Third Marine Aircraft Wing (Jan, 7, 2005): thumb drives save time, memories.

AL ASAD, Iraq -- With the digital age upon us, information is slowly moving away from paper and toward the computer screen. Miniature hard drives, referred to as "thumb drives," have become the new rage among business professionals and personal users alike.

Suitably named, the drives are about the size of a person's thumb, able to store large amounts of information in an incredibly small amount of space. This capability has allowed the average person to store various types of data that otherwise would be a hassle to maintain.

Service members deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom are no exception. Troops are able to use this technology to save family pictures, journal entries, work files and more, all of which is able to fit in the palm of their hand.

"With the drive, I no longer have to keep paper copies of everything," said Hospital Corpsman 2nd class Joseph L. Entrekin, aviation physiology technician, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. "I can keep my work and important data with me at all times."

Transporting information from one workstation to the other is also a useful feature used prominently with the thumb drives.

"I use it to store lectures I give to different units on base," said Entrekin, a 30-year-old native of Washington Court House, Ohio. "Before I got it, I had to carry a laptop to my meetings, or burn a compact disk. Now all I need is this little drive."

Thumb drives use a technology called the Universal Serial Bus (USB). They can plug into nearly any computer or device that has a USB port, giving users the ability to copy and save files at a quick rate.

"It's saved me a lot of time," said Entrekin. "It's been a lifesaver and made my job a lot easier."

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Thumb drives are available in different memory sizes, many able to hold more information than a CD.

"[CDs] scratch easily and can only be used once," said Entrekin. "These drives can be used over and over and you never have to worry about them getting scratched."

With all of their capabilities, thumb drives are swiftly creating a medium for troops to save memories of their experiences.

"I save all my pictures on my drive," said 24 year-old Falls City, Neb., native Pfc. Joey W. Schuetz, airframe mechanic, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. "I'll check my e-mail from the Internet cafe and copy the pictures over so that I can look at them whenever I want to."

Seeing pictures of family and friends can help build morale among troops who have been deployed for long periods of time.

"Being able to save pictures on my drive has really paid off," said Schuetz. "It's absolutely worth its weight in gold."

Cpl. Joel A. Chaverri, USMC