Photo By OR-5 Mark Doran | South Carolina National Guard's 124th Engineer Company with the CENTCOM Material...... read more read more
TARIN KOT, Afghanistan - The largest operational base in southern Afghanistan to be transferred to the Afghan government is on track for handover in the coming weeks.
Maj Brent Maddock, Chief Joint Engineer Combined Team Uruzgan (CTU), saw the initial expansion of Multinational Base Tarin Kot (MNB-TK) when he deployed with Australia’s Reconstruction Task Force in 2006.
Now he leads the Australian and U.S. Army engineers responsible for reducing the base’s infrastructure and transferring the remaining facilities to the Afghan National Security Forces.
He said the transfer of the enduring facilities will be safe, secure and fit for purpose.
“The final plan was agreed to by the Afghan Government in August,” Maddock said.
“All buildings we transferred needed to be structurally sound with safe electrical wiring of the correct voltage.
“These facilities will enable the ANSF to conduct independent operations across Uruzgan.”
MNB-TK was first known as Forward Operating Base Ripley and has been operating since 2004.
At its peak it was inhabited by almost 10,000 personnel from the United States, The Netherlands, France, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovakia and Australia.
The base consisted of a number of inner camps for the coalition such as Cole, Holland, Ripley, and Russell, and several others for the resident Afghan army and police units.
Maj Maddock, whose engineer workforce incorporates the CENTCOM Material Retrograde Element (CMRE) from South Carolina National Guard's 124th Engineer Company and tradesmen from Australia’s Force Extraction Unit, said planning to deconstruct the base commenced in 2012.
“It has been a prominent feature of daily life here ever since,” he said.
A major project was the deconstruction of the aviation task force facilities, which took up a large area of the base with its forward area refuelling point, accommodation and administration buildings, 32 helicopter parking bays, 1,500 concrete blast protection barriers (T-walls), and the 16,000 tarmac mats.
Several coalition camps have been converted into permanent Afghan facilities, and the army has been built a new barracks to house 1,000 soldiers and equipment.
Major refurbishing works included the conversion of the former Camp Cole into the Ministry of Interior Supply Point (MSP) and of the former Camp Ripley into a permanent base for the Provincial Response Company (PRC).
As the base came down, usable materials and equipment, such as air conditioners and T-walls, were often reclaimed for construction efforts in different areas.
Maj Maddock said other parts of the base had to be decommissioned.
“One of our main challenges was to work with plant and material handling equipment that had been in Afghanistan for close to 10 years and was close to the end of its life-span,” he said.
“Cranes had a disproportionate effect on our work when they broke down, especially when we needed to move the T-walls which can weigh up to 12 tons.”
During the deconstruction of MNB-TK close to 2,500 T-walls were moved to the ANSF camps to increase their force protection.
This included surrounding the air load terminal and freight distribution centre with 13ft T-walls and creating nine protected helicopter parking bays on the old Dutch ‘Redskin’ Ramp.
Maj Maddock said working in a coalition with different national priorities had its own challenges and rewards.
“It has been a complicated job with many stakeholders to satisfy, but the team has enjoyed a good, collegiate relationship,” he said.
“The CRME National Guardsmen from South Carolina have been very effective and completed all their tasks efficiently and on time.
“It was satisfying to return as part of the last push and see how significantly the base has changed, although when finished it will still be bigger than it was in 2006.”
| Date Taken: | 12.01.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 12.01.2013 06:28 |
| Story ID: | 117574 |
| Location: | TARIN KOWT, AF |
| Web Views: | 345 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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