Eight Soldiers from the 6th Medical Logistics Management Center headed north Nov. 4 as part of the Department of Defense response to assist in recovery from Hurricane Sandy, which hit the New Jersey coast at 8 p.m., Oct. 29, with 24 states affected by tropical storm force winds.

The team, which is part of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, is forward deployed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, and has set up a distribution pipeline and an automated hub for the Defense Department to reorder medical supplies from vendors, according to Col. Mike Talley, 6MLMC commander.

Talley described the mission, "is to centrally manage supplies and one-stop shopping," which is the normal mission for 6MLMC Soldiers. "What we do every day is support troops on the ground, and in this case we are also prepared to assist other agencies, including those from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, if necessary."

Tally added that the Soldiers are also looking for ways to synchronize federal interagency efforts and streamline medical logistics support and will stay in New Jersey, or wherever they are needed as part of the operation, "as long as we are needed. I can't say how long the deployment will last, but I do think preventative medicine and veterinary specialists will be needed as the area recovers."