Since January, hundreds of prizes have been passed out at bingo games, dozens of entertainers have passed through and personal trainers have spent more than 1,000 hours helping people meet their fitness goals here.

“But what I wish I knew more than anything,” said 1st Lt. Tyson Edwards, “is the number of bunk beds we have moved.”

During this rotation, the 376th Expeditionary Services Squadron served the most transient servicemembers the base has seen in a four-month period.

The flow started almost as soon as the services troops deployed here, said Lieutenant Edwards, deputy chief of the squadron.

“We easily created 500 bed spaces in the first two weeks,” he said.

Tents set up as permanent party dorms had to be rearranged. Wall partitions and furniture were moved and bunk beds were brought out of storage to allow 25 people per tent. In February, even with the increase in bed spaces, there were times preparations were made to set up cots in the fitness center, he said.

That last resort was never necessary, but had it been, they would have made it work, he said.

“It was really amazing to see our team come together,” the lieutenant said. “They were literally putting up beds as people were moving in; it was insane.”

Meanwhile, the lodging team worked to channel the flow of people -- not an easy task in the middle of a flood, said Master Sgt. Teriann Shell, lodging superintendent.

“The processes we normally have in place just don’t work when you have this many people coming through,” she said.

Daily plane-loads of troops moving in and out of Afghanistan began soon after her team’s arrival. Within two weeks she and her team had a process in place to assign the troops lodging before their planes ever touched the ground.

The hungry troops also filled the dining facility, which served more than a half-million meals between Jan. 1 and May 1. When a large shipment of food supplies came in, more than 20 Airmen helped with the unloading.

“People just getting off shift walked by and saw services folks working and they just jumped in,” said 1st Lt. Lindsay Blaise, deputy chief of services in charge of morale, welfare and readiness.

The Airmen spent countless hours in details, she said. Teamwork was key for this deployment.

“This is an awesome team,” she said. “You couldn’t have asked for a better group of troops. The morale is the best I’ve ever seen.”

It helped to have encouragement from the top, said Lieutenant Edwards.

“(Our squadron commander) expects a lot (from) people, but his philosophy is, if you take care of the people, they will take care of the customer.”

The services team had the incentive of getting “BEST” cards -- an idea that the 376th ESVS commander, Lt. Col. Russel Cutting, uses in his squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. Three BEST cards means a day off for the recipient.

“I have a very easy vision,” he said. “To be the BEST. ‘B’ -- be enthusiastic. ‘E’ -- energized to get the mission done. ‘S’ -- show a sense of urgency. ‘T’ -- team: together everyone accomplishes more.

“Show those elements in your particular area, I don’t care what you do -- if you’re at (the rec center), get that guy his ping pong paddle -- and you will be successful,” Colonel Cutting said.

The example set by his deputies was important, too, said Master Sgt. Erik Dupree, who served as first sergeant this rotation. There wasn’t a detail they didn’t participate in.

“Everybody needs a bed and everybody needs to eat,” Lieutenant Edwards said. “But we wanted to do well at everything.”