helping to enable readiness across two theaters of operations - are U.S. European Command, U.S. Africa Command, U.S. Army Europe and Africa, Southern European Task Force-Africa, the 173rd Airborne Brigade, and other strategic partners and allies.

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 the U.S. Army Materiel Command 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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