Page 20 - FCA Diamond Point March 25 smg v4 (20 Mar 25)

FROM THE FIELD

Training Readiness and Operational Finance Support by LTC Benjamin
R. Ecklor, 106 Finance Battalion Commander
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Left: HHC, 106th FI BN CPL Kyaw Win (left) and CPT Santiago (right) at his promotion ceremony from rank of SPC.
Right: HHC, 106th FI BN SGT James leading Soldiers in training on disbursing certifying functions.

Left: HHC, 106th FI BN Soldiers SSG Nelson (left) and SGT Watts (right) during his farewell lunch.
Middle: HHC, 106th FI BN SSG Haughton (left), SPC Miller (middle), and SPC Lopez (right) during his pinning at his
promotion.
Right: HHC, 106th FI BN SPC Miller with the HHC Command Team and Disbursing Leadership Team at his promotion
ceremony

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The 106 is fully focused on providing operational finance support across the European and African
Theaters. The following is a summary of current and upcoming missions:

AO Victory Rotation III: This week our HQ Disbursing and IC Teams validated A Co’s GOLD Platoon
as fully training and prepared to assume the mission across AO Victory later next month. Their hard
work and training were obvious throughout the VALEX. All A Co and Gold Platoon leaders should be
extremely proud of themselves for setting the standard for training at the platoon and squad levels.
This marks the third finance platoon to be validated for deployment by the Bn HQ since October 24.
Our rolling training and readiness model has significantly increased our overall capabilities and
allows us to always have fully trained finance squads to support requirements across the theaters.

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DEFENDER 25: 106 FI BN will send 2x finance squads to support contract payment and operational
disbursing in both Greece and the Czech Republic. This exercise serves as our opportunity to test
and validate our finance squad’s abilities to make direct payments to vendors rather than going
through a unit appointed Paying Agent. This allows the non-Finance Soldiers in the supported units
to focus on their mission and leaves the money business up to the experts.

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