Logistics Airmen supply customers with team effort

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Chawntain Sloan
  • Multinational Corps Iraq Public Affairs
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFPN) --  From the outside, it looks like nothing more than a giant storage unit, but inside, it is a one-stop shop.

“If you don’t see what you’re looking for, you’ve come to the right place,” said Tech. Sgt. Tonya Hamilton, noncommissioned officer in charge of the base service supply store here. “I can get anything a customer needs that’s legal.”

Whether it is a certain vehicle or aircraft part, a military-issued equipment item or something as simple as office supplies, Sergeant Hamilton and the 21 Airmen assigned to the 447th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron work day and night to provide customers essential items with minimum delay.

“Our mission is to issue the customers whatever they need to do their job -- from pens and pencils to body armor to hats and gloves,” said Sergeant Hamilton, who is deployed from Luke Air Force Base, Ariz.

Broken down into four different flights -- material management, management and systems, armory and computer operations -- logistics Airmen team up to support people assigned to the 447th Air Expeditionary Wing.

While Sergeant Hamilton and the material management flight ensure customers are well stocked with office supplies and uniform-related items, Master Sgt. Gene Sanford and the management and systems flight makes sure they have those mission-essential items such as protective equipment and aircraft or vehicle parts.

“This is a life-or-death situation out here, and people depend on us to have what they need,” said Sergeant Sanford, flight superintendent.

Although the logistics Airmen may not have every conceivable item on hand, that does not stop them from fulfilling an order.

“If we don’t have something in stock that a customer needs right away -- for instance, extra large (individual body armor) -- then we will call around to other bases in the area of responsibility until we find it,” said Sergeant Sanford, who is also deployed from Luke.

If it is something that is not mission essential, then it is ordered from a partnering agency overseas or stateside, he said.

Once they are geared up, some customers must also be armed and ready to go. Airman 1st Class Paul Brotherton and his comrades at the armory flight try to keep them that way.

“We make sure the weapons are clean and serviceable and the ammunition is not cracked or warped,” said Airmen Brotherton, an ammunitions and weapons supply troop. “That is the last thing (Airmen) should have to worry about if they ever find themselves in harm’s way.”

About every two weeks, weapons are cleaned and ammunition is inspected, said Airmen Brotherton, who is deployed from Kadena Base, Japan.

Processing orders and tracking inventory items is a full-time job itself, which is where Master Sgt. Smith Salenas, NCOIC of the computer operations flight, and his crew come in.

“Our job is to help (the other flights) do their job by making sure their computers are clean and those special programs are running at optimum performance,” said Sergeant Salenas, who is deployed from Luke.

The squadron may be broken down into four different flights, but the Airmen know it takes the unit as a whole to achieve their goal of 100 percent customer satisfaction.

“We help each other out,” Sergeant Hamilton said. “If I am in the warehouse getting someone a pair of boots and someone else needs level-four body armor, I will also issue that person body armor. It may not be my section, but we all work together, and if I am already there, why get someone else to do what I can do?”