In-theater distro saves lives, makes travel easier

Published May 5, 2008
By Senior Airman Carolyn Viss
379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Not many servicemembers ducking into foxholes stop to think about where their body armor comes from or how each strap of it was sewn together. What they may think about after the air clears is how thankful they are to have it.

The Expeditionary Theater Distribution Center, part of the 379th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron here, is responsible for supplying protective gear for 75 percent of the deployers in the U.S. Air Forces Central area of responsibility.

"We do one of the wing's primary missions," said Capt. Andrea Taylor, ETDC readiness flight commander. "We're responsible for issuing, storing, and returning more than $63 million of critical life-saving gear including vests, helmets, chem. gear, and individual first aid kits."

With more than 100,000 people rotating through the ETDC every year, their 70-person unit stays plenty busy, said Captain Taylor, who has 15 years of experience in LRS career fields. Every forward-deployer needs this equipment uprange, so storing and issuing it from the AOR saves the Air Force millions of dollars every year on transportation and excess baggage fees, plus puts less wear on the equipment and the equipment carriers who no longer have to haul their gear from the states.

Stood up in 2005, the facilities here are the largest of only three deployed distro centers - another in the Persian Gulf region and one in Afghanistan, said the prior-enlisted captain who now holds a bachelor's degree in business management. Having seen both the enlisted and officer sides of the job, she is well familiar with the sweat and dedication it takes for some of the Airmen to work in un-air conditioned tents or outdoors, tearing apart each piece of the equipment to clean, organize, store, and then re-issue it properly.

One person whose job importance hits particularly close to home is Senior Airman Suzanne Kingsbury, an Air National Guardsman from Niagara Falls, N.Y.

"It's really cool helping people get gear that could actually save their lives," said the Airman. "I didn't realize how much my job really affects the Air Force until I deployed here. Doing my job every day gives me a lot of great job experience that I only get once a month back home."

She got to see her father, a Reservist, when he came through here to turn in all his gear in January after his six-month deployment to Iraq.

"I think he's really proud of me," Airman Kingsbury said. "[The military] is something we have in common, and I think he worries about me a lot."

Of all the people in the unit, however, the specialists who work at the armory - also part of the ETDC - have the deployment the roughest, according to their flight commander.

"These are truly 'expeditionary' digs," Captain Taylor said. "We have to be able to give transients 24/7 access to their weapons and be able to issue ammunition for people going up range at any hour of the day."

As their leader, she said she does her best to help them keep focused on the 'bigger' mission because she was an Airman once, doing their jobs, Captain Taylor said. "There were times I thought, 'this really isn't so great,' but sometimes when we get vests back with holes or blood on them, it makes us really stop and think: this is a really important job."