Kappa Journal (Salute to the Military Issue)

FEATURE STORY

the 15 th Forward Support Battalion, which provided logistics support on a peace-keeping mission. A decade later, after being promoted to Colonel, he found himself back at Fort Hood. This time he took the 15 th Sustainment Brigade to Iraq, at the height of the surge, which was intended to provide greater security to Baghdad and reduce sectarian violence. Their job was to supply, feed and fuel the combat teams. His Soldiers drove more than 4 million miles, on the most dangerous roads in the world, in order to deliver 100 million gallons of fuel and 200,000 cases of meals. They produced more than 8 million cases of bottled water and filled more than a million orders for repair parts. They also installed 10,000 vehicle up-armored enhancements, making vehicles from the Bradley to personnel carriers, better able to withstand road-side bombs. LTG Piggee, and his wife Kassi, also spent a great deal of time with the families, preparing for the de- ployment, and taking care of the wounded and those who lost loved ones during the fight. From 2009 to 2011, then Brigadier General Piggee was responsible for joint logistics operations in South Korea as the Assistant Chief of Staff, Logistics, US Forces Korea. As a Major General, he then spent the next two years as Commander of the 21 st Theater Sustainment Command, the Army’s largest overseas logistical command with 12,000 Soldiers and civilians who provide logistics support to Europe and Africa. They helped with the massive drawdown of equipment from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the biggest effort since World War II, to bring combat equip- ment home. During this Command, 3,600 of his Soldiers deployed to Afghanistan. Others provided humani- tarian assistance to flood victims in Montenegro; trained Polish and Georgian units for deployment to Afghanistan and helped Turkey build its ballistic missile defense. After his assignment in Europe, he became Di- rector of Logistics and Engineering for the United States Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. The Command was responsible for logistics and engineering efforts in 20 countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. He spearheaded efforts to build partner capacity in Iraq and train and equip missions in Syria and Afghanistan. LTG Piggee also has had two stints at the Penta- gon. His first was in 2008-2009, serving as the Ex-

Above: Soldiers from Army Material Command provide LTG Piggee an overview of equipment that's part of the Army's Prepositions Stock in Kuwait. LTG Piggee gets an update on maintenance challenges for heavy cargo trucks by Soldiers assigned to the 16 th Sustainment Command in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Opposite page: LTG Piggee takes a moment with Soldiers assigned to 64 th Brigade Support Battalion, 3 rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4 th Infantry Division, in Skwierzyna, Poland. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Elizabeth Tarr).

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