{"id":441089,"date":"2025-05-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=441089"},"modified":"2025-05-10T02:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T02:20:07","slug":"fort-cavazos-ito-other-agencies-assist-service-members-in-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=441089","title":{"rendered":"Fort Cavazos ITO, other agencies assist service members in crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n The Killeen Fire Department extinguishes embers from a March 2, 2025, fire on March 4, 2025, in Killeen, Texas. The fire burned down a long-term facility and impacted another warehouse in front of it, affecting 198 service members in total.
\n (Photo Credit: Photo courtesy of Paul Dominguez Rivera, AFSBn-Cavazos)<\/span>
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\n VIEW ORIGINAL<\/a>
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FORT CAVAZOS, Texas \u2014<\/strong>The Installation Transportation Office manages the shipment and storage of household goods for service members, civilians and their family members. They played a pivotal role in assisting those whose goods were affected by a fire March 2 in Killeen, Texas.<\/p>\n

The fire burned a long-term storage facility and impacted another warehouse in front of it, affecting 198 service members in total. Before the fire was even extinguished, members of the ITO were out, attempting to survey the damage and learn more about the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201c(A quality assurance inspector) got the contact information from the people on the ground,\u201d said Paul Dominguez Rivera, chief of personal property operations, Transportation Division, Army Field Support Battalion-Cavazos. \u201cIt took three days to clear the scene for us to be there. So actually, on March 5 is when they first allowed us to go on the ground and see the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once they were able to enter the scene, Dominguez Rivera and a team of quality assurance inspectors began determining what was salvageable. They compared a list with the storage facility manager to confirm losses, then the next step was contacting the 198 service members impacted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI created a list with all the phone numbers of everybody and emails,\u201d Dominguez Rivera said. \u201cThe (407th Army Field Support Brigade) commander said, \u2018We\u2019re not going to be 100% until every single service member has been contacted via phone.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only were local service members affected, but members overseas in South Korea and Germany were impacted as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody was involved to assist us, contacting the people we couldn\u2019t contact,\u201d Dominguez Rivera said. \u201cHQDA (Department of the Army Headquarters), ASC (Army Sustainment Command), Army Personal Property Lead Element, III Armored Corps \u2014 we all came together and sent out mass emails to everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within days, every affected service member received an email. Phone calls were completed mid-April.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the fire, the Emergency Family Action Center was organized, bringing together organizations, programs and offices to assist the 47 service members impacted locally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had USAA here,\u201d Dominguez Rivera said. \u201cThey actually set up in the ITO. We had ACS (Army Community Service). We had Family Advocacy Program counseling downstairs. We had Army Emergency Relief. We had a bunch of support here for service members that were here to help them throughout the process. That went on for about a week.\u201d<\/p>\n

ITO also made themselves available to continue assistance for local Soldiers and assist the service members not at Fort Cavazos, creating a phone line for them to call to receive help.<\/p>\n

While there were many shipments lost, several loads were unscathed, with 29 service members able to receive their household goods located in front of the storage facility. Some crates impacted by the fire were also still viable due to a restoration process.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes those crates \u2014 some of them had the soot going in there,\u201d said Angela Rodriguez, a quality assurance transportation assistant with the ITO. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to deliver property that way. So that went through a process where they cleaned it and then went through a deodorization process.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Paul Dominguez Rivera, chief of personal property operations, Transportation Division, Army Field Support Battalion-Cavazos, and Natalia Barreto-Perez, a quality assurance inspector with the Installation Transportation Office, verify shipments deemed as “safe” in a warehouse impacted by a March 2, 2025, fire on March 5, 2025, in Killeen, Texas.
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While ITO has assisted many of the service members, they continue to help service members file claims for their lost household goods.<\/p>\n

Service members can file an initial claim with the transportation service provider, along with the Army.<\/p>\n

\u201cLong-term storage \u2014 if you\u2019re deployed \u2014 it\u2019s going to be six-months storage, one-year storage, you file directly with the local agent, the company Scobey; they don\u2019t have a GBL (government bill of lading),\u201d Dominguez Rivera said. \u201cIf you are an inbound (and) outbound shipment, that is not long-term storage. You\u2019re going to file directly with TSP (transportation service provider). So we created two handouts to provide depending on your claim that you\u2019re going to file.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth (long-term and short-term storage) can still file with the Army after filing with (the TSP or local agent),\u201d Dominguez Rivera continued. \u201cIf (the service members) accepted their settlement and it\u2019s $20,000 and they believe their stuff is worth more, they can both still file with the MCO (Military Claims Office, or Center for Personnel Claims Support), but it will be depreciated value.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dominguez Rivera said his team has put in a lot of work toward this effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super proud of the work everybody did,\u201d he expressed. \u201cEverybody put in a lot of hours. We divided these (contacts) sheets among multiple employees downstairs. They started calling, calling, calling every single service member. Whoever they couldn\u2019t get a hold of got voicemail and voicemail again. They called every single day until they got a hold of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all handled it from a place of understanding, because we\u2019re all either veterans or military spouses, and we\u2019ve all been in that situation before as far as PCSing (permanent change of station),\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cSo it was important to remember that human aspect of it. And then, there were other situations, because during that timeframe, there was even other situations of fires happening in personal homes. That service member came, and you could just see on his face the devastation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really important thing to have AER here, ACS here and the counseling available for not only the service member, but for their spouses as well,\u201d she continued, \u201cbecause it\u2019s property, but it\u2019s something that they build together as a family, and those are their memories, and they\u2019re everything that they had in their home to remind them of all those moves, all those transitions and in their career. So that was the important thing \u2014 to not only help them with the process, but to have that human understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

This incident showcased the partnership within the military community, Dominguez Rivera said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a perfect example of everybody \u2014 civilians, green suiters \u2014 working together, putting aside positions, (doing) anything to help the service members,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery single agency worked together. That\u2019s the first time I experienced every single agency working together like that. So it was awesome to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Service members still needing assistance with claims or their goods can call 1-800-521-9959 extension 2 or visit the ITO 8 a.m.-3 p.m. weekdays at the Copeland Soldier Service Center. Visit home.army.mil\/cavazos\/units-tenants\/installation-transportation-office<\/a><\/em> for more information on ITO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Killeen Fire Department extinguishes embers from a March 2, 2025, fire on March 4, 2025, in Killeen, Texas. The fire burned down a long-term facility and impacted another warehouse in front of it, affecting 198 service members in total. (Photo Credit: Photo courtesy of Paul Dominguez Rivera, AFSBn-Cavazos) VIEW ORIGINAL FORT CAVAZOS, Texas \u2014The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441091,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-441089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=441089"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":441094,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441089\/revisions\/441094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/441091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=441089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=441089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=441089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}