Authorized newspaper of Fort Lewis, Washington
Incoming commander Col. Brian R. Haebig takes the flag of the 404th AFSB from Maj. Gen. Robert M. Radin, commander of U.S. Army Sustainment Command, during the unit's change of command.
Colonel Brian Haebig was happy and humbled to take command of the 404th Army Field Support Brigade last week.
Logistics is so fluid, rapidly developing and universally important to the Army, Fort Lewis’ newest brigade commander said, that there is nowhere he would rather be.
“I’m glad that I got this job,” Haebig said. “It’s a great opportunity. The Army Materiel Command has such a broad scope, it’s humbling to be in an organization that encompasses everything that the Army does to sustain the warfighter.”
The unit’s concept for logistics support has been around for a long time, Haebig said, “but never until recently did it become an organization with a brigade commander overseeing the power of Army Materiel Command.”
The 404th AFSB falls in with units’ deployment cycles, setting the stage to ensure that Army fieldings occur on time and that maintenance technicians are on hand to guarantee that the Soldiers are deploying mission-ready equipment to conduct combat operations.
“We provide that maintenance capability, we get them to the port and then there’s another Army field support brigade in Iraq and Afghanistan to provide support to get them from Kuwait into Iraq or right when they fly into Kabul or Bagram to receive and bring their equipment to their forward operating base,” Haebig said. “Then when the people come back, (we perform) that reset mission, to be able to turn a unit around ... We’re issuing back the equipment they left behind and we’re also issuing equipment that goes through resetting, (which involves) getting all the sand out of everything, replacing engines or issuing new equipment that is part of the future force.”
An experienced staff he called “true professionals” with a General Schedule-15 deputy will allow the new commander to accomplish his first priority — to travel to the sites of all his subordinate and supported units “to let them know who we are, what we can do, and identify problems so that they know how to get in touch with me. Not only that, they (need to) know who that major or lieutenant colonel or senior warrant officer is on their installation who they can hit the speed dial and say ‘I have a problem.’”
Haebig clearly relishes his job, which was what he sought when he joined the Army. He left a job as a sales representative for a paper company in the Midwest to find a more energizing career. A self-described “cheese head” from Oshkosh, Wis., Haebig grew jealous and tired of hearing his brother’s adventures as a Special Forces medic. He enlisted in the “College Op” program under which college graduates go to basic training as privates first class, then directly to Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Ga.
Though he spent his early years in the Army as an infantry lieutenant, hitting all the gates to be a company commander in combat, Haebig‘s career took a sudden turn when, under the “forced branching” policy, personnel managers identified him as one of the officers selected to fill shortages in five other branches.
Haebig went from the Infantry Officer Advanced Course at Fort Benning, to Fort Lee, Va. to learn to become a quartermaster officer. “I went begrudgingly,” Haebig said, “but I’ve had opportunities ever since.”
Those opportunities have taken him around the world, from Korea to Hawaii, from Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm to two tours serving in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. As a lieutenant he dreamed of commanding a company; on July 2, he took command of a brigade with a critical mission. In the interim, he has commanded a company at Fort Bragg, N.C. and two battalions, one at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii and the other in Kabul, Afghanistan.
He met his wife, the former Meg Sear of Olean, N.Y., along the way. The two began dating when Haebig attended the Advanced Course at Fort Benning and Meg was an Army nurse at Martin Army Hospital. The couple stayed in touch throughout the run-up to Operation Desert Storm, to which both deployed.
Haebig proposed in Saudi Arabia, the day after Meg arrived. He handed her a rose and popped the question, but remembered her saying “No, we might die.”
He balanced his military responsibilities with his pursuit of his sweetheart. On Valentine’s Day, 1991, when prospects for staying alive brightened with the buildup of U.S. forces before the invasion of Iraq, she relented and agreed to marry. The Haebigs now have four children, Bryan (15), Elizabeth (13), Molly (11) and Erin (9), all of whom arrived at Fort Lewis at the end of June.
The colonel said this was the first permanent change of station about which the entire family was truly excited.
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