Self-proclaimed ‘citizen of the world’ selected as LRC Italy’s employee of the quarter

VICENZA, Italy – Logistics Readiness Center Italy’s newest employee of the quarter said she doesn’t have a hometown. Instead, she considers herself a citizen of the world.

Cathy Burlina, a transportation assistant at LRC Italy, said she loves gardening, reading and watching documentaries, but she loves her family and traveling the globe most.

Born in Vicenza, the LRC Italy employee of the quarter, junior-grade category, 3rd quarter, fiscal year 2023, considers the earth her home.

With a daughter based out of Washington, D.C., and currently in Africa helping to fight malaria as a doctor and a son in Colorado working as a CEO for a company that writes algorithms, Burlina said she’s been extremely blessed in life and lucky to have traveled the world.

“Every single place I went to – every city I lived in – I made my home,” said the 57-year-old grandmother of a 1-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl. “I’m totally in love with the United States, and of course I love Italy and Europe, too.”

“I’m lucky to have traveled to places where many people have not,” she said. “I love to travel and try to do so as often as possible.”

Burlina, who has worked as an Italian local national employee with the U.S. Army for about 25 years, started out as a cashier at the commissary. She worked for about six years at the Defense Commissary Agency, both in Vicenza and Wiesbaden, Germany, before taking a job as an administrative assistant with the Directorate of Logistics, U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart. After working in Stuttgart for four years she returned to Vicenza in 2009, and she’s been with LRC Italy in the transportation office ever since.

Being with LRC Italy for 14 years is “kind of strange for me because I like to move around,” Burlina said, “but I wanted to get to know my job 100 percent, with all the details and all the ins and outs. The opportunity to work at LRC Italy has been ideal because I’ve really learned the transportation business and the business of customer service.”

Burlina and her team at LRC Italy are responsible for coordinating all the household goods and unaccompanied baggage transportation requests and shipments for all the Soldiers, Army civilians, partner agencies and their families living and working in the U.S. Army Garrison Italy community.

“When you move, we all know it can be very stressful. It’s one of the most stressful points in one’s life,” she said. “But I have the power to help make these moves smoother and easier for my clients, and that’s one thing I’m very proud of because we all need a friend sometimes. I can be that friend and that help they need during the different situations they might be going through.”

“I think my office and I have mastered the trade of supporting our clients,” said Burlina. “Working at LRC Italy has been a great opportunity, and I’m so grateful.”

Burlina said she’s equally grateful to be selected as LRC Italy’s employee of the quarter.

“I feel very proud and very humbled. It made my children proud of me, too,” she said.

Asked why she believes she was selected as the employee of the quarter, Burlina said she thinks it’s because she wanted to work smarter, not harder “and I wanted to help save the government some money.”

Responsible for assisting her office with going 100 percent digital by eliminating the old office filing system used there for decades, Burlina was able to help cut costs, free up office space and make the transportation office more efficient.

“Wasting all that money on manila folders, paper and printer ink was crazy,” Burlina said. “I said let’s come up with a plan. Let’s replace all the folders in these filing cabinets with electronic folders. They’re not physical and don’t take up any desktop or office space, and we’ll help save resources, time and money.”

LRC Italy is one of seven LRCs under the command and control of the 405th Army Field Support Brigade. LRCs execute installation logistics support and services to include supply, maintenance, and transportation as well as clothing issue facility operations, hazardous material management, personal property and household goods, passenger travel, non-tactical vehicle and garrison equipment management, and property book operations. When it comes to providing day-to-day installation services, LRC Italy directs, manages and coordinates a variety of operations and activities in support of USAG Italy.

LRC Italy reports to the 405th AFSB, which is assigned to U.S. Army Sustainment Command and under the operational control of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, U.S. Army Europe and Africa. The brigade is headquartered in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and provides materiel enterprise support to U.S. Forces throughout Europe and Africa – providing theater sustainment logistics; synchronizing acquisition, logistics and technology; and leveraging U.S. Army Materiel Command’s materiel enterprise to support joint forces. For more information on the 405th AFSB, visit the official website at www.afsbeurope.army.mil and the official Facebook site at www.facebook.com/405thAFSB.