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Show 50,000 pounds of clothing Base laundry sees dirty side of war laundry here. At some places, people peo-ple are washing their clothes in sinks or showers. War might be hell, but without us, it would smell, too." without complaining. Now that washers and dryers have been installed in the living areas, the NCOIC admitted that their workload has definitely decreased. Instead of 260 customers a day, they're now down to 40. They no longer get so backed up they have to close the window, but he said they have enough business to keep them steadily busy throughout the day. In addition to clothes, they're also responsible for washing all of the linen for the base. To handle the load, there are only nine permanent people working at the laundry and no detail people. ' Now the base has a choice and the only people who bring their clothes up here, are the ones who want to," said Sgt. Huskinson. "Some people might not realize it, but we're very lucky to have this Special to the Clipper AN AIR BASE IN THE MIDDLE EAST History shows that war isn't exactly prettyin some cases it can be a downright dirty job. Perhaps the people who could attest to that most are those who work here at the base laundry. Since the beginning of this deployment, the small handful of j , American servicemen and women j who've worked there, have washed, ! dried and folded clothes for an average of 260 people a day while at their peak-that's close to 50,000 I ; pounds of clothing since the beginning beginn-ing of September. And although business has ' quieted down quite a bit since then, Sgt. Jerry Huskinson, noncommis- t X sioned officer in charge of the laundry, laun-dry, is quick to point out the long hours and hard work they've put in since they first began the job in September. "We definitely earned our money during the first few months of the deployment," said Sgt. Huskinson. "In the beginning, it was mass confusion because we didn't have any kind of system to wash the clothes and get them back to the people." The original crew of 24 people at the laundry didn't have much time to figure out a plan either, he added. Originally deployed to build fuel tanks for the F-16s, they had no idea they'd be working at the laundry when they left their home station. Upon arrival, though, they found they weren't needed to build tanks right away, and the few locals who worked at the laundry were over- , whelmed with the increase in clothes from the Americans. "The locals asked for help and ' by the time we started working at the laundry, there was already a huge pile-up of clothes,' Sgt. Huskinson explained. "We basically basical-ly used trial and error methods to find a system which worked best for the base, but a lot of credit for the system we have now, goes to TSgt. Ray Long. He worked at the laundry laun-dry for about one month before returning to the states on emergency leave. "But even with the system we came up with, the first few weeks were the roughest," he continued. "It was hard getting over the language lan-guage barrier with the locals, but once we did, they were a big help. They've been great friends and have made it a lot easier. No matter how hectic things get, they're always in good spirits. ' ' Even with all the extra help, though, Sgt. Huskinson said they didn't have time for many breaks the first few months. At the time, the laundry only had six washers and three dryers, and that had to be shared with the local people. "At any one time, we were only able to use two washers and one dryer. As soon as one load came out of the washer, another one went in. "We didn't have so much trouble with the washing machines, but we needed more dryers. If there weren't any available, we'd hang clothes out on clotheslines to dry," he added. "As fast as we tried to give the clothes back, though, we'd get so backed up that we'd have to close the window and it was a day before some clothes even got thrown in the wash." But just when it looked like the laundry crew was getting a handle on things, half of them were taken away to begin the tank build-up. Luckily, Sgt. Huskinson said, they were given about seven detail people peo-ple a week to help out. ' 'The people who helped us out on detail know who they are, and we'd like to thank all of them who came in and helped |