Photo By Tech. Sgt. Noah Tancer | U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Mario Hernandez, a water and fuels system specialist...... read more read more
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One of the first lessons a deployer to Prince Sultan Air Base, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, learns is that deployment showers are misrepresented by Hollywood. Water naturally retains the ambient temperature of its surrounding environment, so if it's 120 degrees Fahrenheit out and the sun is beating down on exposed water lines… Take a guess how the shower feels, it’s not as cold as what the movies portray.
To combat this phenomenon the 378th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron’s water and fuels systems maintenance shop has set to work burying over 500 feet of water pipe under PSAB’s Logistics Support Area.
“Deployment schedules are varied,” said Staff Sgt. John Casurella, a water and fuels system specialist assigned to the 378th ECES. “Some Airmen get off work at 1 or 2 p.m. and it's 120 out but they still need to take a shower and go to bed to be ready for the mission tomorrow. So we’re burying the lines four to six feet deep to take the water temperature down about 30 degrees for them.”
The potentially uncomfortable shower conditions are most prevalent mid-day in the middle of summer. Most adult skin can handle 120-degree showers for the allotted 3-5 minute combat showers without damage. But the water and fuels shop prides itself on sustaining and advancing the quality of life on PSAB as it progresses in its semi-permanent state. So when the request was made they responded in support of their fellow Airmen.
“Happy people work harder,” said Casurella. “I know there's a lot more to it, but the simplicity of the plumbing shop is to provide a means of proper hygiene. We make sure people can shower, wash their clothes and use the restroom so infections don’t crawl around the base like crazy.”
If the water stopped at PSAB, quality of life and in turn mission effectiveness would decrease. Without water hot meals wouldn’t be able to be prepared properly, air-conditioned restrooms would resort back to portable toilets and the direct safety of PSAB’s deployers would be affected as firefighters wouldn’t have water to put out fires.
“It can be hard to tell the younger Airmen, ‘hey you're going out to fix a toilet today,’ because they may not see the bigger picture of things sometimes,” said Casurella. “They may not understand the impact their job plays on everything and everyone else but for us it’s simple, everyone needs water and our mission is to give people water.”
Water is a fact of life no known creature can survive without. The 378th ECES’s water and fuels system specialists ensure PSAB’s deployers not only have the water they need to survive but the quality of life to thrive in the middle of AFCENT’s area of responsibility.
| Date Taken: | 09.02.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 09.02.2022 04:51 |
| Story ID: | 428570 |
| Location: | PRINCE SULTAN AIR BASE, SA |
| Web Views: | 248 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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