Inactivation of 13TH FM Spt Center

Received this email from Russ Dowden, passing on an observation by Kevin Troller:

Russ – feel free to share this with our Finance community if you desire.

Yesterday was one of those bittersweet days in the Army; but a day when I got to return to Ft. Hood for the first time in 15 years to visit Army friends and see our current Finance Soldiers still serving proudly; regardless of unit designation or assigned mission.

BG Clark W. LeMasters, Jr., Commander, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) presided over the inactivation ceremony of the 13th Financial Management Support Center.  The weather was fitting for an inactivation, as sunny 70 degree weather the day before was replaced by cloudy, rainy, 36 degrees.  A dreary day for the casing of our colors.

I served at Ft. Hood for the beginning of our Brigade-level Finance Command in the late 80’s as BG Robert C. Goetz activated the 3rd Finance Group, and later passed those colors to Colonel Robert C. Bischoff.  At that time, the 13th was a proud unit of your 7th Finance Group in Germany.  As VII Corps inactivated, so did the 13th; making those colors available to Colonel Bob Schultz at Ft. Hood who inactivated the 3rd Finance Group and activated the 13th Finance Group, known as the Phantom Paymasters.  From June 17, 1993 until yesterday, the history, lineage, and proud traditions of the 13th lived at III Corps and Ft. Hood and continued to serve proudly in deployments and missions around the world.

I join you in saluting all the Soldiers, past and present, that have proudly served under these colors.  As the only constant in life is change, I feel it’s only a matter of time before organizational structures and necessity dictates the need for these colors to fly again.  70+ years of history since its constitution in 1942 is too much tradition and experience to keep moth-balled for long.  

Kevin