The Army’s contracting functions in Wiesbaden entered a new chapter July 7 as the Wiesbaden Contracting Center relocated to Kaiserslautern and a new Regional Contracting Office Wiesbaden was officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Located in the Amelia Earhart facility, along with the Defense Contract Management Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Europe District, the regional contracting office will serve the U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden and all of the tenant units within the garrison’s footprint, according to Col. Debra D. Daniels, commander of the 409th Contracting Support Brigade, Expeditionary Contracting Command-Europe.

“We’re entering a new chapter of this command and this center,” said Daniels during the ceremony making the “last step” in the “transformation and reorganization of the command.”

The Wiesbaden Contracting Center was established in 1995 after regional contracting offices in Frankfurt and Hanau were merged with Wiesbaden’s office in the wake of the drawdown of U.S. forces in Europe and consolidation of contracting functions in U.S. Army Europe.

Eileen Hipe, former director of the Wiesbaden center, moves with the center to Kaiserslautern where she will serve as the director of the newly designated Theater Contracting Center.

Carl Odom takes over as the acting chief of the Regional Contracting Office Wiesbaden.

During the ceremony Daniels thanked the longtime contracting employees in Wiesbaden for their dedicated service and promised that contracting services will continue unabated to those served in the Wiesbaden area following the transformation process.

Published July 22, 2010