Photo By Command Sgt. Maj. Ryan Matson | U.S. Air Force Airman 1st. Class Tyler D. Saulsgiver, front, a structural engineer...... read more read more
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LAGHMAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Two weeks ago, there was nothing there. By April 20, a crew of eight airmen from the 577th Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force Squadron swarm all over a row of four 18- by 36-feet plywood buildings – sheeting the roofs, wiring the lights, cutting out the doors.
The plywood buildings are known as B-Huts, and they will serve as living quarters for more soldiers at the tiny, but ever-expanding Joint Combat Outpost Xio Haq, eastern Afghanistan.
“Normally it takes eight or nine days for a B-Hut, but so far we’ve done all this in a little less than two weeks,” said U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Robert Arnold, a structural engineering specialist from Adelanto, Calif., as he pointed to a row of four B-Huts in various states of completion. “We’re going pretty fast.”
The eight-man team from the Prime BEEF Squadron headed out to JCOP Xio Haq, which is scheduled to go from housing a company-sized element to just less than a battalion-sized element, from their deployment headquarters at Bagram Air Field. Each airman is trained in a specific trade. Three of the airmen are structural specialists, trained in carpentry, masonry, roofs, welding and sheet metal fabrication. Two members are heavy equipment operators, one is a heating, ventilation and air conditioning specialist and the team also boasts a plumber and an electrician.
The airmen can travel anywhere in eastern Afghanistan where work needs to be done, from developed bases to the most remote outposts.
“They send us to the worst-off places to make them better,” Arnold said. “We like getting out of BAF as quickly and often as possible, because out here in the field we get to operate as a small team and just focus on the mission, take care of business.”
The squadron will hop from base to base or outpost during their six-month deployment, doing any and every type of construction work necessary to improve the area, from grading roads and pouring concrete pads or sidewalks, to building gyms and other buildings.
“You get a sense of pride in the things you’ve built because you are the mission once you get out here,” U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Kevin Shows, a heating, ventilation and air conditioning specialist from Columbia, Miss., said.
The crew said they build a lot of B-huts, as these buildings are most commonly used for living quarters, but can be adapted to house anything, from latrines to morale, welfare and recreation facilities. The squadron said they don’t work off a set of plans on the B-huts. They said the buildings need to fit a set of specifications, but depending on the materials available and the area in which they build the B-huts, the airmen said they do have a little bit of room to improvise on the buildings.
Arnold said the expeditionary Prime BEEF units are a relatively new organization within the Air Force, with their squadron being the fourth rotation deployed to Afghanistan. He said there are two other Prime BEEF squadrons located in the country.
“Actually the 577th Prime BEEF squadron has only been around a couple years,” Arnold said. “Usually they have a RED HORSE [Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers] unit that would come out to do something like this, but this type of work is a bit smaller than what they’re used to handling.”
Rather than stay at one FOB, these smaller teams travel around to where work needs to be done. So far, Xio Haq is the second stop of the deployment for the team, as they have also built B-huts at FOB Mehtar Lam, also in support of Task Force Ironman which is comprised of Iowa National Guard soldiers from 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment, part of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division.
The team at Xio Haq includes members from across the United States, including several from the Minneapolis area, one from Mississippi and three from California. They also have a wide array of ages and experiences. For example, while most of the team members work in construction-related fields in the civilian sector, one member, U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Christopher Lange, a structural engineer specialist from Crestline, Calif., is a businessman on the civilian side.
“This lets me learn something new, gives me a change of pace,” Lange said. “Usually it would be once a month or a couple weeks a year, but this deployment mission is my big opportunity to go out here and work with these guys, who are the experts. This is my shot to learn my trade in the military, because trying to learn the construction field one weekend a month is really difficult.”
The team’s lone active duty member, U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Tyler Saulsgiver, a structural engineer specialist from Panama, N.Y., is just 20-years-old.
On April 20, Saulgiver learned to sheet a roof from the team leader, U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. David Sowers. Sowers, from Staples, Minn., has been in the Air Force doing construction work for 31 years, more than a decade longer than the young airman has been alive.
“I like getting to work with Senior Master Sgt. Sowers,” Saulsgiver said. “As you can imagine, I learn a lot from him.”
Though the team will travel all over eastern Afghanistan supporting numerous units during their deployment, they said they have particularly enjoyed working with the “Red Bulls” out of Iowa.
“It’s a good mix; it’s a good fit, said Saulsgiver. “They’re just down-home folks just like the rest of us. It’s cool to try and make things just a little better here for them.”
| Date Taken: | 04.20.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 04.24.2011 16:25 |
| Story ID: | 69278 |
| Location: | LAGHMAN PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 757 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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