The U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency's Medical Logistics Management Internship Program students visited the Defense Logistics Agency in Philadelphia Aug. 31, and received a unique opportunity to sign the inside of two flags being hand-sewn for the next U.S. president and vice president.

The flags are created in the DLA Troop Support's flag room. In a typical year, the flag room team produces approximately 300 flags. During an inaugural year, that number can go up to 900 flags. While the average hand-embroidered flag can take between 14-21 days to complete, the presidential flag can take up to 45 days due to its intricate design that requires 15 thread colors and flawless mirror-effect imaging.

"This is definitely a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said MLMIP program coordinator LaTrish Jones. "The fact that we know that our signatures will follow the president and vice president wherever they travel is pretty special."

The MLMIP students traveled to DLA to tour and discuss the processes used to assess the medical materiel supply system at the Defense Supply Center. The goal of the trip was to gain a better understanding of the working knowledge of the centralized concepts of stock accounting control practices performed by the DLA.

The current MLMIP class, due to graduate from the program December 2016, has also made trips to a variety of military and civilian distribution and manufacturing centers, as well as health care facilities.

The MLMIP is a six-month program hosted at USAMMA at Fort Detrick, Maryland, that strives to create strong health care logistics professionals. The MLMIP is designed to expose mid-career medical logistics officers, warrant officers, noncommissioned officers, and civilians to modern DOD and civilian health logistics business best practices. The goal of the program is to provide MLMIP students with knowledge, skills, and experience to succeed in an ever-changing military and health care environment.

Since the program's establishment in 1967, USAMMA has graduated more than 479 Army officers, 136 noncommissioned officers, 10 warrant officers, four Navy officers and four civilians.

For more information on MLMIP, visit: http://www.usamma.amedd.army.mil/mlmip.cfm