IRAQ - Gauze, check. Syringe, check. No, this is not a line from a movie but part of a daily task vital to the success of the Air Force Theater Hospital here.

Every day members of the 332nd Expeditionary Medical Support Squadron medical logistics flight help to ensure the hospital has items it needs to operate.

"The [logistics flight] provides outstanding materiel, information systems, biomedical equipment maintenance and facility management support to the phenomenal healthcare teams here at the [Air Force Theater Hospital]," said Maj. James Jeffers, 332nd EMDSS medical flight commander deployed from Kelly Air Force Base, Texas.

To members of the logistics flight, medical supply is the foundation of the hospital.

"We support surgeons, doctors, nurses, technicians and each of the clinics throughout the Air Force Theater Hospital," said Senior Airman Nikita Seal, 332nd EMDSS medical material logistician deployed from Lackland AFB, Texas. "Without us, nothing could happen."

Medical logistics members here stock the hospital with supplies and fresh linen, ensure information systems are up and running properly, help maintain medical equipment, keep the facility clean and in good working order and provide contract oversight.

"Indirectly, medical logistics flight ensures the 332nd EMDG is capable of providing world class health care for all Tuskegee Airmen, coalition, U.S. and Iraqi patients throughout the Iraqi theater of operations, sustaining an unprecedented 97 percent survivability rate," Major Jeffers, a native of Franklin, Ky., said.

On average, medical logisticians begin their day by going over the pull issues, or supplies requested by the various clinics. They then collect the item as well as fresh hospital laundry and deliver them. When members return from their first run, a shipment of one to four pallets of supplies will usually be waiting to be received and delivered.

As the transition suspense draws near and U.S. Forces do their part to reduce their footprint in Iraq, medical logisticians are "on the same page."

"The [transition] can be stressful for us considering we handle all the excess medical supplies and equipment," Airman Seal, a native of El Dorado, Ark., said. "We've been able to reduce the amount of supply in the warehouse and we're currently taking all the excess and redistributing them to bases throughout the area of responsibility. That's one thing I love most about my job - knowing I may have had a hand in saving a life."

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