Customer service - Commissaries.com

1959 –
50 years of service
Kaiserslautern Central
Distribution Center celebrates
legacy of customer service
Austin Romesburg III
Chief, Kaiserslautern Central Distribution Center
O
n March 2, 2009, DeCA’s Kaiserslautern
Central Distribution Center in
Kaiserslautern, Germany, proudly completed
50 years of quality support to American
forces and their families.
Otherwise fondly known as Kaiserslautern Cold
Storage, or KCS, it was planned in 1955 and built
between 1956 and 1959, becoming the U.S. forces’
largest “refrigerator” at a cost of 9 million deutsche
marks, or about $2.1 million. It has about 125,000
square feet of floor space, enough to accommodate
450,000 cases of frozen and chilled products.
The Defense Logistics Agency assumed
responsibility for European subsistence support
on April 1, 1979, after 20 years as a U.S. Army
organization, and KCS then became an important
part of Defense Subsistence Region Europe.
From 1995 to Sept. 30, 1997, KCS operated
under the Defense Distribution Region East and
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remained responsible for Europe-wide troop support
and commissaries. During the summer of 1997,
the activity underwent a significant transition in
preparation for yet another change of leadership,
as DeCA assumed command, becoming the sole
customer of what is believed to be the largest cold
storage facility in Europe.
DeCA takes charge
For this transition, all troop issue stock was
removed, replaced by freeze stock from what was
then DeCA’s Rotterdam Cold Storage facility in
Holland. For the first time, on Oct. 1, 1997, KCS
focused solely on supplying frozen and chilled
products to all U.S. commissaries throughout Europe,
ushering in a new era of operation.
The facility is located just east of Ramstein
Air Base, America’s largest military base outside
the continental United States, and the largest
concentration of Americans living outside the
United States. From the beginning, its location
was convenient to military air, commercial rail and
highway routes. While rail transport is no longer
used, its location continues to be a logistical attribute.
Today, 135 people operate KCS, about 89
percent of whom are local nationals from nine
countries. Working three shifts, today’s distribution
professionals continue the proud heritage established
by the initial cadre, known as the “’59er Club,” based
on the KCS year of establishment.
An average warehouse inventory value of $11
million is reinforced by weekly oceangoing container
shipments from the United States. These containers
are first offloaded at Antwerp, Belgium, then travel
on Rhein River barges to the container port of
Germersheim, Germany. From there they are trucked
the final two hours to KCS.
Employees handle about 950,000 cases of 1,900
different products each month, from frozen pizzas
to Thanksgiving turkeys destined for the homes of
American commissary customers. This massive effort