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Heidelberg soon will be home to two U.S. Army garrisons – USAG Heidelberg and USAG Baden-Württemberg.
In a March 27 re-designation and activation ceremony, USAG Heidelberg became an indirect report garrison – along with Kaiserslautern, Mannheim and Darmstadt – and now falls under the direct report garrison, which is to be re-designated USAG Baden-Württemberg.
“We have a lot of things happening in terms of transformation,” said Col. Robert J. Ulses, who will continue his current command function and oversee all four indirect reporting communities as the USAG Baden-Württemberg commander.
Once the greater garrison is re-designated as USAG Baden-Württemberg, the new USAG Heidelberg will be activated as an indirect garrison to provide support and services solely for the Heidelberg community.
Lt. Col. Robert White will assume command of USAG Heidelberg and take on many of the duties previously performed by the direct report garrison through the base operations manager, Lt. Col. James Diggs. Diggs currently performs many of these functions without the command authority or the structure the new unit will provide, Ulses said.
“The presence of a commander for Heidelberg focusing exclusively on the day-to-day issues places the community on the same level as the other communities,” said Nina Richter, garrison resource manager. “No positions or jobs will be lost as a result of this action. It is the same amount of work, with a different modus operandi.”
Ulses said the change will allow him to focus more on transformation, with an indirect garrison commander relieving him of some of the day-to-day requirements of the Heidelberg community.
There will still be garrison decisions and appeals that require colonel-level approval to implement, Ulses said. “I will still be actively involved in the community. The photos will change, but the mission will not.”
No growth and no cost were the conditions for re-establishing the command, Richter said.
The newly activated indirect reporting garrison in Heidelberg is slotted to have slightly more than 100 positions – and just one new one, a command sergeant major. While the new structure will be streamlined, it will allow for better organized assets and more responsive, customer-focused support that exceeds expectations, Ulses said.
“This change will be completely transparent to the customers,” Richter said. “A service order will still get called in to the local Department of Public Works, for example.”
“If anything,” Ulses said, “you will see a sharpened focus on the community, which will improve services to enhance the well-being of our residents.”
