Photo By Ryan Labadens | Master Sgt. Kevin Shows, 403rd Civil Engineer Squadron heating, ventilation and air...... read more read more
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ST. CROIX, U.S. Virgin Islands -- Three reservists from the 403rd Civil Engineer Squadron wrapped up what would be their squadron's final 'roll out' mission with the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron "Hurricane Hunters" here May 4-10.
For nearly 30 years, reservists with the 403rd CES deployed with 53rd WRS air and ground crew and other 403rd Wing members in support of the Hurricane Hunters' annual roll out. The CE squadron's scheduled inactivation Sept. 15, 2015, would make this the last roll out event they would support for the Hurricane Hunters.
The weather squadron uses the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport in St. Croix as their forward operating location to fly storm missions during the hurricane season each year June 1 to Nov. 30. This roll out time, which typically takes place annually during the first week of May, provides the 53rd WRS the opportunity to set up shop in preparation for flying storm data-gathering missions for the upcoming season.
Lt. Col. Brad Boudreaux, 53rd WRS instructor pilot, spoke about the importance of work performed by the CES Citizen Airmen.
"CE is basically here to help provide us with an adequate work environment down here at our forward operating location," said Boudreaux. "They help to get the facilities in shape for us so that we can safely operate out of here during the storm season."
For Senior Airman Nathin Schuessler, 403rd CES structural journeyman, this was only his second trip to St. Croix to help the Hurricane Hunters prepare for the hurricane season. For the civil engineers' final roll out, Schuessler was joined by Master Sgt. Kevin Shows, 403rd CES heating, ventilation and air conditioning craftsman and Staff Sgt. Walter Pinkerton, 403rd CES water and fuels system management craftsman.
Schuessler listed several tasks the civil engineers accomplished while there, including repainting faded lines on the airfield taxiways, greasing and maintaining the rollup doors to Hurricane Hunter hangar to ensure they worked properly, replacing the exhaust system on one of the backup generators to prevent a buildup of fumes under the building's overhang, changing filters on the building's water heater, and a variety of other preventive maintenance and repair efforts.
"Any kind of work they need us to accomplish on, outside or in the facility, we do it," said Schuessler.
Chief Master Sgt. Eugene Lee Wilcox, 403rd CES chief enlisted manager, said that over the years the CES crew performed a number of projects requested by the 53rd crew to renovate and maintain the Hurricane Hunters' building and help keep them operating throughout the season.
"It's all customer-based; it just depends on what the customer wants," said Wilcox, in reference to their taskings from the Hurricane Hunters. "Over the years, we've installed, repaired and maintained a number of items, such as overhangs on the building to protect the aerospace ground equipment used by the ground crew. We also installed rollup doors (on the building they use) and gates to keep it a secured area, and we gutted and installed new bathrooms in the building."
During the 1990s, Wilcox mentioned one major project the CES members performed: installing a tie down system on the aircraft parking pad to prevent high winds from moving and damaging the WC-130H airplanes the Hurricane Hunters used at the time. They later reconfigured the tie downs for the newer WC-130J models, and finally jackhammered and re-installed those portions of the parking pad so the planes could be rotated 360 degrees, depending upon the direction of the prevailing winds.
Wilcox said that while he was a little sad to see the end of an era with the upcoming inactivation of the 403rd CES, he knew that other options were available to continue on the work necessary to keep the 53rd facility in St. Croix up and running, such as contracting out the work or deploying members from other CE squadrons with the Hurricane Hunters.
"Somebody else will pick it up, I'm sure, and it will be something good for them to experience as well. And, who knows, maybe it will be another (CES) unit where some of our people have already went to," said Wilcox.
| Date Taken: | 05.13.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 12.30.2016 10:21 |
| Story ID: | 219027 |
| Location: | ST. CROIX, VI |
| Web Views: | 19 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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