FORT LEE, Va. (Army News Service, Jan. 5, 2005) -- In response to the deadly tsunami that struck south Asia last week, Fort Lee is sending several teams of mortuary affairs specialists to assist in recovery efforts and to help identify the tens of thousands of victims of the disaster.

About 30 members of the 54th Quartermaster Company, 49th Special Troops Battalion, 49th Quartermaster Group, will begin to immediately deploy to the region.

With the mounting death toll the teams will undoubtedly be working under a fast operational tempo in some very remote and dangerous locations, officials said, but that hasn't deterred the deploying teams made up of volunteers.

"There's no amount of mental preparation you can do to prepare yourself for the mission, but we have all the training we need to do the job," said 18-year old Pvt. Tristian LaFollette, 54th QM Co., who has been in the Army for six months since leaving her home in Washington State. "It is a risk worth taking. I'll just have to take it in stride."

The unit is the only active-duty one of its type in the Army and is tasked to identify, process and remove the remains of Soldiers and civilians in combat zones around the world. The Soldiers also provide the same support for disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes.

"Mortuary Affairs are a special breed of Soldiers," said Sgt. 1st Class Ronald E. Holliday, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the unit. "We are trained more so than the average Soldier to deal with the rigors of death."

"The victims will be difficult to identify," Holliday said, since most of the countries do not have proper identification records such as DNA or fingerprinting.

One of the only ways they have identifying a person, he said, is "someone coming in and saying, 'That's my brother or friend.'"

The unit currently has Soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. The unit was called to the Pentagon after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 to assist in recovery efforts there as well.

Disaster relief officials estimate more than 150,000 people were killed by the massive waves that struck southern Asia Dec. 26.

(Editor's note: Travis Edwards is the Fort Lee Strategic Outreach Officer)