By Heather Ashley, Fort Hood Public Affairs
Fort Hood Public Affairs
FORT HOOD, Texas — Lt. Col. Richard Martinez relinquished command of Army Field Support Battalion–Hood to incoming commander Lt. Col. Walter E. Kruse during a ceremony June 18 at the Rail Operation Center.
Col. Stacy L. Moore-Callaway, commander, 407th Army Field Support Brigade, noted her confidence in the incoming commander to continue the battalion’s unusual mission of “improving unit and installation readiness every day” by providing sustainment resources that enable the warfighter with a staff of four military personnel, 378 Department of the Army civilians and over 900 contractors.
“This is a really unique command …,” Moore-Callaway said. “… The AFSBn’s mission really is to integrate, synchronize and deliver readiness and the enterprise sustainment to the units of the 1st Cavalry Division and the separate units that are located here across Fort Hood. AFSBn-Hood is providing continuous, synchronized logistics solutions to the 1st Cavalry Division for the entirety of Rich’s tenure, and it certainly will continue to do so under Walt.”
The brigade commander noted Martinez’s many accomplishments in command at AFSBn-Hood, including completing 4,800 work orders for garrison equipment reset, loading and moving over 228 trains and processing over 783 aircraft carrying over 100,000 Soldiers across the world.
“I know that you will bring the experiences you had here to that level, helping to make sure that, in our highest levels of sustainment, the needs of our Soldiers are brought to the forefront,” Moore-Callaway said, addressing Martinez.
Martinez led the battalion since June 2023.
He and his family will head to Huntsville, Alabama, for his next assignment as aide-de-camp to Lt. Gen. Christopher Mohan, acting commander of Army Material Command.
Kruse joins AFSBn-Hood already familiar with the unit and the installation it supports, as he comes to the Tusker Battalion from his previous assignment as chief of plans, III Armored Corps, at Fort Hood.
“He’s arriving from just down the road, so he knows a lot of what’s going on in the installation,” Moore-Callaway said. “He is also a supremely experienced logistician and an outstanding senior leader.
“We are going to leverage his diverse experience to solve the hard problems and take this great Tusker Battalion to even higher levels,” she said.
Kruse expressed his gratitude to the Soldiers and civilians in his command and in his personal life.
“Thank you for the opportunity to command this great organization,” Kruse said. “It is an honor and privilege to serve the dedicated members of the Army we support. (AFSBn-Hood) contributes to the nation’s most invaluable treasures, America’s sons and daughters.”
