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KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan For most of the war in Afghanistan, soldiers have been asked to build up the coalition presence, moving tons of equipment to smaller outposts while constructing new infrastructure.

But with the war winding down, Fort Bragg soldiers are now leading efforts to reverse that earlier work.

More than 100 soldiers with the 82nd Sustainment Brigade form the core of the U.S. Central Command Material Recovery Element, a conglomerate of units that is made up of about 3,500 soldiers. Their mission is to help process the equipment that has built up in Afghanistan while also helping to shrink or close military bases.

82nd Sustainment soldiers are spread across about 30 bases in Afghanistan, officials said, but their efforts are mostly focused at three retrosort yards one each at Bagram Airfield in the east, Kandahar Airfield in the south and Camp Pratt in the north.

The largest retrosort yard is in Kandahar, near the 82nd Sustainment and CMRE headquarters.

There, soldiers, defense civilians and contractors sort through a steady stream of equipment.

From dusty telephones to boots and shovels, each item is sorted before computer programs help officials decide whether the equipment should be destroyed, transferred to the Afghan government or sent back to military posts in the United States.

Col. Mark Collins, commander of the 82nd Sustainment Brigade, said it was a massive effort and a team effort with partners from other defense agencies and Reserve and National Guard units from across the country.

"We've been given a lot of really good equipment," he said of the more than a decade of war. "We have not wanted for supplies."

He described the process by which much of that equipment is being recycled either to be reused in theater, turned over to the Afghans or actually recycled at scrap yards around Afghanistan.

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Fort Bragg soldiers leading base breakdown efforts in Afghanistan