As the U-S winds down its involvement in Iraq, equipment and supplies are coming back to the U-S for storage and redistribution. More of that materiel is coming to the Sierra Army Depot at Herlong, California north of Reno than anywhere else.

Each day more arrives, last packed in Iraq or Kuwait, containers including just about everything that a soldier uses in the field, tools, equipment, clothing.

Item by item each is checked and inventoried. From heavy equipment parts, to flak jackets. If it can be reused, it's repackaged. It's a labor intensive job, one that meant adding a night shift and adding more than 300 people to the base labor force.

Much of what arrives here will be stored here until needed. Some will be shipped elsewhere, mostly to other bases in the U-S. It's a process this base is known for and one that makes economic sense.

It's something this base is noted for, having saved the American military more than $285 million dollars in recent years.

But there are other missions being added to Sierra's list.

In another building fuel supply systems, portable fuel dumps which can be set up at a forward operating base in a matter of hours are being readied. And the people here have done more than just prepare them for shipping. They took part in the developing the design of the system. Some have already been shipped to Afghanistan.

The base has been receiving armored vehicles from the war zone for some time. On one portion of this sprawling base lines of tanks and other armored vehicles continue to grow. The first tank into Baghdad is here. It will likely end up as a display piece somewhere. Others will be scavenged for useable parts to keep others running--a sort of military Pick 'n Pull.

Elsewhere lines of trucks and trailers wait. These vehicles are new. They're being stored here for future use. It turns out the high desert is a friendly environment for that job. The low humidity and high sunlight means less corrosion than alternative sites back east.

Sierra Army Depot is a busy place and the creation of new jobs is a welcome development in this economy, but there's something else going on here. The people here are supporting the soldier in the field.

For some it's a personal connection. Many have sons and daughters in uniform. They say they're readying supplies their loved ones may soon need.