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Expectations of civil engineers are huge.Commanders believe we can do anything — frombase appearance, utilities, environmental andhousing management to force beddown, runwayconstruction and repair, explosive ordnancedisposal, fire protection and so on. And we can.Our record of mission accomplishment is excellent.We have answered the call in the continental U.S.,Europe, Southwest Asia and throughout the world.Civil engineers — military and civilian, active duty,Guard and Reserve, and our contractor partners —are an integral part of the Air Force team.

My priority as The Civil Engineer is to makesure that civil engineers satisfy the needs of theAir Force. We must keep pace with a changing AirForce, a changing world, and a seemingly endlessarray of new and emerging challenges.

Clearly at the top of the list of thosechallenges is the ability to rapidly respond to avariety of contingencies, from humanitarian civicassistance exercises such as New Horizons tomajor contingencies like Operation Allied Force.These operations will provide a true test, not onlyfor civil engineers, but for the AerospaceExpeditionary Force concept in total. I firmly believe we’re up to the test. While the early stages ofimplementation may be rough, I’m confident that as the concept matures we’ll make it work andwork well.

As you know, for more than a decade we’ve used Readiness Challenge to showcase our CivilEngineer, Services, Chaplain and Public Affairs abilities to perform in a contingency situation whileproviding an opportunity for friendly competition. I’m pleased to announce that ReadinessChallenge VII is on again for this spring. The competition is scheduled for April 30 through May 4,with the awards ceremony on May 5. Not only will U.S. Air Force teams compete, we hope to haveteams from several other nations on hand as well.

Two articles in this issue of The CE concern career management. One is on the benefits ofcareer planning for civilians and the other is on the importance of mentoring. I encourage you totake an active part in charting your Air Force career. Examine your career path and seek advice fromyour supervisors. For those in leadership positions, be good mentors by sharing your wisdom andexperience while providing sound advice. Be available and approachable, and above all be candidwith your subordinates.

We have ambitious goals and we’re facing our challenges head-on. I’m very aware of civilengineer concerns regarding competitive sourcing and privatization, personnel tempo, and so on.Be assured that Air Force leadership is working these issues and that there are many initiativesunderway to ensure we’re on the right path in terms of taking care of our people, assuringreadiness, and earning the best return on every dollar spent. Above all, remain optimistic. This is agreat time to be in the Air Force.

Finally, remember that in civil engineering we don’t operate for our own sake. We exist to servethe Air Force mission. So don’t get trapped thinking small or concentrating only on “what’s best forme.” Our profession is not “civil engineer” — our profession is “Air Force officer, NCO, airman orcivilian.”

I am honored to be in this office. I will use this page to keep you updated on current projectsand initiatives, and to encourage you to keep operating effectively and training hard.

Brig Gen Earnest O. Robbins IIThe Air Force Civil Engineer

FR

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TH

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OP

Looking to the New Millennium

CONTENTS

14

Clearing the Jungles of Panamaby MSgt Jeffrey SchleyExplosive ordnance disposal teams clear the trainingranges around Howard Air Force Base in preparation fortransfer of the Panama Canal Zone.

Tent City Tear Down Benefits KosovarRefugeesby Capt Michael SheredyA Bare Base team works around the clock to tear downand package tents for airlift to refugees in Albania.

Relevant, Right-Sized and ReadyBrig Gen Earnest O. Robbins II, The Air Force CivilEngineer, discusses his commitment to support the AirForce mission by ensuring CE has the right shape andsubstance going into the next millennium.

4

The U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer

Fall 1999 Volume 7, Number 3

The Civil EngineerBrig Gen Earnest O. Robbins II

AFCESA CommanderCol Bruce R. Barthold

Chief, Professional CommunicationsLois Walker

EditorLetha Cozart

Graphics/Production EditorDemetress Lovett-West

The Civil Engineer is published quarterly as a

funded newspaper by the Professional Commu-

nications staff at the Air Force Civil Engineer

Support Agency, Tyndall AFB, Fla. This publica-

tion serves the Office of The Civil Engineer, HQ

U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. Readers may

submit articles, photographs and art work. Sug-

gestions and criticisms are welcomed. All pho-

tos are U.S. Air Force, unless otherwise noted.

Contents of The Civil Engineer are not neces-

sarily the official views of, or endorsed by, the

U.S. Government, the Defense Department or

the Department of the Air Force. Editorial office:

The Civil Engineer , AFCESA/PC T, 139 Barnes

Drive Suite 1, Tyndall AFB, Fla., 32403-5319,

Telephone (850) 283-6242, DSN 523-6242,

FAX (850) 283-6499, and e-mail: cemag

@afcesa.af.mil. All submissions will be edited

to conform to standards set forth in Air Force

Instruction 35-301 and The Associated Press

Stylebook. The Civil Engineer magazine can

be found on the Internet on AFCESA’s home

page: http://www.afcesa.af.mil.

RED HORSE and the Balkan AirCampaign — Seven Sites in Five Countriesin 100 Daysby Capt Kurt BergmanA RED HORSE team supports the fight for Kosovo fromseveral locations in Europe.

On the cover ...

16

Also in this issue:Mentoring Grows Leaders ............................................... 12AFCAP Builds U.S. Refugee Camp in Albania ............. 15Tirana Beddown Displays Spirit, Dedication

of CE Troops .................................................................. 18Critical Incident Stress Management ............................. 22Whose Career Is It Anyway? .......................................... 24IPM Reduces Pests and Pesticides ................................ 25Promotion Lists .................................................................. 33A Tradition of Excellence ................................................. 34

Departments

EOD Teams Clear KosovoExplosive ordnance disposal teams are called to disposeof unexploded ordnance and munitions left from theKosovo conflict.

CE World ........................ 26CE Training .................... 30CE People ........................ 32

A1C Michael Brison, 347thCES/CED, and SrA SusanNichols, 1 CES/CED, prepareBDUs (bomb dummy units), 20mm and 40 mm ordnance fordemolition in the jungles ofPanama. Story page 10. (Photoby SrA Ben Aster)

10

20

4 The CE F Fall 1999

The CE: How will you define the Office of The Civil Engineer?What are your priorities as you begin your tour?

Brig Gen Robbins: General Gene Lupia pointed out at hisgoing away party that I was the 20th person to hold this office.The 19 people who preceded me did a really good job ofdefining what this office is all about — support to the Air Forcemission.

I’ve worked directly for seven of my predecessors and I’vebeen in the Air Force through the regimes of 11 of them. I thinkthe way they defined the job of The Civil Engineer is timeless— this office is about supporting the mission … always hasbeen, always will be.

As far as my priorities, I’m going to keep them prettysimple — to support our Air Force leadership.

In my previous job at Air Combat Command, we estab-lished a team to look at RED HORSE, to make sure RED HORSEhad the right shape and the right substance going into the nextmillennium. I wanted this study to ensure RED HORSE isrelevant, right-sized and ready as we move into the next 10 or 15years. I think we need to expand this look across all of civilengineering to ensure our entire CE “family” is relevant, right-sized and ready to support our Air Force and the nation.

The reason we want to do this, of course, is to support thevision and initiatives set by our civilian leaders and the Chief ofStaff. If we’re successful — if we make sure we’re relevant,right-sized and ready — then I think we’ll have our plate full interms of applying the resources we have at our disposal acrossall the different programs we manage.

Whether we’re talking about military construction execu-tion, an environmental program, or making sure our enlistedpersonnel get the right type of training, those “three R’s”provide excellent filters through which we can evaluate whereand how civil engineers will fit into the Air Force of the future.

So my priorities are pretty simple. Although it violates theSquadron Officer’s School precept that you have to have threemain points — I’ve got two. Those two are: support our AirForce leadership and make sure we are relevant, right-sized andready.

The CE: What would you like Air Force CEs to know aboutyou, as their new director?

Brig Gen Robbins: I’m not so interested or concerned aboutwhat they know about me, personally, but I want every AirForce civil engineer to know and be confident in the fact thatthis staff, and by extension, the folks at AFCESA and at AFCEE,are all working very hard to make sure they (the folks in thefield) have what they need to get their job done.

I know the farther away one gets from the flagpole here inWashington, the less obvious that might become. Sometimes,particularly if you’re an airman, a young officer, or a civilian newto our business at base-level, perhaps you wonder if we’re allreally marching to the same drummer. Except for the degrees ofdifficulty and the technical nature of what we do, the answershould always be “yes.” We’re all marching to the samedrumbeat. I want everyone in the field to know that. I don’twant them to feel like we are disconnected from their concerns.

Brig Gen Earnest O. Robbins II took office as The Air Force Civil Engineer on July 26. General Robbins brings nearly 30 yearsof Air Force civil engineering experience to the job, including positions as The Civil Engineer at both Air Combat Commandand Air Force Space Command, and as base civil engineer for the 52nd Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany. AsThe Air Force Civil Engineer, he is committed to ensuring our civil engineer force is …

An interview with The Air Force Civil Engineer, Brig Gen Earnest O. Robbins II.

The CE F Fall 1999 5

The second thing is, I want to make sure the field doesn’tbelieve we have a dozen ready-made stamps up here that say“No” on them for every one stamp we have that says “Yes.” I’mnot implying that perception exists here or in the field, I justbelieve that sometimes if you’re in a major command, orparticularly if you’re at base-level, you can get preoccupiedwith the things headquarters says you can’t do, as opposed tothe things you can do. Our direction here will be to try and findways to say yes to the requirements and proposals that come tous from the field.

The CE: You’ve said in some ways base civil engineers havethe hardest job in the Air Force. What are the major challengesfacing Air Force civil engineering today, as we prepare to gointo the next century?

Brig Gen Robbins: First, I don’t want to upset anybody who’snot in Air Force civil engineering, but I do believe being a civilengineer, whether you’re a base civil engineer or someoneworking in a CE squadron, has got to be one of the toughestjobs in the Air Force.

This belief is based on several things. First of all, 15 to 20years ago the Air Force decided quality facilities were importantto the Air Force mission. That wasn’t a frivolous decision basedon “we ought to look good,” but an honest acknowledgementthat there’s a link between providing anice, efficient, quality place to work andwhat comes out the other end in the wayof combat capability.

Since then we’ve seen declines inbudgets and in people, but we have seenno decline in commanders’ expectations.Commanders still expect us not only tokeep the base looking good, but also toensure it operates the way they know anAir Force base is supposed to operate.

So the base civil engineer, inparticular, is caught between a rock and ahard place — between fiscal reality andcommanders’ expectations. In my mind,that makes it extremely difficult for a basecivil engineer and his or her work force.And it doesn’t appear to be getting anyeasier.

By extension, I’d like to talk a littlebit about this change in outlook towardquality facilities. In the mid-1980s, the AirForce perspective of “quality of life” wasextended beyond just dormitories, childdevelopment centers, and physicalfitness facilities. In Tactical AirCommand, in particular, it was recognized that quality of lifeextended into the workplace and had an important impact onreadiness.

Now, take an airman whose job is to maintain an F-15engine and who’s working in a hangar where the roof leaks.Every time it rains hard he or she is distracted from fixing the

F-15 engine while they move buckets around to catch the water.Is there a quality of life implication? I’d say there is.

For that same aircraft mechanic, let’s say the first time hisor her F-15 taxis out onto the ramp it ingests a piece of concretefrom a deteriorating slab. That piece of concrete “FODs” theengine, so that perfect jet engine, which the mechanic spent somuch time and effort on, now has to go back to the depot for acomplete overhaul. Does that affect the mechanic’s quality oflife? I suggest it does.

As a third example, that same airman, the highly trained jetengine mechanic, joins with a couple hundred of his or her bestfriends every work day to do what we fondly refer to as a “FODwalk.” For an hour out of the work day, they all march down theramp in a straight line, looking for random pieces of concrete orjoint sealant, etc. I suggest our airmen see that as a directimpact on quality of life, even though at the end of the workdaythey go back to one of the best dormitories in the Departmentof Defense and en route eat dinner in a wonderful diningfacility. That demonstrates the extension of quality of life intothe working environment, and I think we’re losing the battle tomaintain the high standards we’ve come to expect.

So a challenge facing civil engineers today is to operateand maintain their bases so the mission is fully supported andquality of life is what it should be, at a time when resourceshave gone dramatically downward. At the same time they must

deal with recruiting and retentionproblems, PERSTEMPO (personneltempo) concerns, training shortfalls,and on and on and on.

We civil engineers certainly aren’talone in facing these problems. Wehave an officer shortfall that is directlyrelated to the pilot shortage. This lackof one or two authorized officerswithin the civil engineer squadronobviously has an impact on thesquadron’s ability to get the job done,since most squadrons have onlyabout 10 officers authorized.

Another challenge is thelegitimate concern many in ourworkforce, in particular our civilians,feel in regard to competitive sourcingand privatization. There’s a lot ofmythology out there about how farthis is going to extend and what theimpact will be on the individual. Ourbase civil engineers must contendwith that every day, even at baseswhere the issue of competitivesourcing and privatization is not an

immediate issue … our people are understandably uneasyabout the “possibility” of outsourcing.

As a last example of the challenges we face, there is thewhole issue of getting our people adequately trained to do theirjob. This primarily involves the enlisted ranks. There is still awidespread concern in our squadrons about receiving people

Gen Robbins addresses Air Force Civil Engi-neer Support Agency personnel at TyndallAFB, Fla. (Photo courtesy HQ AFCESA)


who are not trained to a level where they can immediately stepinto a job and perform. There’s an awful lot of time and effortexpended by our mid-grade NCOs and civilians in training theseyoung airmen as they come into the squadron, creating yetanother pressure and another distraction for CEs while they’retrying to get their job done.

There may be tougher jobs than our base civil engineeringsquadrons are performing — I’ve just not seen one.

The CE: As former command civil engineer for Air CombatCommand, what is the latest on a possible reengineering of theRED HORSE structure?

Brig Gen Robbins: There have actually been two things goingon with RED HORSE, one of which is basically completed. Weapproved a structural change in the units so they are nowoperating under what’s called a “hub and spoke” alignment.Under this alignment, they operate from a central location, butwork simultaneously at several different locations. We testedthis in Albania during the Kosovo crisis, and it worked very,very well.

The second initiative goes back to what I mentionedpreviously, the study I commissioned while at ACC to look atRED HORSE and ensure it’s relevant, it’s right-sized andorganized correctly, and it’s ready for the next 10 to 15 years.

That study, when I left ACC a month ago, was about 85percent complete. I insisted it not be rushed to completionbecause I wanted it to be done correctly. Col Frank Destadio,my successor at ACC, will bring this initiative to closure.

The initial recommendations I reviewed had implications forhow we equip, train and organize RED HORSE squadrons.These recommendations will go to the CE Readiness Board andthe Readiness Council, and be discussed within CE channels.Before we make any dramatic changes in RED HORSE, we’llhave to get buy-in from the people whom we support with REDHORSE, namely the major command commanders, theatercommanders, Air Force leadership, and so forth.

I don’t anticipate any short-term, dramatic change in REDHORSE. This is a long-term look and we want to make sure weget it right.

The CE: Are any other CE fields being examined for possiblerestructuring?

Brig Gen Robbins: Not directly. There is talk of a reengineeringof all functional areas within the Air Force, so we will participatein that. I haven’t been in this office long enough, quite frankly,to learn the details of how this will unfold. I understand theimplementation timetable is spread over several years. But Ifrankly don’t know how it will impact civil engineering.

The CE: How do you anticipate the Expeditionary AerospaceForce (EAF) will affect operations in base-level CE squadrons?What does CE bring to the fight?

Brig Gen Robbins: EAF is definitely going to impact most civilengineer squadrons in the Air Force. I suppose it won’t affect

all of them, but it certainly will have consequences for thosewhere we maintain a Prime BEEF mission, and it will affect REDHORSE.

While at ACC, I was heavily engaged in the way combatsupport units were going to be utilized and tasked in the EAF.Col Scott Borges was my point man on that issue. He workedwith the XO community to ensure not just civil engineering butthe rest of the agile combat support components of our AirForce were given due consideration as to the unique aspects ofintegrating all support functions in the EAF.

EAF is, in my mind, a good thing for the individual airman,NCO or officer. When implemented, it will give individuals amuch better feel for how vulnerable they are to be tasked to goTDY at any given time. This will, in turn, allow them to betterschedule their personal and professional lives, whether it bepursuing a degree, scheduling annual leave, or just having amuch better handle on when they’re likely to be called to gosomewhere.

Under the previous system you were basically on-call 365days a year. I think the improved predictability will be veryimportant and will help address some of the retention issues weface due to instability in our PERSTEMPO. Now, barring a majorcontingency, you will know when you are vulnerable.

It’s also good for commanders. Commanders will now knowwhen their units are expected to deploy. EAF is going to bringpredictability to the entire schedule of events for a wing — interms of when they are vulnerable for an inspection, when theyare vulnerable to deploy, and when they have time to train. So,from both an individual perspective and from an organizationalperspective, I think EAF will be good.

Will there be an impact on civil engineering? Yes. That’sbecause it was recognized early on that civil engineers areintegral to any EAF. Each Aerospace Expeditionary Force (AEF)will have available somewhere in the vicinity of 1,000 to 1,100civil engineers. They’ll be spread out over a variety of bases.Some will deploy and some won’t, but those who are “on thebubble” will have a pretty good idea of when and where they’remost likely to be deployed.

Tied to deployments is what’s referred to as the “steady-state requirement.” This refers to manpower required to supporton-going missions at places like Prince Sultan Air Base in SaudiArabia and Al Jaber in Kuwait.

We have permanent presence at those locations, and arelatively constant number of civil engineers are required there365 days a year. Some wings, some civil engineer squadrons,will definitely deploy to support those installations for the 90days they are in the AEF bubble. The good news is, they’llknow ahead of time. It won’t be done through the old “PalaceTenure” process, so there’ll be predictability.

Finally, we’re providing some relief to the home-stationworkload as a consequence of all these deployments. The Chiefof Staff acknowledged about a year ago that when units likecivil engineers, security forces, and communications deployfrom home station there is a “hole” left behind; there’s a voidleft in the squadron back home that still has to support thatbase. So the Air Force approved what is known as the EAFbackfill, which is 5,000-plus total positions, all of them military,


and civil engineering is getting about 1,100 of them.These backfill positions will be primarily allocated across

those wings that will be tasked to support steady-staterequirements. The additive manpower positions will appear onunit manning documents over the next three years.

Let’s say Moody Air Force Base deploys 60 civil engineersto Saudi Arabia. Their unitmanning document will beplussed-up some amount —not the full 60, but someamount to help mitigate theproblem created when those60 folks deploy. That’s agood deal.

A very important key toEAF working for civilengineers is the integration ofthe Air National Guard andAir Force Reserve Commandinto the cycle. The Guard andReserve components havestated they will accept about10 percent of the total EAFdeployment requirement, notjust in civil engineering, butacross the board.

Col Sam Lundgren at theGuard and Col John Moggeat AFRC are working veryhard to develop the scheduleso that approximately 10percent of the totaldeployment within civilengineering will be filled byGuard and Reservepersonnel. This is great newsto the active duty sidebecause that’s 10 percent wewon’t have to pull from activeduty forces. It’s also proofpositive that the term “TotalForce” is a reality in our AirForce.

The CE: Coming from anoperational command, what isyour assessment of how CEsupport to operatorsmeasured up during theKosovo crisis? In what areas did CE do particularly well?Where do you see opportunities for improvement?

Brig Gen Robbins: I believe Kosovo was a great test for bothour Prime BEEF and RED HORSE people. Once again, we camethrough in spades. By all accounts, commanders recognized thesuperb performance of our troops, as once again we proved theimportance of civil engineers to the expeditionary concept.

More than 740 civil engineers were in theater during thecrisis. Col Glenn Haggstrom, the USAFE Civil Engineer, had anexcellent command and control process to handle multiplechallenges throughout the theater. Civil engineers expandedtaxiways and aprons, built roads, established utilities, and soon.

We used the Air ForceContract AugmentationProgram, AFCAP, to buildrefugee camps. Developmentwas slow going at first as thestandards for humanitarianrelief were defined and hostnation agreement for camplocations was obtained, butoverall the project was asuccess. AFCAP contractorsprovided shelter for 3,000refugees, with an overallcapacity for 18,000, when thepeace agreement wasnegotiated.

As with everyundertaking, there are alwaysopportunities for improve-ment. We’ll have a lessonslearned package after the CEReadiness Panels and Boardmeetings in September.

The CE: With competitivesourcing and privatization ofutilities, housing and otherbase functions, how much ofour work force do we stand tolose? How can civilengineering counteract thatloss and what effect will thishave on Air Force readinessin the long run?

Brig Gen Robbins: As Istated previously, this is oneof the biggest challengesfacing civil engineers today— the fact that there is somuch mythology andlegitimate concern, parti-cularly on the part of our

civilian workforce but spreading to our military, about theimpacts of competitive sourcing and privatization on the futureof our career field.

I think this is one of those instances where the mythologyexpands as time goes on. I’ve heard everything from, “General,is it true that civil engineering is going to all be contractedout?” to people believing that somebody is going to comearound with pink slips next week and tell them they no longer

Brig Gen Earnest O. Robbins II entered the Air Forcethrough the Reserve Officer Training Corps program in1969 after graduating with a B.S. in civil engineering fromthe University of Kentucky. His first assignments were asproject officer at Headquarters Aeronautical SystemsDivision, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and aschief of construction management for the 6200th CivilEngineering Squadron, Clark Air Base, Philippines.

After earning an M.S. degree in civil engineering fromArizona State University, he went on to assignments withthe 388th CES, Korat Royal Thai AFB, Thailand;Headquarters Strategic Air Command, Offutt AFB, Neb.;the Air Force Engineering and Services Center, TyndallAFB, Fla.; and the Directorate of Engineering andServices, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington D.C.

After graduating from Air Command and Staff Collegein 1983, Gen Robbins served as the executive officer tothen director of engineering and services, Maj Gen CliftonD. Wright, Jr.

His next position was as base civil engineer andcommander, 52nd Civil Engineering Squadron,Spangdahlem Air Base, West Germany, before being calledback to the Air Force Engineering and Services Center toserve as director of operations and maintenance.

In 1990, he was assigned to Langley AFB, Va., asdirector of environmental programs at HeadquartersTactical Air Command, followed by a position as directorof plans and programs at the Office of The Civil Engineer,Headquarters U.S. Air Force.

Gen Robbins then held two different command civilengineer positions, first at Headquarters Air Force SpaceCommand, Peterson AFB, Colo., and then at HeadquartersAir Combat Command, Langley AFB, Va., before becomingThe Air Force Civil Engineer in July 1999. Gen Robbins isa major general selectee.


have a place in our Air Force. That obviously is not the way thecompetitive sourcing and privatization initiative is beingimplemented.

The first point to remember is that both competitivesourcing and privatization are driven by economics. They aredriven by the fact that DoD has to reduce the cost of doingbusiness. It is accepted as a fact that you can do certainprocesses cheaper by, first of all, eliminating the militarycomponent and doing the job with civilians, and then perhapsdoing it with a contractor. The process by which we determinethis is the cost comparison study, the A-76 study.

All functional areas in the Air Force were asked to offer upcandidates to be considered in this process, and there werevery definite criteria used in deciding which positions to costcompare.

The first step is to determine if a position is military-essential. If it is not military-essential, then is it inherentlygovernmental? If it is not inherently governmental then, byimplication, it should be looked at for the potential to do it moreeconomically by contract.

That’s a simplification of the process by which ourpositions are being studied, but it pretty well captures it. Thekey thing to remember is we are looking for the most efficientorganization, and efficiency is defined pretty much byeconomics. Given the state of the Air Force budget, I think onecan easily realize we must determine a less expensive way to doour mission. It’s hard to argue on an emotional basis that weshouldn’t be doing this.

We have 10,433 positions that are candidates for

competitive sourcing — 17 percent of the CE population. Whenall the cost comparison studies are completed, we most surelywill have fewer people on the government payroll, however, theessential work will still be done — perhaps by contractors orperhaps by fewer government employees.

Going back to the initial criteria, whether or not we make aposition eligible for competitive sourcing or privatization, thefirst question we ask is, “Does it impact readiness?” If itimpacts readiness and it requires a military person to do it, thenthe position isn’t cost-compared. That’s why in ACC very littlecompetitive sourcing and privatization of civil engineeringfunctions will be done. Their Prime BEEF capability will bemaintained to the full extent required to support the TheaterCINCs, and that’s true in every other major command.

The CE: What do you see on the horizon for the militaryconstruction program?

Brig Gen Robbins: From the meetings I’ve been to during thefour weeks I’ve been in this job, the military constructionhorizon looks pretty bleak. The Air Force has more bills to paythan it has dollars to pay them. One of the sources of funds tohelp pay those bills is going to be the military constructionprogram.

I can’t tell you yet how bad the damage will be, but I willtell you from a CE perspective it’s not a pretty picture. We’regoing to have to wait for the corporate process to work, and atthe end we’ll find out what happens in the FY01-05 MILCONprogram.

The CE: Quality of life on base is a major factor in retention ofAir Force personnel, and CE plays an important part in that.What progress in quality of life improvements do you seehappening during your term?

Brig Gen Robbins: First of all, I refer back to my previouscomments about quality of life extending beyond traditionalthings, but I’ll focus on traditional quality of life programs likefamily housing, dormitories, dining halls, fitness centers, and soforth.

Off the top, I would say the Air Force track record isexceptional in this area. We’ve received incredible support fromCongress. Everyone acknowledges the role a dormitory, a familyhousing unit, affordable child care, or a dining hall can play inthe recruitment and retention picture. The Air Force hasstepped up to those requirements and spent a great amount ofmoney in the last several years, and it appears we will continueto focus on those facilities, particularly family housing anddormitories.

In the past five years, we’ve spent almost $70 million onchild development centers, more than $75 million on fitnesscenters, and about $134 million on dining halls, visitors’quarters and libraries. I’m not sure we can continue to make thatlevel of funding given the MILCON cuts I implied might come inthe near term. For example, we have planned to spend about $90million per year just for dormitories … I simply don’t know if wecan afford to do that.

Gen Robbins visited the New Horizons-Bolivia ’99 team June 29.Lt Col Sean Saltzman (left), and Maj Christopher Pollard, thecommander and deputy commander of the Combined TaskForce for the exercise, greeted him upon his arrival. NewHorizons ’99 is a series of exercises designed to build militarypartnerships and improve the quality of life for people in SouthAmerica, Central America and the Caribbean. Story page 26.(Photo by TSgt Scott Wagers)


The Secretary of the Air Force and Chief of Staff approvedthe Family Housing Master Plan. What we’re trying to do ismeet the DoD goal to fix our family housing by the year 2010.The bad news is there’s a shortage in the budget to satisfy thatgoal, but that will be part of the Air Force Council deliberationsover the next weeks and months. The question will be whetherwe can make the investment necessary to meet the 2010 goal orwhether we need to go back to the Office of the Secretary ofDefense and Congress and move that program past 2010.

The good news is that across most of the “traditional”quality of life spectrum we have a plan. We know where ourdeficiencies are, and we need quite an infusion of capital toaddress them.

It appears there’s going to be somewhere in the vicinity of$250 million in fitness center requirements identified, and wehope to fund those under MILCON. Our dormitoryimprovement program will buy out the 1 + 1 dorms and thedeficit that’s identified in the Dormitory Master Plan. Ourfriends in the Services community have a plan for non-appropriated fund construction of Temporary LodgingFacilities, which are vital to our families as they change dutystations.

Quality of life in its traditional definition, I believe, willcontinue to get strong support from the Air Force corporatestructure and Congress.

The CE: What changes do you foresee in the environmentalmission over the next several years?

Brig Gen Robbins: I don’t see a lot of change in the mission.The bottom line is the Air Force will lead the DoD and, in myopinion, lead the entire federal government in environmentalstewardship.

There will be a shift in emphasis and dollars fromcompliance to pollution prevention, trying to get the focusaway from end-of-pipe to start-of-pipe technologies. We wantto try to reduce the hefty environmental compliance bill we payevery year. The environmental restoration (cleanup) program ismoving along smartly. More and more we find remediationunderway as opposed to studies being conducted. It’s atremendous success story and we get great support from OSDand the Air Force on that program.

The most recent addition to our environmental agenda hasbeen in the international programs arena. Our involvement withother nations such as Norway, Russia, Italy, Argentina andIsrael fits well into the DoD and Air Force commitment to globalengagement, and we’ve received excellent support from Ms.Sherri Goodman and Mr. Gary Vest in OSD, and Mr. Tad McCallin the Air Force Secretariat.

The CE: How will partnering with other government agenciesand industry come into play during your term in the Office ofThe Civil Engineer?

Brig Gen Robbins: As I’ve been around many senior leaders inour career field during the last 20 years, it’s been apparent to methat nobody succeeds in this office operating alone. There are

many, many partners you must have if you’re going to succeed.General Lupia, in his interview with The CE while in this

office, acknowledged that fact and talked about this same issue,and he did a magnificent job of fostering those partnerships.

I’ll continue to build on what General Lupia leaves behindas his legacy. I’m talking in particular about our excellentworking relationships with Mr. Jimmy Dishner and Mr. TadMcCall at the Secretariat; with Ms. Sherri Goodman and Mr.Randall Yim in OSD; Maj Gen Milt Hunter and Admiral LouSmith, our design and construction agents at the Corps ofEngineers and Naval Facilities Engineer Command; and ourpartners in the private sector, the architect and engineeringfirms, the contractors and the consultants who help us accom-plish our mission every day.

Finally, General Lupia was very good about keeping ourretired officers and senior civilians informed about our currentand future direction. I certainly intend to continue that. There’sa group of individuals referred to as the Civil EngineerFounders — primarily retired CE colonels, general officers andsenior civilians. We publish an informal newsletter that’s sentout to the CE Founders periodically to keep them filled in onwhat’s going on. I’ll continue to provide that information and

will welcome the advice and counsel of these valued membersof our civil engineer family.

I’m honored beyond words that I have the opportunity tobe in this chair … it’s something I frankly never imagined wouldhappen. Whenever I start to feel really “down” about ourresource problems, I slap myself back to reality by remindingmyself we civil engineers — all 64,000 of us in the Active, Guardand Reserve force — still have more than $5.6 billion per year tomanage across our spectrum of facility- and infrastructure-related programs. While I’m acutely aware there are manydifficult days ahead, I’m equally confident the incrediblytalented and motivated airmen, NCOs, officers, civilians andcontractors who make us who we are can, and will, continue toprovide the best possible support for the Air Force mission andits people.

Gen Robbins visited Prime BEEF and RED HORSE constructionprojects in Haiti. (Photo courtesy HQ ACC)


by MSgt Jeffrey SchleyLangley AFB, Va.

U.S. Air Force civil engineers have been busy the last 18months gaining access to arduous terrain and clearingunexploded ordnance (UXO) in the jungles of Panama. Theirmission — to meet Air Force obligations under the PanamaCanal Treaty of 1977.

Under the treaty, the U.S. will transfer 353,895 acres of landback to Panama by the year 2000. Included in this land transferare the Empire, Balboa West and Piña/Fort Sherman Ranges,which comprise 47,832 acres.

Since before World War II, these ranges have been used totrain military personnel, from Panama and other countriesaround the world, in weapons handling and other defense-related activities. The ranges are located along the west bank ofthe Panama Canal and represent 13.9 percent of all landtransferred under the treaty.

The Air Force is responsible for returning Balboa Westrange land by the transfer deadlines and taking all steps tocontain, control or physically eliminate hazards associated withareas known or suspected to contain UXO. This difficultundertaking has involved the services of approximately 170 civilengineers and medics, the majority of whom were explosiveordnance disposal (EOD) personnel from several Air Forcemajor commands as well as the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S.Navy.

The task began in January 1998 with the surface clearanceof all tactical targets and roadways. The 1998 clearance wasfollowed this year by a one-foot, sub-surface clearance oftactical target areas and live ordnance target areas.

The 24th Civil Engineer Squadron EOD Flight, Howard AirForce Base, Panama, supervised the operation. The 24th CESOperations Flight supervised the building and tear-down of therange base camp and led the effort to build access roads andlay culvert, which is used as a shield during remote clearing.

One challenge in planning construction of the Balboa Westcompound was security. According to Lt Colleen Milligan, 24thCES maintenance engineering chief, it was necessary to have a24-hour guard on the premises from day one.

“It was impossible to leave anything unattended, whichadded an interesting dimension to our timeline,” she said. “Ourcontract to have a local guard on duty 24 hours a day, everyday, was costly but worth it in the end.”

The operation put to use state-of-the-art equipment suchas the RCPT (Remote Control Posi-Track), a remote controlvehicle (developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory as theAll-Purpose Remote Transport System) contracted to mow andplow tactical target areas, ensuring the safety of EOD members.

Mowing was necessary to clear the 7- to 8-foot tall grassand locate ordnance on the surface. Plowing ensured sensitivemunitions located just beneath the surface were jarred androlled up remotely, thereby not exposing EOD members to the

Clearingthe

Junglesof

PanamaAn aerial view of clearing operations at the Balboa West Bombing and Gunnery Range,Howard AFB, Panama. Explosive ordnance disposal teams cleared Balboa West in prep-aration for transfer of the land to the Government of Panama. (Photo courtesy 24th CES)

Remote subsurface plowing of airfield target. (Photo by LarryJohns)


hazards. It also alleviated the need for picks and shovels, whichare bad things to bang into a UXO.

“Lola (the RCPT’s nickname) was an extremely valuableasset to the clearance. The hardpack and rocks damaged Lolamany times, but she was easily repaired,” said SrA WaymonHubbard, 5th CES, Minot AFB, N.D. “Lola was the unsungheroine of the clearance, putting in the hardest working hours.Using Lola probably prevented a few problems from everoccurring. By turning the soil, it placed most of the ordnanceright on top, which made finding them very easy.

“One day when I was helping the contractor out, we saw abright flame and a familiar plume of smoke drifting up fromwhere she had just tilled,” said Hubbard. “Lola had just found aWhite Phosphorus munition the hard way. Better Lola than me.”

After the plowing was complete, EOD members establishedgrids on the target areas, used ordnance detectors to identifyanomalies, and carefully removed the ordnance items. Thisoperation was done in 100-degree weather, 8 to 10 hours a day.

Some portions of the range were so contaminated membershad to get on their hands and knees and pick the metalfragments from the soil. “This was the most arduous rangeclearance I have done in my 18 years in EOD,” said MSgtMichael Kollo, 377th CEG, Kirtland AFB, N.M. “The subsurfaceaspect was very difficult. I spent a lot of time on my hands andknees. The heat, insects and terrain all conspired to make it atough clearance.”

“Service integration was the key to the success of theBalboa West operation,” said SrA Casey Ross, 1st CES,Langley AFB, Va. “Air Force and Marine Corps EOD troopswere paired off and sent to work. Each had a broad workingknowledge of the ordnance items that were encountered. Beingan Air Force EOD troop, the information on ground ordnanceshared by my Marine counterpart was indispensable. Marinesdeal with infantry-type ordnance on a daily basis, and myselfwith air-delivered weapons. With that kind of pooledknowledge, we accomplished a safe, first-rate job.”

In addition to the surface UXO operation, Navy EOD teamscleared underwater areas around islands used by river patrols

for target practice. Underwater grids were laid out and two-mandive teams performed sweeps, searching from the high watermark and out 60 to 100 feet, working in 30- to 40-foot depths.During their operation they cleared approximately 23 UXO frommore than 25 acres of water.

Both surface and underwater operations were completedJune 4. In the final tally, over 13,000 man-hours were expendedsafely clearing approximately 185 acres of impact areas, water,roads and trails on Balboa Bombing and Gunnery Range. Theclearance resulted in the disposal of more than 4,000 UXOitems. More than 25 tons of target residue and 18 tons ofmunitions residue were turned in for recycling. The recyclingeffort will save DoD enormous costs in treatment, all the whileimproving environmental conditions in the surrounding rainforest. It was a job well done by all in this truly Joint Serviceclearance.

MSgt Jeffrey Schley was Air Combat Command’s EODfunctional manager for operations support, providingcommand oversight for range decontamination efforts. He isnow the EOD NCOIC of the Contingency Training Site atRamstein AB, Germany.

SrA Jason Birchfield, 355th CES, lines up BDUs (bomb dummyunits) for a demolition shot. (Photo by SrA Waymon Hubbard)

A 500-pound BDU-50 uncovered during vegetation removal.(Photo by Larry Johns)

Assorted munition residue and ordnance: 40 mm, 20 mm,small arms and White Phosphorus warhead cups. (Photo bySrA Ben Aster)

The CE F Fall 199912

by Maj Tim GreenAir Command and Staff College

Mentoring is one of civil engineer-ing’s primary tools for developing andinfluencing future leaders of our service.Squadron commanders can have apositive impact on officers under theircommand, themselves, their units andtheir career field as a whole when theyinvest time in mentoring.

Maintaining a healthy officer corpsto lead in the future is a significantcareer field challenge. In November1998, the Air Force Personnel Centerreported there were fewer CE lieutenantcolonels, majors and captains thanrequired for ideal force structure. If newaccessions remain below sustainmentlevels, there will continue to be ashortage of experienced mid- and senior-grade leaders in the future. Mentoringcan improve retention rates by creatingan environment where continued serviceis more desirable, along with having along-term positive impact on thecharacter of the civil engineerorganization.

Mentors are “growers”Air Force Instruction 36-3401, Air

Force Mentoring, defines a mentor as “atrusted counselor or guide” andmentoring as “a relationship in which aperson with greater experience andwisdom guides another person to developboth personally and professionally.” Agood word picture of mentoring wascreated by John Gardner, a man withtremendous experience in the military,government and industry. In his book OnLeadership, Gardner described mentors as“growers.” He wrote: “Mentors are

growers, good farmers rather thaninventors or mechanics. Growers haveto accept that the main ingredients andprocesses with which they work are notunder their control. They are in apatient partnership with nature, with aneye to the weather and a feeling forcultivation. A recognition that seedssometimes fall on barren ground, awillingness to keep trying, a concern forthe growing thing, patience — such arethe virtues of the grower. And thementor.”

Measuring influenceCivil engineer responses to the

1997 Chief of Staff of the Air ForceQuality of Life and Climate Surveys andthe 1998 Civil Engineer MentoringSurvey provided valuable insight intocivil engineer environment andperceptions.

The 1997 CSAF QOL Surveyresults quantified the long work hoursexperienced by most civil engineers(commanders averaged 66 hours perweek and company grade officersaveraged 52). The 1997 CSAF ClimateSurvey results showed civil engineerofficers have many positive perceptionsof their leadership and communication.

To complement this data, 152 civilengineers at Air War College, AirCommand and Staff College, SquadronOfficer School, Air Force Institute ofTechnology School of Civil Engineeringand the 42nd Civil Engineer Squadronat Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.,completed the CEMS. This survey,which was created for a 1998 researchproject, focused on the methodscommanders use to create contact timewith their officers and possiblequantitative and qualitative linksbetween strong mentors and retention.

The latest data from these surveys,along with previous leadership andmentoring research, demonstrateconsistent and positive benefits frommentoring. When commanders place apriority on people, they, their protégésand units reap the benefits. Protégéofficers benefit through improved

performance and effectiveness, which inturn increases promotion and jobopportunities as well as personal satis-faction. Mentor commanders benefitbecause the overall effectiveness of theirunit improves. Their power and influencewithin the unit and eventually the careerfield increase as protégés support thementor and his or her beliefs as theircareers develop. The mentors alsobenefit from the personal satisfaction ofseeing protégés succeed. The comman-ders who responded to the CEMS,primarily AWC students, spent moretime with junior officers and mentoredthem to a greater extent than most civil

engineer commanders. Thesecommanders were recognized andrewarded for their successes, primarily bypromotion to colonel or selection forAWC in-residence, with perhaps morerewards ahead. Civil engineer squadronsand the career field benefit because theiroverall effectiveness and performanceimprove. Perhaps the most importantorganizational benefit is that mentoring isdirectly linked to perceived organization-al support and contributes to increasedofficer corps loyalty and retention.

It takes time to be a mentorThe research demonstrated that

time invested in a mentoring relation-ship is the most critical factor to itssuccess. Conversely, the biggestobstacle to mentoring by civil engineercommanders is lack of time. CEMSresults show that many commanders donot make the time needed to be effectivementors. Even though 93 percent of

Mentoring Grows Leaders

“Bottom Line: I would doanything to avoid disap-pointing my mentors. Iwant them to be proud ofthe job I do.”

Lieutenant Colonel, 1998CEMS Respondent

“The true measure ofleadership is influence —nothing more, nothingless.” John C. Maxwell

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Lead-ership


CEMS survey respondents hadcommanders with stated “open door”policies, the same respondents believedless than half the commanders success-fully created many opportunities forcontact time.

The most common method ofcreating time for officer development isregularly holding officer calls, informalsocial gatherings and organizedphysical training activities. These areeasy to set up and keep on the calendar.

Surprisingly, unit membersindicated 25 percent of squadroncommanders held officer calls biannuallyor less, 31 percent held informalgatherings biannually or less, and 57percent participated in some type ofphysical training with their officersbiannually or less.

When commanders limit theirinteraction with their officers in order tocomplete “more important” work, theylimit their ability to influence the officersand their organization. Alarmingly, only44 percent of respondents believed theircommander had a positive influence ontheir decision to remain in the servicewhile 48 percent believed their commanderhad no influence. Eighty-two percent ofthese same respondents “agreed” or“strongly agreed” mentoring played a rolein the desirability of continued service andthat mentoring played an “important” or“very important” role in individualdecisions to remain in the service. Theresearch also found civil engineer unitswith higher officer retention werecommanded by officers who invested agreater amount of time in their officersthan an average commander. Theadditional time translated into additionalinfluence. This suggests young officersare looking for mentors and leaders tofollow and finding a significantpercentage of squadron commandersunavailable.

The mentoring environment is fertile.The climate survey shows civil engineersthink their job is important and trust theirleadership. They believe commanders cancommunicate and motivate. Officers aremaking decisions to remain in the service,despite perceived lower pay and benefitswhen compared with the private sector.Most importantly these officers arelooking for leaders willing to establishrelationships that will have a positiveimpact on their lives. Many commandersneed to continue “growing” youngofficers into leaders while others need tobegin planting today. The seeds are in thefield, the ground is fertile, andcommanders should nurture the crop. Ourfuture depends on the harvest.

“[Air Force] Mentoringprogram is, in my opinion,another flowerpot in thewindow — it looks nice,but really just sits there. Thereason — real mentoringtakes time.”

Lieutenant, 1999 CEMSRespondent

“Making one’s self avail-able to subordinates andtaking an active role inshaping their lives/careersis, or should be, a key partof being a leader/officer.Yet, for whatever reason, it’sbeen my experience thatthe overwhelming majorityof commanders/senior of-ficers don’t have time (ordon’t care to make time) tofulfill this critical aspect oftheir leadership responsi-bilities.”

Lieutenant Colonel, 1999CEMS Respondent

The 10 Roles of a MentorEffective mentors wear many hats in the

relationship. Authors Daniel Lea and Zandy B.Leibowitz identified the following 10 roles of amentor in their article in Supervisory Managementmagazine, “A Mentor: Would You Know One IfYou Saw One?”

Role Modeling A mentor is someone theprotégé can emulate. Often protégés uncon-sciously pattern mannerisms after the mentor. Inessence, the mentor is often the “mythical ‘whoyou want to be when you grow up’ or sometimesthe ‘who you don’t want to be’.”

Teaching A mentor “instructs the mentee inthe specific skills and knowledge necessary forsuccessful job performance…”

Guiding Helping protégés through the“unwritten rule” minefield speeds their assimilationinto an organization and keeps them fromunknowingly isolating themselves through variousactions or inactions.

Advising The difference between guidingand advising is the initiation of the discussion. Theprotégé usually asks for advice while the mentortypically initiates giving guidance..

Motivating Motivating is simply providing the“encouragement and impetus for the mentee toact toward achievement” of his/her goals.

Communicating A mentor “establishes openlines of communication” so that concerns are“discussed clearly and effectively.” It is important torealize “communication is insufficient by itself toinsure good mentoring” and the other roles ofmentoring are hindered by poor communication.

Validating Mentors play an important role inhelping protégés develop their aspirations. “Thementor evaluates, possibly modifies, and finallyendorses the mentee’s goals and aspirations.”

Counseling This role emphasizes emotionalsupport in stressful times using empathy, under-standing and encouragement.

Sponsoring Mentors can use their influenceto ensure protégés have “growth opportunities.”This basically involves putting protégés in a positionto grow in new areas, but it does not mean theywill be successful. Once doors are open, success isup to the protégé, not the mentor.

Protecting A mentor provides a “safeenvironment” where “the mentee can makemistakes without losing self-confidence.” Protect-ing can also carry a negative connotation. If amentor “protects” the protégé to the extent thathe never faces any consequences from hismistakes then others perceive this “protection” tobe unfair.

Maj Tim Green is now a MilitaryConstruction Program Manager,Engineering Division, Office of The CivilEngineer. His article highlights practi-cal application portions of The Art ofMentoring in the Base Civil Engineer-ing Community, a 1999 Air Commandand Staff College research paper. Acomplete copy of the paper can beobtained from the Air UniversityLibrary, DSN 493-7223/2888


More than 700 civil engineers were in theater during the Kosovo crisis. CE provided critical construction and air operationssupport for NATO Operation Allied Force at air bases throughout Europe, and for Joint Task Force Shining Hope at Rinas Interna-tional Airfield in Tirana, Albania. The following pages contain reports from some of the many CEs who made a difference in thecampaign against Slobodan Milosevic’s military regime and in the Kosovar refugee relief efforts in Albania and the FormerYugoslav Republic of Macedonia, some from as far away as Southwest Asia …

What was once home to thousands of Air Force membersand joint and combined forces supporting Operation SouthernWatch is no more. Tent City at Prince Sultan Air Base, SaudiArabia, is now just a memory thanks to Operation Desert Shift.

Almost 900 tents and all associated infrastructure wereremoved by the men and women of Bare Base, the 49th MaterielMaintenance Group, Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. More than600 of these tents were airlifted to house Kosovar refugees inAlbania and Macedonia.

The Bare Basers, specialists from both the civil engineerand logistics communities, didn’t do it alone, though. A teamfrom the 653rd Combat Logistics Support Squadron fromRobins AFB, Ga., deployed to assist with tent packing, and, forone day, roughly 2,000 personnel from the 363rd AirExpeditionary Wing came out for “Tear Down Tuesday.”

“The 363 AEW held the largest mobility exercise I haveever witnessed in my career,” said Lt Col Edward “Lance”Laverdure, U.S. Air Forces Central Command (USCENTAF)chief of supply and retrograde team commander for the TentCity tear down. According to Laverdure, the April 6 tear downwas the fastest tent drop of this size in Air Force history.

The original plan was to allow 60 days to accomplish thetear down, removal and packing of all Harvest Falcon assets inTent City, which were no longer needed as a result of the 363rdAEW moving into the Friendly Forces Housing Complex(FFHC). But as the refugee situation in the Balkans worsened,the call was made for almost all the tents to be shipped fromPrince Sultan to the Kosovo area of responsibility in just twoweeks. While Bare Base is known for setting camp installationand tear down records, this cut their time frame by 75 percent.

The Bare Base team accepted USCENTAF’s challenge andhit the ground running on day one, but even the incredibly fastpace they were setting wasn’t going to be fast enough for therefugees. For this reason, Bare Base’s officer in charge went tothe 363rd AEW with a request for 300 people. The wingresponded with 2,000 volunteers for one day, forever makingApril 6, 1999, known as Tear Down Tuesday. This tremendouscooperative effort gave Bare Base the added boost it needed tomake the two-week time frame.

Tear Down Tuesday was an incredible undertaking, butwhat followed was even more impressive. For the next 10 days,85 people divided into seven different crews that werecompletely integrated and focused on one goal — tearingdown tents to send to the Kosovar refugees. Crated palletswere constructed for the packers as they followed behind thetent tear down crews. The forklift operators never stoppedmoving and the shipment crews did everything they could toprep all of the packaged tents for airlift to the refugees. Therewas even a crew scrounging cots, blankets, bedding, pillowsand a few boots to send out as well.

by Capt Michael SheredyHolloman AFB, N.M.

Tent City Tear DownBenefits Kosovar Refugees

TSgt Conrad Andry leads his tent demo crew in dropping aTEMPER tent at the former Tent City, Prince Sultan AB. Almost900 tents were removed from Tent City during Operation DesertShift. (Photos by Capt Michael Sheredy)


By the end of the two weeks, all of the tents were torndown and packed in tri-wall boxes with their frames in crated463L pallets, ready for airlift, along with more than 2,000 cotsand several hundred blankets and pillows. The team hadworked 14-plus hour days for 14 straight days — finishing thejob right on time.

After their two-week sprint, the Bare Base team was able torelax a little and get back to the original plan. The team droppedits crew size to a steady 57, no longer requiring augmenteesfrom the wing, and the work schedule was cut to 10-hour days,six days a week. Now that the rush was over, the focus was onpreparing a package for Bright Star ’99 and shipping theremainder of the assets to Thumrait, Oman, for reconstitution.

The Bare Base team then moved on to their other taskings.Structures specialists erected a frame-supported, tensionedfabric shelter to be used as the new Community Activity Centerin the FFHC and relocated six general purpose shelters. Workwas accomplished on several aircraft hangars as well. Once thiswork was completed, Bare Base went to all of the HF facilityassets and large commercial HF-like facilities to make repairsand perform maintenance. This was the team’s way of saying“thanks” to the wing and to the 363rd Expeditionary CivilEngineer Squadron for all their support.

Bare Base had lived up to its slogan of “Unique, Flexible,Mobile.” The scope of their mission changed a few times along

the way, but by the time they redeployed on May 22, Bare Basehad provided support for Operations Desert Shift, ShiningHope and Southern Watch and for Bright Star ’99, touchedevery large facility at Prince Sultan Air Base and Eskan Village(87 in all) and provided briefings to the USCENTAF-J4 and the9th Air Force vice commander. Oh yeah, not to mention, TentCity no longer exists. What Base? … BARE BASE!

Capt Michael Sheredy, 49th Materiel MaintenanceSquadron electrical flight commander, Holloman AFB, N.M.,was the leader of the Bare Base team in charge of dismantlingPrince Sultan Air Base’s Tent City.

CE Staff Report

Serb military forces drove more than 800,000 ethnicAlbanians out of Kosovo after NATO began air strikesMarch 24. Many victims of the ethnic cleansing moved inwith friends or relatives in neighboring Montenegro,Macedonia and Albania; approximately 90,000 were sentto 29 other nations, including 8,500 to the U.S.; and

hundreds of thousands were housed in camps, mainly inAlbania.

The Air Force Contract Augmentation Program wasused to establish the first U.S.-sponsored refugee campnear Fier, Albania, under Operation Sustain Hope.Construction on Camp Hope began April 27 and the firstrefugees moved in May 12. By mid-June, there were morethan 3,400 refugees living in the camp. Originally plannedto house up to 20,000 refugees, Camp Hope was nearcompletion and a second AFCAP camp, Camp Eagle, waswell underway when the Military Technical Agreement wassigned June 9.

United States Air Forces in Europe civil engineersprovided on-site quality assurance and general oversightduring construction. The AFCAP contractor, ReadinessManagement Support, erected 1,820 general purposecanvas tents and associated infrastructure in completingCamp Hope before turning it over to the Cooperative forAmerican Relief Everywhere (C.A.R.E.), a non-governmental relief organization, June 26.

The AFCAP program allows the Air Force to contractsupportive, non-combatant services during disasterresponse and humanitarian relief actions, so that militarycivil engineers and resources may be used for othermissions as required. AFCAP services include baseoperating support, temporary construction, and installationsupport services for military operations other than war.

Camp Hope was a joint effort between the U.S. military, contractorsand non-governmental organizations to meet the needs ofKosovar refugees. (Photo by SSgt Chris Steffen)

AFCAP builds U.S.refugee camp in Albania

Structures specialists from the 49th Materiel Maintenance Groupdisassemble a General Purpose Shelter for relocation to the newFriendly Forces Housing Complex at Prince Sultan AB.


The Kosovo crisis provided anopportunity for RED HORSE to test theirnew hub-and-spoke concept ofoperations, aligned with the Air Forcedoctrine of “Lighter, Leaner, and moreLethal.” A team from the 823rd REDHORSE Squadron, Hurlburt Field, Fla.,was able to deploy personnel and minorequipment sets throughout Europe froma command cell at Ramstein Air Base,Germany, and marry them up withprepositioned assets from the 31st REDHORSE Flight at Camp Darby, Italy. Theconcept worked successfully during thedeployment, which lasted from April 13to July 20, even as the team encounteredevery conceivable type of fog-of-warproblem.

Rinas International Airfield, Tirana,Albania — A Lesson in Deep Mud

What greeted the RED HORSE teamas they deplaned at sunrise, April 16, atRinas International Airfield in Tirana,Albania, was an airfield congested withsome 3,000 members of U.S. Army TaskForce Hawk, 400 members of Joint TaskForce Shining Hope’s airfield operation,and about 300 NATO personnel fromBelgium, Germany, France and England.

C-17s, C-130s, IL-77s, Apache andUH-53 helicopters and commercial flightsall competed for the same limited airspaceover a single runway with one paralleltaxiway. This created a dangerousenvironment in the air and on the groundwhere the RED HORSE team would beoperating.

Excessive use of tracked vehicles,removal of ground cover and installationof tents and infrastructure during therainy season (it rained every day for 42consecutive days) had turned the

encampment into a knee-deep quagmire.The encampment itself was a tribute

to the massive effort by the 86th CivilEngineer Group from Ramstein Air Base,Germany, who completed the initial AirForce beddown on an old soccer fieldcomplex and parking area.

Tent space at the airfield wasseverely limited, so the first challengewas to locate an area to bed down theeight-person advance team, then find anarea large enough (and dry enough) tosupport the beddown of an additional 94RED HORSE personnel.

The air base provided an area thatwas adjacent to the perimeter fence —and under 18 inches of water. Assetswere scarce, so a request was sent to theRED HORSE command cell at RamsteinAB, Germany, for vehicles and heavyequipment. In the meantime, the teambegan preparing their beddown siteusing a 1954 Russian-made bulldozer andone truckload of unwashed river rock perday.

Task Force Hawk had priority on allairlift at this time, so arranging airlift for38 vehicles and pieces of heavyequipment from the RED HORSE depotat Camp Darby was very unlikely. The

command cell at Ramstein was able toobtain RH1 assets (tents, generators,food, water, vehicles and tool sets) forthe team in Albania within 72 hours.

Airlift for the RH2 assets, however,could not be validated, scheduled anddelivered by the arrival date of thefollow-on 94-person team. RED HORSEelements at Ramstein and Camp Darbybegan coordinating alternate sealift fromthe port of Livorno, Italy, to the port ofDurres, Albania. This proved challengingsince port operations had not beenestablished at Durres.

Due to limited availability ofconstruction materials in Albania, REDHORSE logistics personnel beganprocuring plywood, framing wood,geotextile materials and tools. Theseassets were nested in the beds of 10- and20-ton dump trucks, decks of flatbedtrucks and any other area where materialscould be stored before shipment toprovide RED HORSE personnel theability to begin operating immediately.

The RH2 set was delivered by sealiftin four days. RED HORSE line-hauledtheir own assets over 45 miles ofcongested, one-lane roads between theport and camp. This requiredconsiderable coordination with SecurityForces, Army personnel, Intelligence andthe U.S. Navy (which was establishingport operations).

It took four trips, averaging 15 milesper hour, to get all of the vehicles,construction materials and tent cityassets to Tirana. With orders to drivethrough any roadblocks or vehiclesblocking the roads, to be off all roads bysunset and to shoot if shot at, it made fora very tense, very long day.

With the arrival of its equipment, theteam was ready to begin construction;

RED HORSEand the

Balkan Air Campaign —Seven Sites in Five Countries

in 100 Days

Perimeter road work at Rinas Airport, Tirana,Albania. (Photos courtesy 823rd RHS)


however obtaining concrete, rock andasphalt continued to be a challenge.

In the end RED HORSE personnelcompleted the following in Albania:• Replaced the failed C-17 operations

ramp• Improved 3.5 miles of camp and

perimeter supply roads• Constructed a medical evacuation

helicopter operations pad• Upgraded power to Air Force tent

city and installed 100 environmentalcontrol units

• Began construction of a new 1,000-foot concrete taxiway to replace ataxiway destroyed by Shining Hopeoperations. The taxiway wascompleted by the 820th RHS, NellisAFB, Nev., which deployed tocomplete any Kosovo reconstruc-tion actions required by U.S. AirForces in Europe and OperationAllied Force commanders.

Operation Allied Force Heats UpAviano AB

Aviano AB, Italy, became the primarylaunch platform for the air campaign overKosovo and Yugoslavia. The 31st CES atAviano constructed a 5,000-person tentcity to help support this operation.Twelve RED HORSE electricians, powerproduction specialists and equipmentoperators deployed to Aviano May 3 toupgrade existing power distribution

systems to support the additional load.With equipment support from the

31st RED HORSE Flight at Camp Darby,Italy, and a 100 percent complete designand material list from the 31st CES, theteam was ready to start. Project scopeincluded installing 1.5 miles of primarydistribution cable, three substations,three secondary distribution lines with 27power panels and 224 commercially

procured, locally manufactured airconditioning units.

With summer coming and a lack ofair conditioning in tent city, the team wasasked to complete the project by June 15— an achievable timeline by RED HORSEstandards, but as of mid-May only oneout of 64 scheduled air conditioningunits had been delivered.

After considerable negotiation, the

contractor agreed to begin supplying 25units per week beginning June 5. REDHORSE flowed an additional 10 personnelinto Aviano from the pool at Ramstein toinstall these units without impactingcompletion of the primary and secondarydistribution systems.

Meanwhile, temporary generatorswere installed to run the system until thesubstations could be fabricated. Creatingthe required load to run the generatorswithout burning them out requiredinstalling another 30 units andreconfiguring the supporting powerpanels. With this Band-Aid fix in place,RED HORSE continued completion of theprimary and secondary distributionsystems while installing air conditioningunits as they arrived.

RED HORSE redeployed aftersuccessfully hooking up the system oncethe substations were delivered andrunning the required tests to completethe project.

JTF Noble Anvil — Taszar,Hungary

Col Glenn Haggstom, the USAFECivil Engineer, directed the RED HORSEcommand cell to evaluate airfield repairsand upgrades at Taszar AB, Hungary, tosupport deployment of three squadronsof Marine Corps F-18 Hornets and onesquadron of Air Force A-10 Warthogs forJoint Task Force Noble Anvil.

Members of the 820th RHS, Nellis AFB, Nev., (above) and the 823rd RHS, Hurlburt field,Fla., (left) constructed a new 1,000-foot taxiway at Rinas Airport, Tirana, Albania.

(Photo by SrA Gina Prescott)

(Photo by TSgt Cesar Rodriguez)

Installing primary distribution cable atAviano AB, Italy.


Upon arrival on April 28, the teamfound almost 80,000 square meters ofnon-operational taxiway, severelylimiting C-130 Bosnia Stabilization Forces(SFOR) operations at Taszar. The taxiwaywould require milling and installation of a3-inch asphalt lift.

Limited availability of equipment inthe area required RED HORSE to bringtheir milling machine and paver.Additional assets were needed, but airliftwas still severely limited.

There were RED HORSE assets atCamp Eagle, Bosnia, which could be line-hauled via the Army Brown & Rootconvoy. However, the contractor couldnot respond in less than 28 days unlessRED HORSE provided drivers and anarmed “shotgun” rider in each vehicle.

RED HORSE deployed eightpersonnel to Bosnia on May 4 to marryup with the Army convoy for the nextthree days.

Milling operations ran for 96 hoursstraight (two 10-man crews working 12hours per day) until the machine blew acylinder and went down for maintenance.A heated search for parts ensued.

Eventually the milling machine wasrepaired and the remainder of the taxiwayrepair completed, enabling deploymentof Marine aircraft two weeks ahead ofschedule.

RED HORSE completed thefollowing work at Taszar, totaling $1.1million:• Milled and overlayed 80,000 square

meters of Taxiway Echo• Constructed a 250’ x 100’ hot cargo

marshalling area• Constructed a 100’ x 100’ RAPCON

relocation pad

Lt Col Mark TissiRamstein AB, Germany

The Prime BEEF team from the 86thCivil Engineer Group at Ramstein AirBase, Germany, deployed to RinasInternational Airport in Tirana, Albania, inearly April to support Joint Task ForceShining Hope, the core of humanitarianoperations in the Balkans during theKosovo conflict.

A seven-person advance team ofPrime BEEF members arrived April 4, andanother 98 followed April 7. Their job wasto set up a 450-person tent city (whichultimately became 800) to support thetranshipment, by helicopter and truck, ofhumanitarian relief supplies that werearriving by air.

The team first had to “build” land byspreading thousands of tons of rock overthe site, which was an old soccer fieldnear the flightline, to overcome severedrainage problems. As the equipmentoperators progressed, the team set upmore than 100 TEMPER tents for use asworkspace, billets, dining, medical care,AAFES, field showers and field latrinesbefore the majority of Prime BEEFpersonnel redeployed on April 30.

The 36 personnel who remainedsustained the camp while continuing withsite improvements, such as installingwood tent floors, erecting more tents asthe population expanded, and placingprotective barriers around the campperimeter. Fourteen members of the 48thCivil Engineer Squadron from RAFLakenheath, England, arrived in late Mayto augment the sustainment force.

The team put forth a tremendous

Dormitory Renovation atBirgi AB

At Birgi AB, Trapani, Italy, theproject was to renovate a 300-persondormitory, install a 100’ x 120’ ammunitionbuild-up pad with lightning protectionand install an Expedient Airfield LightingSystem (EALS). This later increased toinclude renovation of an additional 204-person dormitory and initial basesustainment operations pending thearrival of a 51-man Prime BEEF lead teamfrom Offutt AFB, Neb.

Again, one of the biggest challengesfacing this RED HORSE team wasprocurement of materials, due to Birgi’s

remote location. Factor in a cash-onlyeconomy and a very specialized shopsystem, and acquiring constructionmaterials to complete work became adaily chore.

Once the team began renovating thedormitory, which was also the deployedhome of RED HORSE, the full extent ofthe dilapidation and difficulty becameapparent. The building was filled withtrash and old furniture — a haven forrodents and biting insects.

Renovation required completereplacement of all electrical conduit,distribution lines, sinks, water closets,bidets, marble stair treads, windows anddoors. Walls were repaired and painted.

Plumbing work was challenging dueto the Italian standard of using wrappedhorsehair on pipe joints instead of Teflontape. This was severely labor intensiveand added significantly to the manpower

SSgt Steven Stanford, 823rd RHS,repairs and preps dormitory walls forpainting at Trapani, Italy.

See RED HORSE, page 23Airfields Flight members pave TaxiwayEcho at Taszar, Hungary.


effort during the entire deployment, but there is one day thatstands out most prominently in my mind — one day thattypified the spirit and dedication of these troops.

Little, if any, Harvest Eagle assets arrived duringthe first four to five days after we arrived at Tirana.Then, on April 13, we received several boxes, enablingus to accelerate setup of the camp. Unfortunately, aswe got the boxes onto the site at about 1 p.m., theskies opened up and a deluge of rain began — not amist or a shower, but the kind of steady, torrential rainthat was not unusual during that first week.

Over the next five hours, the CE team worked inponchos and Gortex, being pelted by rain as theyerected 14 TEMPER tents atop a gravel base withliners, lights, and power (heaters and wood floorsdidn’t arrive for a few more days).

Then, after “high fives” all around, Lodgingprojected they would need still more bedspaces toaccommodate personnel due to arrive later thatevening. The troops regrouped and erected three moretents in the fading daylight and continuing rain.

In the meantime, a crew went to work with shovels andrakes to open up the drainage ditches and culverts we hadinstalled to clear them of debris that was blocking the flowof water off the site.

In a span of about seven hours, we had more thandoubled the capacity of the camp — despite miserableconditions — and the camp was finally showing signs ofbeing able to weather the rains which had previouslyturned it into a puddled, muddy swamp.

In retrospect, this was certainly the day these CEtroops became a team — much more than the sum total ofits parts.

The next day there were more than a few sore throatsand sniffles from colds, but not a complaint or whine in thebunch. They were ready to take on whatever showed upnext on the ramp. I was honored to be with them and wouldtake them on another deployment anywhere, anytime!

Lt Col Mark Tissi was commander of the 86th CEG PrimeBEEF team at Tirana, Albania.

Tirana beddowndisplays spirit,

dedication of CEtroops

(Photo by SSgt Efrain Gonzalez)

(Photo by SSgt Efrain Gonzalez)

The 86th CEG Prime BEEF team worked vigorously to build up infra-structure at Rinas International Airport in Tirana, Albania, to supportJoint Task Force Shining Hope. (Photo by TSgt Cesar Rodriguez)


CE Staff Report

In the weeks since NATO forcesmoved into Kosovo and Serb military andpolice forces began to withdraw, themajority of those involved in the Kosovoconflict have gone home, includinghundreds of thousands of Kosovarrefugees. Now a main concern is notproviding the refugees with shelter butprotecting them from land mines andunexploded ordnance (UXO).

When Serb forces withdrew they leftbehind munitions, weapons andammunition. Other dangers includeunexploded Serb, Kosovo LiberationArmy and NATO ordnance. Explosiveordnance disposal technicians from allNATO forces are deployed to Kosovo tolocate and dispose of these UXO as partof the peacekeeping mission of NATO’sOperation Joint Guardian.

Joint Army, Navy and Air Force EODteams are operating out of threelocations: a force protection team atCamp Able Sentry in Skopje, Macedonia,

and two forward locations in the U.S.sector of Kosovo at Camp Monteith andCamp Bondsteel.

The 366th Expeditionary CivilEngineer Squadron is the Air Forcecomponent of this joint service, Army-ledeffort. Its 17 EOD members represent the99th CES, Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.; the4th CES, Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C.;the 75th Civil Engineer Group, Hill AFB,Utah; the 437th CES, Charleston AFB,S.C.; the 52nd CES, Spangdahlem AirBase, Germany; and the Air Force CivilEngineer Support Agency, Tyndall AFB,

Fla. Eight personnel from the366th CES, Mountain Home AFB,Idaho, recently redeployed.

The joint service EOD teamhas been working since July toassess 176 target sites in the U.S.sector, and averages four toseven calls a day for munitionsevaluation and/or UXO clearance.

“In the EOD business, notonly is there a mission to supportthe launch and recovery ofaircraft when we’re dropping thebombs, but there’s also a missionto clean up the bombsafterwards,” said CMSgt DavidBrown, Headquarters Air ForceCivil Engineer Support Agency.

Brown was deployed to the U.S. AirForces in Europe staff, and was primarilyinvolved in establishing the joint EODteams for Kosovo operations.

“In this campaign there were somany munitions dropped — there’s anestimated 11,000 UXOs just from clusterbombs plus guided bomb units, missiles,cruise missiles and all the Alliedmunitions — that there is a tremendousUXO problem.”

Cluster bombs are an especiallydangerous threat to those in Kosovobecause they are so sensitive. Accordingto Chief Brown, EOD doesn’t attempt toclear a cluster bomb if the wind isblowing too hard.

“We have equipment in country todeal with that and other threats. Wedeployed robotic equipment early onwith the first teams, primarily Air ForceResearch Lab’s All-Purpose RemoteTransport System (ARTS),” said Brown.“We’ve used them for intended andunintended purposes, and they workvery well. During our compound buildup,the ARTS was used in a support role withbucket and backhoe attachments and theremote system disconnected (personneldriven) to clear and level areas forTEMPER tents, move equipment andexplosive pallets, spread crushed stone

EOD Teams ClearKosovo

SrA Kevin Conklin, 75th CEG, balances a load ofmunitions found in a destroyed ammunition depottogether with two Army EOD members. SrA StuartWylie, 75th CEG, and SSgt Michelle Barefield, 4th CES,help to steady the munitions from the truck.

SrA Michael Stimpson, 4th CES, searches a crater for any remaining explosive hazardsafter a munitions detonation near Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo. (U.S. Army photos)


for walkways and driveways, and evendig a drainage ditch.

“Operationally, the ARTS was usedin an aborted attempt to recover a deeplyburied Mk 80-series bomb. The ARTSworked as advertised — and then some,”said Brown.

In addition to the large number ofUXO on the ground, the region’s terrain

and climate have posedchallenges as well.

“The daily challenges weface range from driving onextremely narrow roads alongmountainous cliffs to keepingvehicles and sensitiveelectronic equipmentfunctioning,” said Capt JamesGreene, 366 ECES officer incharge.

“We’ve already lost anumber of side mirrors fromour HMMWVs (high-mobilitymulti-purpose wheeledvehicles) to overgrowth along

these roads, which are actually paths forhorse carts.

“When we arrived in mid-July,temperatures were in the 90s and theentire camp was in a virtual haze, withdust devils swirling all around,” saidGreene. “Computer equipment isespecially vulnerable in this environment.The TEMPER tents and environmental

control units, along with some TLC, havebeen critical in keeping our systems upand the dust out.”

In addition to EOD, the 52nd CEScontributed 12 civil engineers —structural technicians, HVAC, heavyequipment operators, electricians, powerproduction and plumbers — to beddownNavy, Air Force, and Army EOD andsustain Camp Bondsteel.

The 12 CEs volunteered to helprenovate and repair a couple of localschoolhouses so classes could begin ontime. The joint service EOD team took onthe challenge of searching each of the 224schools in the U.S.-controlled sector formines, boobytraps, or other weapons leftover from the conflict.

“This team is extremely proud to beable to help the people of this region,”said Greene. Just seeing the faces of thechildren along the roads as they shouttheir appreciation is enough to know thatwhat we’re doing is right, and a responsi-bility which we take very seriously.”

CE continues to support the fight for Kosovo through EOD and beddown missions within the province itself, and by stepping outto help the most helpless of its citizens, as in this personal account by SSgt James Ludwig, 52nd CES, Spangdahlem AB, Germany.

When my unit was tasked to support relief efforts in Kosovo, Ivolunteered with 11 others to support the EOD teams that wereclearing ordnance in the U.S. sector. Our tasking was to set up andmaintain a camp until permanent facilities were built.

After the initial setup, we began taking on the odd jobs that comewith a deployment. One day I was at the field hospital and noticedthat the air conditioning wasn’t working properly. I asked a lieutenantto show me the hospital’s system. Now, I’m not an HVAC guy, I’m astructural technician, but I wanted to do something to help.

As we walked through the intensive care unit the first thing Inoticed was a badly bruised woman asleep on a bed. Beside her was afield hospital bed with two pieces of plywood on each side and ducttape wrapped around it. Being a carpenter, I noticed the wood andasked the nurse what it was for. She informed me that it was a

makeshift crib for an 18-month old baby girl who, along with her mother, had been shot while in their home during someunrest in a local town. The child’s father had died during the incident. The nurse said the plywood was all they had for thetime being.

I looked in the plywood and there was a child with IVs and tubes all around her. I asked what her name was, then atthat point I had to leave. I told the nurse I had to get back to work, but that wasn’t my real reason for leaving. I was afraid Iwas going to break down, especially being the father of three girls myself.

I went back to my tent and started cutting two-by-fours and sanding. Before I knew it my team members were helpingme. Some were sanding, some cutting, some putting parts together. “What do you need me to do?” they were saying,“It’s no problem for a child.” We finished that night and took the crib to the hospital.

An Army colonel asked for the names of the team, maybe for a letter of appreciation or a coin. I told the colonel Iwould try, but we hadn’t done this for recognition or praise, but simply because there was a child who had been through alot of bad things and she at least deserved a crib.

SSgt Harvey Bowling, 99th CES, passes ordnance toSrA Michael Stimpson, 4th CES, to place on a demoshot.

(Photo by SSgt James Ludwig)


One Saturday afternoon thisFebruary, Air Force Academy firefighterswere faced with a tragic situation thattested both the physical and mentalabilities of the responding members. Thedistressing nature of the emergency wassuch that help was required from thecounty Critical Incident StressManagement (CISM) team.

The emergency, which occurred onthe portion of Interstate 25 that is on theAcademy, involved two vehicles with atotal of 11 victims. One vehicle was aking-cab pickup truck with sevenoccupants, including a 1-year-old baby.The other, a full-size van, had fouroccupants. None of the occupants werewearing seatbelts. The van blew a fronttire and careened across the median intooncoming traffic. It hit the pickup head-on. Of the seven passengers in thepickup, five were killed instantly,

including the baby. Two people wereejected from the van and were also killed.

Responders had to remove deceasedvictims before they could initiateextrication of the remaining patients.Firefighters stayed on the scene to assistthe coroner with body removal andidentification. These actions had aprofound impact on many of them.

The incident commander recognizedthe need for CISM. A call was made tothe county CISM Team, and theyprovided a representative within the hourto determine the best method ofdebriefing personnel. Although there isnormally a 48- to 72-hour lapserecommended between the incident andthe debriefing, it was felt that the needsof these personnel had to be addressedthat day.

A debriefing was set up for thatevening at one of the Academy firestations. All responders, includingAcademy firefighters, Colorado Springsfirefighters and police, Colorado statetroopers, and county fire dispatcherswere offered the opportunity to attend.

The CISM team provided a speciallytrained peer group of counselors familiarwith what the responders had beenthrough. The debrief was private, whichfacilitated the process and allowedfirefighters to share their innermostfeelings with others in the group. The

CISM team requested participants berelieved from responding to other callsduring the debrief so the group wouldnot be disturbed. The team also offeredto provide follow-up care on anindividual basis.

Every fire department should have achecklist for CISM team activation. Manybase medical facilities provide thisservice, but a team comprised of peers ispreferable. You must be able to determinewhich asset provides the most benefit toyour personnel.

When determining the need forCISM, remember that personnel on thesame scene may be affected differentlyby the task at hand. Each respondershould be evaluated individually to bestmeet their needs. Additionalconsiderations when determining theneed for CISM include:

• How severe was the incident?• How is it affecting the responders?• Were there compounding factors,

such as multiple fatalities or youngchildren involved?

• Did firefighters know the victims?• What is the experience level of the

responders? Are they youngfirefighters who have not witnessedtraumatic incidents before?

• How much hands-on rescue workhad to be done with the victims?

Critical IncidentStress

Management

Air Force fire departments may not need Critical Incident Stress Management often, but when situations arise that could create adevastating effect on responders, incident commanders must recognize this situation and react quickly so personnel can get theassistance they need to get back to their normal routines.

A MAST Blackhawk leaves the scene of a multiple-fatality accident that occurred on Interstate 25 on the U.S. Air Force Academy. ACritical Incident Stress Management debriefing helped responders recover from their experience and return to their jobs. (Photoscourtesy Colorado Springs Fire Department)

by Jim RacklAir Force Academy Fire Department

The Air Force Academy FireDepartment protects alarge, active installationcomprising over 18,000 acresof land, one of the busiestairfields in the Air Force, amajor north-south rail line,and an 8-mile stretch ofInterstate 25.


Once a CISM team is requested,there are several procedures that shouldbe followed to ensure the mostproductive session. Secure a quiet roomthat seats all the attendees, typically in acircle. Disconnect all phones, turn off thepublic address system and transmitalarms only over radios while the debriefis in session.

Alternate personnel should be oncall to respond to emergencies during thedebrief. We called one of our localvolunteer mutual aid departments, andthey provided a full fire company within30 minutes of the request. This firecompany was even prepared to spendthe entire night at our fire station in case

some of our personnel had to be relievedof duty for the night. Assistance like thisis not created on the spur of themoment. You must build relationshipswith your neighbors so that in thesecritical instances help is readilyavailable.

How effective is a debrief? Basedon our experience, people recover better,faster and deal more effectively withtheir feelings after a debrief. With onlytwo operational shifts, our departmenthas to come back to work sooner thanmany civilian departments. Therefore,our recovery time is more critical, as wecan be placed back into the samesituation sooner. In fact, the on-duty

shift responded to another rolloveraccident on the interstate that evening.

As managers or incidentcommanders, we are charged withproviding the best care for ourcustomers. Don’t forget that yourfirefighters are customers too, and theirneeds are no less critical than anyoneelse’s. Provide follow-up care as needed.Take care of your own, and they willcontinue to serve effectively.

Jim Rackl is assistant chief foroperations, Air Force Academy FireDepartment. He has 31 years ofexperience in fire protection.

requirement for installing hundreds offixtures.

In the end, RED HORSE providedthe Air Force 504 rooms — 1,008 bedspaces — for the three deployed A-10squadrons. The team completed therenovation two weeks ahead of schedule,enabling USAFE Services to cancellodging contracts with downtown hotelsduring the expensive holiday season.The dorm project saved $1.8 million inlodging expenses.

Harvest Falcon Beddown atBalikesir, Turkey

With several teams deployedthroughout Europe, a 40-person verticalRED HORSE team still remained atRamstein awaiting tasking by the USAFECE. The opportunity came at Balikesir,Turkey. Balikesir would be the beddownsite for three squadrons of F-15 Eagles.

While scheduling airflow for two1,100-person Harvest Falcon kits, itbecame apparent that restricted airflowwould preclude a stateside Prime BEEFteam arriving soon enough to completethe beddown. The task fell to REDHORSE.

USAFE commander Gen John P.Jumper requested the tent city becomplete in 21 days. This schedule,combined with the airflow challenge,

necessitated use of the Air ForceContract Augmentation Programcontractor to supply heavy equipment,fuel, fleet management and maintenancefor the beddown.

After three days of negotiations withTurkey, the U.S. beddown was cleared forexecution. Harvest Falcon assets beganarriving May 31. The clock was tickingand RED HORSE pushed ahead with helpfrom a 23-person Bare Base team from the49th Materiel Maintenance Squadron,Holloman AFB, N.M.

One unexpected difficulty was theTurkish requirement that storm drainsand grey water pipes be hardwired into asubgrade sewer system over a mile away.Fortunately a contracting officer who hadworked with us on another project was at

Balikesir and procured the requiredmaterials quickly.

On June 7 RED HORSE handed thekeys to a 2,200-person tent city with9-1-A kitchen, shower/shave units,hardwired latrines and water supply overto the deployed Seymour-Johnson wingcommander — almost two weeks aheadof schedule.

End of Tour

By the end of the Balkan aircampaign, the 823rd RHS had deployed229 personnel to operate at seven sites infive countries. They completed more than$5 million in construction support forboth humanitarian operations and thewarfighting effort. Throughout the entiretheater, in every operation and joint taskforce, the men and women of the 823rdadded another bullet to their motto: CanDo, Will Do, Have Done.

Capt Kurt Bergman is theengineering flight commander for the823rd RED HORSE Squadron, HurlburtField, Fla., and was the officer-in-charge of the RED HORSE commandcell at Ramstein, Germany, during theBalkan air campaign.

Members of the 823rd RHS and 49thMMS construct a tent city at Balikesir,Turkey.

RED HORSE and the Balkan Air Campaigncontinued from page 18


Whose Career Is It Anyway?

by Tom RussellPatrick AFB, Fla.

Being in the right place at the righttime is critical to career advancement, andthrough aggressive career management,you can create the right places and righttimes.

I periodically give talks to engineergroups at Patrick Air Force Base aboutcareer management. I always begin my talksby asking, “Who manages your career?”Answers range from “I don’t know” to“my boss” to “they do.” The answer isvery simple … you manage your career. Ifyou wait for “them” to do something, youare in for a long wait.

So, when should you start managingyour career? Today, right now. In fact,with every design you produce, projectyou manage, briefing you give, StaffSummary Sheet you prepare and meetingyou attend, you are shaping your career.All the things you do every day create animpression of you by your peers, subor-dinates and leaders. If your impression isgood they will embrace your career goalsand help you get there. If your impressionis bad, your career potential will probablybe limited, and your career journey will belonely and difficult.

Once you have cleared the perfor-mance hurdle, there are tools you can useto enhance your competitiveness andachieve your career goals. Among theseare: career planning, effective commu-nication, mobility, education, professionaldevelopment and broadening your skillbase.

Career Planning. Just as successfulorganizations develop and depend onstrategic plans to chart their course forthe future, you must do the same for yourcareer. The Air Force Civilian Trainingand Development Guide published by theCivil Engineer Career Program (CECP),Randolph AFB, Texas, will help. Contactthe CECP at DSN 665-2666, visit them onthe Internet at www.afpc.randolph.af.mil/cp/ or call the Career Program InformationHotline at DSN 665-2949.

Your plan should include the typesof jobs you want in the future, thelocation (base level, major command, fieldoperating agency, Air Staff), desiredgrades, and the training required toprepare for them. Do not underestimateyour ability and set your career sightstoo low. Once you have your plan, reviewit with your supervisor and enlist his orher support in helping you meet yourplan’s goals. Finally, transfer your planinformation to the annual CareerEnhancement Plan (CEP) submission tothe Civilian Personnel Office. Thisformalizes your career goals and trainingrequirements for competition within theCivil Engineer Career Program. Filling outyour CEP is critical to competing forCECP-sponsored training opportunities.Without it, you will not even enter thecompetition.

Effective Communication. Yourpeers’, subordinates’ and leaders’impression of you is formed primarilythrough your communication with them.Develop excellent verbal and writtencommunication skills. You may have the

highest technical and analytical skills inyour organization, but if you cannoteffectively communicate your position orsolution to a problem, you will notsucceed. If your communication skills arelacking, find training opportunities andask management to support your self-improvement efforts. Do not wait forsomeone to offer training to you. Take theinitiative for self-improvement.

Mobility. A willingness to move todifferent parts of the country or overseasis essential for the career development offuture Air Force leaders. Your career planshould include jobs at base level, majorcommand, field operating agencies andAir Staff. Even if your career goal is to bea deputy BCE, you should have jobassignments at more than one Air Forcebase, a major command and, if possible,one of the field operating agencies. Adeputy BCE must possess a broad base ofexperience to be effective.

Education. Graduate-level educationin business management, public adminis-tration or engineering management isnecessary preparation for the transition tomid- and executive-level management.Even though graduate education is notrequired, to be an effective manager andto be the most competitive candidate formanagement positions, you shouldcomplete a master’s degree in one of theareas mentioned. The CECP will helpdefray the tuition costs of a master’sprogram. If you are not already enrolled ina program, contact the CECP today andget started.

Whose Career Is It Anyway?The Air Force is going through tremendous change and needs effective civilian leaders

ready to tackle the challenges of the 21st century. You can become one of those leaders ifyou prepare yourself through aggressive and effective career management.


by Wayne FordhamHQ AFCESA, Tyndall AFB, Fla.

The Air Force continues to supportIntegrated Pest Management (IPM)techniques as a means to control pests whilereducing pesticide use. The IPM approach topest control uses regular monitoring to firstdetermine if and when treatments are needed.In situations where controls are warranted, acombination of physical, mechanical, cultural,biological and educational tactics areemployed to keep pest numbers low enoughto prevent intolerable damage or annoyance.Least-toxic chemical controls are used as alast resort.

Installation Success Stories

Following are several innovative ideascurrently being used by Air Force pestmanagers as part of their IPM programs.

Beale AFB, Calif. (9th CES)

Several hundred bats made their wayinto the Beale Air Force Base Commissarylast year. To say the least, shopping wasinterrupted when the bats appeared to beattacking customers. In reality, the bats wereswooping down at the shiny floor thinking itwas water. Using homemade bat excluders atbat entry points, sealing the rain gutter/roofinterfaces, and physically removing the batsachieved control of the problem. Later, thebat population was drawn away from basebuildings by introducing special nestingboxes. Now the bats are assisting pest controlefforts by doing what comes naturally —eating lots of insects.

Fairchild AFB, Wash. (92nd Support Group)

Airplanes at Fairchild AFB have a saferenvironment to operate in thanks to use of afalcon program. A contractor that uses falconsto harass and move pest bird species off theairfield provides support for a critical part oftheir Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard program.

Hickam AFB, Hawaii (15th CES)

Termites, especially Formosan termites,are a serious problem on military bases inHawaii. The Sentricon system modernizesground treatment by using bait methodsversus expensive sub-slab conventional

methods. Using this new technology resultedin savings of more than $500,000 in contractfees and successful elimination of termitecolonies at 20 sites.

Minot AFB, N.D. (5th CES)

The Minot pest management shop wasfirst in the Department of Defense to makeits Pest Management Plan (and many othersupporting documents) available on CD-ROM. Shop operations also benefited fromusing a shrouded boom sprayer, which allowsfor herbicide application in windy conditionswithout damage to nearby crops. The AirForce Civil Engineer Support Agency, whichis responsible for the Air Force pestmanagement program, recently provided eachmajor command with a copy of Minot’s PestManagement CD-ROM.

Nellis AFB, Nev. (99th CES)

Evaluation of a new type of herbicidesprayer, conducted under the Air ForceManagement Equipment Evaluation Program,has shown that significant labor and chemicalsavings are possible. This item will soon beavailable for purchase Air Force-wide.

Sheppard AFB, Texas (82nd CES)

The Sheppard pest control program usesan IPM approach that opts for biologicalcontrol agents rather than traditionalchemicals. One example is the use ofnematodes — a microscopic, slender,unsegmented worm — to control fire ants.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,Region 6, recognized Sheppard’s outstandingIPM program as a model in Texas forpesticide reduction.

U.S. Air Force Academy, Colo. (10th CES)

Cliff swallows began causing sanitationproblems in a high-visibility area at the U.S.Air Force Academy. By placing Plexiglassheets on areas the cliff swallows frequented,the base solved the problem without usinglethal methods of control.

To learn more about the innovative ideasin this article, or for a brochure or fact sheeton IPM, contact the author at HQ AFCESA:e-mail [email protected], or callDSN 523-6465.

IPM Reduces Pestsand Pesticides

Professional Development. Thisincludes agency-sponsored continuingeducation, professional military educa-tion and professional licensing orregistration. When offered one of theseopportunities, take it. Everyone has animportant job and can’t afford to leave,but do not allow the “job trap” to keepyou from attending training events.

Professional Military Education(PME) is essential for understanding thehistorical foundation of the Air Force aswell as Air Force organization, operationand resource allocation. Your career planshould include Squadron OfficersSchool, Air Command and Staff Collegeand Air War College. If you cannotattend these courses in residence at AirUniversity, take them at home, eitherthrough correspondence or seminar.Completing these courses will make youa more effective Air Force leader andmake you much more competitive.

Finally, if you are in a discipline thatoffers professional licensing orcertification, it is critical that you obtainit. This demonstration of professionaldevelopment is highly regarded by peers,subordinates and leaders. It will opencareer doors for you.

Broadening Your Skill Base. Yourcareer plan should include jobs inmultiple functional areas within civilengineering, as well as a developmentalassignment with another agency or atSenior Executive levels. If you are giventhe opportunity to serve on a team withanother agency, take it. If you have theopportunity to temporarily sit in for theboss, take it. If there is a job that no oneelse seems to want where you work,volunteer for it. The more experience youcan gain across civil engineering at base,major command, field operating agencyor Air Staff level, the better leader andmanager you will be.

Whose career is it anyway? It’syours! Make the best of it!

Tom Russell is the deputy base civilengineer at Patrick AFB, Fla. Herecently completed the 10-monthExecutive Leadership DevelopmentProgram, Senior Executive LeadershipCourse for 1999.


New Horizons ’99 is a series ofhumanitarian civic assistance trainingexercises sponsored by U.S. SouthernCommand in Miami, Fla. This year, thescope of the annual New Horizonsexercise expanded to include hurricanerecovery efforts in Honduras, ElSalvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua andthe Dominican Republic. About 20,000Guard, Reserve and active duty servicemembers were a part of this effort toprovide training to U.S. forces whileproviding civic assistance and buildingmilitary partnerships in Central andSouth America and the Caribbean.

The following two reports arerepresentative of the missionsundertaken by Air Force CEs during theNew Horizons ’99 exercises, whichprovided both training opportunitiesand a chance to make a difference inpeoples’ lives.

New HorizonsNicaragua ’99by Capt Stuart Mathew andMSgt Gary HoltzANG, Portland, Ore.

Hurricane Mitch ... it wasn’t in ourthoughts when we requested an annualtraining deployment for 30 members ofthe 142nd Civil Engineer Squadron, AirNational Guard, Portland, Ore. We madehistory, however, as we joined the 144thCivil Engineer Squadron, Fresno, Calif., inNew Horizons Nicaragua ’99.

Not since the Contra Affair has therebeen a significant American militarypresence in Nicaragua. Hurricane Mitch

changed all that in October 1998 when itravaged the Central American countriesof El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras andNicaragua. New Horizons Nicaragua ’99,supported by Joint Task Force Esteli, wasa humanitarian exercise for HurricaneMitch recovery operations. The OhioArmy National Guard led the exercise,which was dedicated to construction ofschools and clinics, drilling fresh waterwells and repairing hurricane-damagedroads.

The 30-member team from the 142ndCES and 31 civil engineers from the 144thCES deployed for 17 days in May tobuild the base camp which wouldsupport up to 400 Army, Air Force andMarine engineers and medical personneldeployed on two-week rotations.

The camp started as an abandonedNicaraguan military installation with littleusable infrastructure, including buildingsin various states of disrepair, a sanitarysewer system of questionable integrityand limited commercial power.

Within nine, 12-hour workdays, thePrime BEEF team completed over 100work orders such as building tent floors,including modular floors for the forwardbase camp, completely rebuilding roofsand trusses and rewiring all 13 buildingsfor power and lighting. In addition, theteam constructed a hardback toiletfacility, built loading docks to supportsafe loading and unloading of vehiclesand supplies, built a burn pit, repairedleaky roofs, built a laundry facility andrepaired the sanitary sewer system,

A Mission Against Poverty —CEs Support New Horizons ’99

Prime BEEF members construct modular tent floors for transport to a forward basecamp. (Photos courtesy 142nd CES)


including building a field-expedientseptic tank.

Weather conditions in the area werenot unusual for that time of year, but theywere unusual to us coming from theNorthwestern U.S. Most days inNicaragua the heat condition was aCategory 5 (very hot and humid). The

recommended work schedule forCategory 5 heat is 20 minutes work, 40minutes rest. Under these extremeconditions, the team focused on safety,especially heat stress. Everyone lookedout for their co-workers and made sureplenty of liquids were available. Theresult was no lost work time due to theheat conditions.

Much attention was paid topreparing the camp for the impendingtorrential summer rains. Roof repairswere a high priority, as was ensuringpositive drainage away from occupiedareas. During the few days it rainedwhile we were there, the soil turned intoa muddy quagmire. We kept logisticspersonnel busy ordering gravel, as weplaced it around camp faster than itcould be delivered.

Prime BEEF received outstandingsupport from Marine Wing SupportSquadron 271, Cherry Point, N.C. Amongthe many tasks they were responsible forwas providing potable water for the basecamp — they were our allies in planningand installing utility services. Wecoordinated our activities with themsince they were providing the water formany of our improvements (i.e. laundry,ice machine and toilets).

The Prime BEEF capabilitiesexhibited during construction of the

camp demonstrated the tremendousvalue Air Force civil engineering has andcan offer to joint operations such asJTF-Esteli. In addition to meeting thebasic mission requirements, quality oflife was enhanced more than manymembers of the other Services hadwitnessed in a field environment. Formany, it was their first exposure to AirForce standards — and they extendedtheir gratitude on a daily basis.

The deployment was tough buteveryone felt a sense of accomplishmentand pride from participating in the NewHorizons Nicaragua exercise. Their longhours of hard work will reap manybenefits to a country devastated byHurricane Mitch.

New HorizonsBolivia ’99Combined Task Force New HorizonsPublic Affairs

The 819th RED HORSE Squadron,Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., drilledthe deepest well in U.S. Air Force historyduring New Horizons Bolivia ’99. The819th RHS was part of a multi-service,multi-national team working on severalconstruction projects in southeasternBolivia, including three two-roomschools, a two-room medical clinic, roadimprovements and two solar-poweredfresh-water wells.

It was while drilling the two solar-powered, fresh-water wells that the REDHORSE team earned its place in therecord books; first with a 1,049-foot wellat El Algodonal in July, then with a 1,109-foot well at Capirenda in August.

Besides the record-breaking depths,these were the first solar-powered wellsin U.S. military history. According to LtCol Sean Saltzman, commander of theexercise and deputy commander of the819th RHS, the first well is exceeding allexpectations by delivering 9 to 10 gallonsof fresh drinking water per minute.

“We were hoping to get at least 5gallons per minute. So we’ve almostdoubled our expectations,” saidSaltzman.

The solar-paneled drinking waterstations are expected to operate

SMSgt Tommy Guerra, 144th CES, and SSgt Rex Rekow, 142nd CES, install a secondaryfeeder to the billeting area as part of the complete rewiring of the secondary distributionsystem for the base camp.

MSgt Chris Bryant, 142nd CES, repairs atermite-damaged roof purlin in the chapel.There was extensive termite damage to thewood structures at the base camp.


independently for 10 to 20 years,providing free access to fresh waterfor people in Bolivia’s remote“Chaco” region.

“By using solar power, therewill be less wear-and-tear and fewermoving parts to break,” said TSgtMike DeShon, NCOIC of the well-drilling team. DeShon has drilledover 100 wells in seven differentcountries and has built his careersolely within five different REDHORSE units.

DoD does not normallyrecommend military crews drillwells beyond 600 feet during a

troop engineering exercise. The teamsecured additional support from the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers at Mobile, Ala.

Drilling deep-water wells isunpredictable and dangerous — as depthincreases, so do safety concerns.DeShon’s team had to hoist 20-footsections of 350-400 lb. drilling rod andconnect them to the top of the maindrilling shaft. Operating at a depth ofover 1,000 feet, the drilling rig ends upsupporting over 11 tons of linked-together steel rod.

The New Horizons Bolivian-U.S. taskforce construction took place from Maythrough September. In addition to drillingthe wells, engineers used runwayconstruction techniques to improvedrainage and erosion control on a14-kilometer stretch of dirt road thatconnects a small town to a main highway.They erected a bridge and pouredconcrete lanes for two river-fordinglocations.

The team poured over 42 cubic yardsof concrete to form the walls of the firstschool, which they finished in July. Forthe engineering team, some of the mostback-breaking work was “busting”cement bags. Each bag, weighing 110lbs., had to be lifted, ripped open anddumped into the concrete mixer.

“Building these schools is greatpractice for us,” said A1C Chris Luna,819th RHS heavy equipment operatorapprentice. “These projects give us thechance to practice using the concretemachines. It’s definitely been goodtraining for our new guys.”

Brig Gen Earnest O. Robbins, TheAir Force Civil Engineer, toured thepoverty-fighting projects in SouthAmerica, visiting the New HorizonsBolivia team on June 29. Robbins said hefelt the New Horizons projects gave thetroops a lot of job satisfaction.

“They feel good about their trainingand they’ve done something good forthe Bolivian infrastructure. How often doyou get to learn about a new culture andmake a positive contribution?” he said. “Ibelieve that exercises like New HorizonsBolivia ’99 will continue for a long timeinto the future.”

(Above) SSgt Amy Pope,819th RHS, adds finishing

touches to a concrete floorduring construction of a

two-room school inCamatindi, Bolivia. (Photoby TSgt Katherin Bryson)

(Right) SSgt JohnCarter, 819th RHS,

hammers a nail into theforms for the wall

structure of a two-roomschool in Camatindi,

Bolivia. (Photo by TSgtKatherin D. Bryson)

(Right) TSgt MikeDeShon, NCOIC ofwell drilling for the

819th RHS, explainsthe operation of the

SS-135 drillingmachine to Brig GenEarnest O. Robbins,who visited the New

Horizons ’99 team inJune. The 1,049-foot

well was the firstsolar-powered well

in U.S. militaryhistory. (Photo by

TSgt Scott Wagers)


by 1st Lt Stock Dinsmore andLt Col Mike McCarthyANG Virginia Beach, Va.

Members of the 203rd RED HORSEFlight participated in Exercise NorthernViking ’99 at Naval Air Station Keflavík,Iceland, in June of this year. ExerciseNorthern Viking ’99 focused on trainingfor unconventional threats such asterrorism and information warfare. Itincluded participants from all branches ofthe U.S. military, German, Danish andBritish forces. The mission for the 203rdwas to provide combat-ready construc-tion capability in response to the exercisethreats.

The 203rd was tasked withconstructing a 50-by-150-foot SuperK-Span building, to be used by the NASas a hazardous waste treatment/storagefacility. A K-Span building is a free-standing metal structurethat doesn’t require anyinterior support. Shapedmuch like Quonset hutsof the past, K-Spans areprimarily used for storage.They offer excellent semi-permanent andinexpensive all-weatherprotection for materialsand equipment. The 203rdRHF has constructed orhelped construct K-Spanbuildings in places suchas Israel and Korea.

Beginning in lateMay, the unit deployedits K-Span machine, acrane and several otherpieces of supportequipment via an AirNational Guard C-5 Galaxy aircraft toNAS Keflavík. This provided training indeploying heavy engineering equipmentfor the aircrew as well as the engineers.

An eight-person advance team ledby Maj Doug Crawford arrived at NASKeflavík on June 5 to insure all materialsand equipment were on site and to beginconstruction. A deployment of 25 addi-

tional personnel arrived the followingweek.

The team took advantage ofrelatively good weather during the firstfew days of the deployment, construct-ing approximately 75 percent of the mainbuilding, less endwalls. Weather duringthe remainder of the deployment provedchallenging. Temperatures in the 40s and50s coupled with extended periods ofrain and sustained winds of 25 to 35knots made it difficult to handle thesheets of steel for the K-Span. Onceassembled, these sheets are 5 feet wideand 50 feet long. On a windy day, theyare impossible to set in place in a safemanner. In fact, as one crewmemberattested, they make one heck of a kitewhen attached to a 15-ton crane.

“This was a good chance for theunit to operate in a climate that wasvastly different from that of our typical

deployments,” said CMSgt GeraldDeVault, 203rd RHF Airfields FlightNCOIC.

Once the primary panels were inplace, concrete was poured at the sidewall lines to anchor the building. Endwall construction, including garage-typedoors, completed the structure.

With good weather and a

knowledgeable crew, a 5,000 square footbare-bones facility can be completed inabout seven working days for less than$10 per square foot. RED HORSE teamsare the primary holders of this capabilityin the Air Force, although other unitshave been trained.

Material cost for construction of thisfacility was about $200,000. Evenfactoring in the team’s travel and per diemcosts, the government saved asubstantial sum compared to what itwould cost to build the same facilityusing a private contractor.

The 203rd completed more than wasrequired during their two-weekdeployment. In addition to the K-Spanstructure itself, the team installed amajority of the building’s ventilation andfire suppression systems. They providedcrane services for numerous other smallprojects around the station as well. These

included removing adish antenna, installinga large rooftop exhaustfan and load testing thestation’s rigging gear.

When the weatherwas too severe to workon the K-Span facility,several personnelvolunteered to performadditional tasks aroundthe station, includingrelocating a largehydraulic vehicle liftinside the Transporta-tion Division’s vehiclemaintenance garage andfabricating sections of askateboard/rollerbladeramp for the station’srecreation area.

Construction deployments aroundthe world are a way of life for the 203rd.This project was sandwiched betweendeployments to Kuwait, Honduras andQatar, proving that the engineers of the203rd RHF are willing and able to meetthe construction needs of the U.S. AirForce.

RED HORSE deploys to Iceland

A crane lowers panels into place during RED HORSE construction of aSuper K-Span building at Naval Air Station Keflavík, Iceland. (Photocourtesy 203rd RHF)


by CMSgt Jim PodolskeHQ AFCESA, Tyndall AFB, Fla.

The threat or use of hazardousmaterials as weapons of mass destructionis one of the most alarming of alltransnational threats. The bombings atOklahoma City, Khobar Towers andAtlanta’s Olympic Park are just a fewinstances where hazardous materialswere used to destroy property and injureor kill innocent people.

To meet the terrorist challenge andbetter prepare emergency responders, theAir Force Civil Engineer Support Agencyhas partnered with the National FireAcademy to capitalize on trainingprograms developed by the Departmentof Justice and the Federal EmergencyManagement Agency. These programswere created following passage of theDefense Against Weapons of MassDestruction Act of 1996, Public Law 104-201 (also known as the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici Act).

Here’s a look at the training programsthat have been distributed to the medicalcommunity, security forces, explosiveordnance disposal flights, readinessflights and all DoD fire departments.

Emergency Response toTerrorism (Self-Study) Course.

This self-paced, paper-based courseis designed to provide basic terrorism

awareness training to emergencyresponders. The Self-Study course canalso be taught to groups of studentsusing the PowerPoint presentation

included on the Self-Study SupportMaterial CD-ROM. An experiencedinstructor can complete the training intwo to three hours using this method.

Course Content. The Self-Studycourse provides a basic overview of thefollowing: definition and historicalbackground of terrorism; recognizingsuspicious circumstances and identifyingkey indicators (outward warning signs orcues); implementing self-protectivemeasures (time, distance, and shielding);initial scene control; and makingappropriate notification (activatingresponse resources based on local/stateemergency plans).

Target Audience. The targetaudience for this course includes fire,emergency medical, HazMat, incidentcommand and law enforcement re-sponders.

Who Can Teach the Course? AnyDoD HazMat Train-the-Trainer coursegraduate is authorized to teach theawareness course material. Additionally,any experienced HazMat emergencyresponder who is DoD-certified at theHazMat awareness level is also author-ized to teach the self-study coursematerial.

Emergency Response toTerrorism (Basic Concepts)Course.

This two-day course is designed toprepare first responders for terrorist-related incidents, primarily at theoperations level. It focuses on life safetyand self-preservation.

Course Content. The Basic Con-cepts course provides an overview of thefollowing: understanding/recognizingterrorism; implementing self-protectivemeasures; scene control; tacticalconsiderations; and incident manage-ment.

Target Audience. The primaryaudience includes fire, emergency

HazMat Emergency Response TrainingIncreasingly Critical in

Light of Today’s Terrorist Threat


medical, HazMat, incident command andlaw enforcement responders.

Who Can Teach the Course? OnlyDoD HazMat Train-the-Trainer coursegraduates or National Fire AcademyEmergency Response to Terrorism

“Basic Concepts” Train-the-Trainercourse graduates are authorized to teachthis 16-hour course.

Emergency Response toTerrorism (Multimedia) Course.

This fully interactive, computer-based training program is designed tohelp emergency responders understandtheir role and increase their chances forsafe and successful responses toincidents involving terrorism.

Course Content. The Multimediacourse combines several learningobjectives taught in the Self-Study andBasic Concepts courses and also

includes the terrorism competencieslisted in NFPA Standard 472: Standardfor Professional Competence of Re-sponders to Hazardous MaterialsIncidents (1997 edition) at the aware-ness, operations, technician and incidentcommander levels.

Target Audience. The targetaudience includes fire, emergencymedical, HazMat, incident command andlaw enforcement responders.

Who Can Teach the Course? This isa stand-alone, self-paced course thatdoes not require an instructor. However,students who need assistance shouldcontact a DoD HazMat Train-the-Trainercourse graduate.

Students who complete the terrorismtraining courses are eligible to receive aDepartment of Justice/Federal Emer-gency Management Agency trainingcertificate for the Self-Study and BasicConcepts course and a DoD trainingcertificate for the Multimedia course. Foradditional information, refer to Chapter 6of the 1998 CerTest Procedural Guide.

Hazardous Materials Tech-nician Emergency ResponseTraining Program.

We are proud to announce therelease of the Hazardous MaterialsTechnician multimedia training program.Each Air Force major command and DoDService Component Fire and EmergencyServices representative was providedone copy of this program during the 1999DoD Fire and Emergency ServiceConference in Kansas City, Mo., inSeptember.

Course Content. This powerful,interactive multimedia training program isdesigned to train and certify emergencyresponders at the HazMat technicianlevel. Most importantly, this program,along with local hands-on trainingexercises, prepares emergency respond-ers to take offensive actions necessary

to safely and successfully detect,assess, contain and control dangeroushazardous material releases. Thisprogram also includes an EmergencyResponse to Terrorism training moduledirected at today’s most alarmingemerging threat — terrorist acts usingweapons of mass destruction.

This program complies with OSHA1910.120q6(iii) and NFPA 472.

Target Audience. The firedepartment’s HazMat emergencyresponse team is the primary targetaudience for this course.

Who Can Teach the Course? This isa stand-alone, self-paced course thatdoes not require an instructor. Tobecome DoD-certified at the technicianlevel, students who complete this

training course are also required to passthe CerTest computer-based testingprogram final exam along with therequired performance tests listed in theperformance test supplement found onthe 1998 HazMat Support Material CD-ROM (Version 3.0).

For questions concerning thesetraining courses, contact CMSgt JimPodolske or TSgt Bruce Grabbe at DSN523-6321 or 6221, respectively, or e-mail [email protected] [email protected]. Requestsfor additional copies of these trainingCDs must be made in writing to HQAFCESA/CEXF.


Kids learn carpentry atCE workshopby TSgt John SchampLos Angeles AFB, Calif.

Families at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., traded theirSaturday morning cartoons for a chance to build Bird Barns(a.k.a. birdhouses) at a “CE Kids Craft Workshop” in June. The61st Civil Engineer Division sponsored the workshop.

Thirty-seven children, ranging in age from 5 to 10 years,were provided an opportunity to visit the CE maintenance shoparea and learn about construction safety, as well as enjoy somequality family time.

The morning started with a welcome from Col DieterBarnes, 61st Air Base Group commander. “Anyone can build abird house, but it takes a special kind of a carpenter to build aBird Barn,” he said.

Participants were given a short safety briefing by the 61stCED’s services contractor, TrendTec, on using the right tool forthe job, the importance of eye and ear protection, keeping thework area clean and the safety of others in the work area. This

was followed by a tour ofthe CE Carpenter Shop.

Then, the localneighborhood awakenedto the sound of tappinghammers. The juniorcarpenters and their adulthelpers, outfitted withhammers, nails, sandpaperand a little creativity,proceeded to constructtheir Bird Barns.

For the next hour, kidshammered, sanded, andhammered some more.They had a great timetrying out their new skillswhile attempting to buildthe best-looking Bird Barn!The final product wasgiven a quick coat ofwaterproofing and a seal of

approval from the CE staff.Two local material supply stores provided toolboxes

and other items that were given away to the kids. Theafternoon ended with a barbecue of hot dogs, hot-links,chips and soft drinks, and certificates of completion of the“CE Kids Craft Workshop” presented by “Sparky” the FireDog.

The program was so successful, the 61st CED is planninganother “CE Kids Craft Workshop” for this fall.

TSgt John Schamp is the NCOIC, Quality AssuranceEvaluation, Fire Safety and Readiness, 61st Civil EngineerDivision, Los Angeles AFB, Calif.

CE selected topenlisted IMAAir Reserve Personnel Center Public Affairs

SMSgt Troy Basham was recently named the Reserve’s topenlisted Individual Mobilization Augmentee by the Air ReservePersonnel Center. Basham, a fire protection superintendent forthe 6th Civil Engineer Squadron, MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.,was presented the 1999 Outstanding Individual MobilizationAugmentee award in June.

“Sergeant Basham lives and breathes the fire department,”said 6th CES fire chief John Warhul II. “He’s a fireman’sfireman.”

As part of his IMA duties, Basham conducts a wide rangeof training, including rape prevention and personal safety,ropes and rescue techniques, helicopter medical evacuationsafety and landing zone preparation, and water and swamprescue and recovery operations. “He’s an excellent trainer,”Warhul said. “He has a lot of patience.”

Basham coordinated a multi-agency mass casualty exercisefor the City of Tampa, Fla.; Coast Guard; Air Force; FederalBureau of Investigation; and other state and local agencies. Healso coordinated and provided operational leadership forfirefighting strategy on a large brush fire.

Basham volunteers his off-duty time at a summer camp forpediatric burn victims and is actively involved in programs fortroubled and disadvantaged children in local public schools. Heserves as the team coordinator for the medical contingent to theTampa Police S.W.A.T. Team in his civilian employment.

Lt Col Norman Albert, Space andMissile Systems Center executiveto the commander, builds a BirdBarn with his daughter Katy at the61st CED “CE Kids CraftWorkshop,” Los Angeles AFB,Calif. (Photo by Amn ShaadMadison)


Gary B. ArnoldJoe G. BallardFranklin W. BaughJudith D. BittickJohn K. BorlandKarl S. BosworthAaron C. BridgewaterRichard M. BrubakerCraig F. CampbellDavid L. CarlonMichael P. ConnerRodney L. CroslenRobin DavisRonald J. DeakMaria J. Dowling*Randy D. EideKarl L. FreerksClaude V. Fuller, Jr.Bryan J. Gallagher*Liesel A. Golden*Timothy S. Green*

Roy Alan C. AgustinScott T. AllenMyron H. AsatoJohn M. BalzanoBarton V. BarnhartRick A. BlaisdellAnthony S. BridgemanSteven E. BrukwickiThomas J. Carroll IIICarol A. CluffWilliam J. Cronin IVLea A. DuncanPatrick F. FogartyJeth A. FoggFrank Freeman III

1999 Lieutenant Colonel-Selects

Congratulations to the following Air Force civil engineer officers on being selected forpromotion to lieutenant colonel.

Steven E. HammockWilliam S. HarrisMichael R. HassBart H. HedleyKyle E. HicksGeorge S. HoranJames E. HubbardBrian D. HuizengaKurt J. KaislerThomas J. KaldenbergJames R. KasmerStephen S. KmiecikWilliam A. KolakowskiMark D. KramerThomas M. LaffeyJohn W. LaviolettePeter C. Leahy**Myron V. MajorsLeslie C. MartinDavid B. McCormickGregory L. Melton

Ann E. MercerSusan E. MitchellRobert E. MoriartyDuane A. PadrickGlen J. PappasSpencer H. Patterson, Jr.Alex S. PeatGregory M. PerkinsonMark A. PohlmeierDavid L. ReynoldsMarc D. RichardPatrick E. RyanNorman P. SchaeferGregory J. SchmidtGary J. SinglerGregory A. SmithPatrick J. SmithJames T. SohanRichard B. StonestreetMark S. TissiJonathan E. Wasche

James E. WelterFrederick L. WilliamsDavid R. WinklerDennis D. YatesBrian D. Yolitz*

*Below the Promotion Zone**Contracting Officer

1999 Major-Selects

The following Air Force civil engineer officers were selected for promotion to major.Congratulations to all on their leadership and achievement.

Douglas M. HammerMarkus J. HennekeJoel N. HoltropCrinley S. HooverMark InguaggiatoGus S. KirkikisRowene J. LantCharles E. LewisGregory P. LongRaymond W. MarshMark J. MittlerAnthony E. MuzereusAnthony L. OrdnerEdwin H. OshibaJames P. Page

Kathyleen M. ParePeter A. RidillaGregory E. RollinsGregory J. RosenmerkelPeter A. SartoriDorothy Ruth SchanzNavnit K. SinghMark P. SmekrudElizabeth A. SydowAndrew A. ThorburnJeffrey M. ToddNelson ToyDavid F. VickerThomas E. WahlHarry W. Washington Jr.

Neil D. WentzDouglas P. WiseKevin K.Y. WongTimothy S. WoodDavid A. YoungStephen T. Ziadie


by Lois WalkerHQ AFCESA Historian,Tyndall AFB

The annual Air Force Civil Engineer Awards programrecognizes civil engineer organizations and individuals foroutstanding achievements and contributions to the Air Forcemission. This is the second in a three-part series of articles onthe civil engineers whose contributions we remember as wehonor others in their name each year.

Major General Joseph A. AhearnEnlisted Leadership Award

Honors Maj Gen Joseph A. Ahearn, who served as Directorof Engineering and Services from March 1989 to January 1992.This award recognizes the civil engineering chief mastersergeant who displays the most exemplary leadership qualities.A winner and a runner-up are selected.

The award reflects that Gen Ahearn was a champion of hischief master sergeants and the enlisted force. He declared hisinaugural year as director as Year of the Chief, and initiatedprograms that included chiefs in the decision processes of civilengineering.

Gen Ahearn was born in 1936 in Galesburg, Illinois. Heentered the Air Force through the Reserve Officer TrainingCorps program in 1958 after graduating with a B.S. in civilengineering from the University of Notre Dame. His earlyassignments included engineering jobs at Vandenberg Air ForceBase, Calif., Goose Bay Air Base, Labrador, and HQ Eighth AirForce at Westover AFB, Mass. He received a master’s degree inengineering administration from Syracuse University in 1967and was assigned to HQ European Security Region in Frankfurt,West Germany.

During the Vietnamconflict he served as deputycommander and thencommander of the 554th REDHORSE Squadron at Cam RanhBay AB, Republic of Vietnam.Following subsequent tours inAlabama and Texas, he servedthree assignments at Air Forceheadquarters, first as anaction officer in the Directo-rate of Engineering andServices, then as chief of theHousing Division and,following graduation from theIndustrial College of the ArmedForces in June 1979, as chief ofthe Programs Division. During

his years in programs, the Air Force experienced an era ofunprecedented growth compared to the austerity of the post-Vietnam era.

In 1983, Gen Ahearn returned to Europe, this time as theDCS for Engineering and Services at HQ United States AirForces in Europe. During his tour in USAFE, he oversaw theconstruction program to bed down ground-launched cruisemissile units in five European nations, worked to bring USAFEup to modern standards, and became one of the foremostsupporters of CE readiness programs.

In June 1986, he returned to HQ USAF as the DeputyDirector of Engineering and Services. Three years later, inMarch 1989, he became the Director of Engineering andServices, and subsequently The Civil Engineer.

Gen Ahearn “kept civil engineering flying in a storm ofchange.” He spearheaded civil engineer support to the GulfWar. He successfully led civil engineering through thechallenging reorganization, restructuring and downsizing of theearly 1990s. He was instrumental in creating the Air ForceCenter for Environmental Excellence and in restructuring the AirForce Civil Engineer Support Agency, realigning policy-levelmissions at the Pentagon and operational programs at the fieldoperating agencies. He increased the size and stature of theReadiness Challenge competition and encouraged commands tobeef up home station training.

In February 1991, the Directorate of Engineering andServices was realigned under the Chief of Staff andredesignated The Civil Engineer. The services partner of civilengineering was separated and was integrated into the Morale,Welfare and Recreation community.

Gen Ahearn retired in 1992. He and his wife Nona maketheir home in Colorado.

Major General William D. Gilbert AwardHonors Maj Gen William D. Gilbert, Director of Engineering

and Services from July 1978 to August 1982. This awardrecognizes the significance of the efforts of staff action officers.Gen Gilbert exemplified professional staff work, from his days asan action officer through his time as director. Three awards areMaj Gen Joseph A. Ahearn


presented, to an officer, an enlisted member and a civilian.Born in 1924 in Downsville, La., Gen Gilbert began his

military career in 1943 by enlisting in the U.S. Army Corps ofEngineers. He served with combat engineering units in NorthAfrica and the China-Burma-India theater during World War II.He was released from military service in March 1946, butreentered three months later, transferring to the Army AirForces. He was commissioned in September 1949 and was calledto active duty as a second lieutenant in October 1950.

Following several assignments as a personnel officer, GenGilbert entered the civil engineering career field in 1963 andsubsequently served as base civil engineer at Davis-MonthanAFB, Ariz., and at Moron AB, Spain. He received bachelor’s andmaster’s degrees in business management from The GeorgeWashington University in 1962 and 1967, and also graduatedfrom the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in 1967.

In August 1967 he took his first assignment at thePentagon, serving as executive officer to the deputy director forconstruction. In 1968 he was named executive to the Director of

Civil Engineering, MajGen Guy Goddard.Following this tour inWashington, GenGilbert served asdirector of the CivilEngineering Center atWright-Patterson AFB,Ohio.

Gen Gilbert madesignificant contribu-tions as the DCS forengineering andservices at two majorcommands, MilitaryAirlift Command andHQ Pacific Air Forces,in the 1970s. At PACAF,he helped the command

successfully transition from a wartime mission to a peacetimeoperation. He oversaw programs to significantly upgradedormitory facilities and family housing. He established centersfor personnel returning from Vietnam and for Southeast Asianrefugees at Clark AB, Philippines, and Wake Island. During histenure he integrated services as a full member of theengineering and services team.

Gen Gilbert returned to Washington in 1975 as the DeputyDirector of Civil Engineering and Services under Maj GenRobert Thompson, and on July 1, 1978, became the Director ofEngineering and Services. As deputy director and director, GenGilbert guided civil engineering through the turbulent post-Vietnam era. The Air Force received greatly increased fundingto construct dormitories, build military family housing, andacquire more than 1,000 foreign government houses.

Under his leadership, civil engineers supported the Israeliairbase program, bedded down GLCM units in Europe, housedand fed Cuban refugees during Operation Red, White and Blueat Eglin AFB, and constructed the Space Shuttle facility atVandenberg. Gen Gilbert expanded the Prime BEEF program andestablished a training complex at Eglin AFB (predecessor oftoday’s Silver Flag Exercise Site) to promote hands-onexperience in contingency skills. As chairman of the board ofdirectors for the Air Force Commissary Service, he directed a

$240 million commissary rebuilding and modernization program.Gen Gilbert retired from active duty in 1982. He and his wife

Dorothy make their home in Louisiana.

The Harry P. Rietman AwardHonors Harry P. Rietman, who retired in March 1985 after

serving 12 years as the Associate Director of Engineering andServices. The Rietman Award recognizes superior job perfor-mance by Air Force senior civilian civil engineer managers.

When Rietman joined the civil engineer family in 1955, hebrought an unusual balance of experience with him, havingserved with each of the military services except the CoastGuard. Rietman was a private inthe Marine Corps from 1945-1946, a lieutenant in the ArmyCorps of Engineers from 1950-1952, and had worked as acivilian employee for both theNavy and the Air Force. Heearned a B.S. degree inarchitectural engineering andmaster’s degrees in botharchitectural engineering andmathematics from VirginiaPolytechnic.

Rietman, a native ofCincinnati, spent his entire AirForce civil engineering careerat the Air Staff. He first came towork for Maj Gen LeeWashbourne, the AssistantChief of Staff for Installations,as a management engineer in the Maintenance Division. In 1957,he became chief of the Operations Branch of the Civil EngineerPrograms Division. He began his long career as AssociateDirector in 1973.

Described as soft-spoken, reliable, effective and trustworthy,Rietman was best known for his ability to win DefenseDepartment support and Congressional funding for facilities,manpower and civil engineering support initiatives. Of greatimportance to civilian engineers, he chaired the group thatdeveloped the Engineering and Services Civilian CareerManagement Program (now the Civil Engineer CareerProgram).

Rietman was known for his expertise and savvy leadershipin the programming business. He perpetually led the budgetbattle to secure increased funding for military family housing,unaccompanied personnel housing, and other quality of lifefacilities. He promoted the importance of workplace and livingconditions as they relate to combat readiness andspearheaded a major housing improvement program toconstruct 2,500 new housing units in the mid-1980s. Hehelped develop the first Air Force civil engineering strategicplan, and was a proponent of the civil engineer research anddevelopment program. In addition to his other duties, he servedfor seven years as a member and sometimes chairman of the AirForce Board of Correction of Military Records.

Rietman and his wife Mary make their home in Virginia.

Maj Gen William D. Gilbert

Harry P. Rietman


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Documents

Clearing the Jungles of Panama - DTIC · 1. REPORT DATE 1999 2. REPORT TYPE 3. DATES COVERED 00-00-1999 to 00-00-1999 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Clearing the Jungles of Panama. (The Civil