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BOISE, Idaho - Presented with a wartime environment, austere conditions, and numerous combat civil engineering tasks, the 124th Civil Engineer Squadron successfully dealt with all the challenges of their 2012 version of Silver Flag at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., last month.
The exercise was an important warmup for the squadron, which will send the majority of its personnel to Afghanistan for a six-month deployment this summer.
“Many of us are repeat visitors,” said Senior Master Sgt. Thomas Keelin, 124 CES superintendent, “and some experienced their first CE fight.”
The seven-day field exercise demanded craftsmanship and expertise from dozens of civil engineer and services disciplines as 52 CES Airmen and 8 more from the 124th Force Support Squadron’s services flight demonstrated their ability to operate in a combat zone.
With a majority of first-time Silver Flag participants, the 124 CES water, fuels and maintenance flight garnered accolades from the permanent-party training staff during the post exercise outbrief, just hours before the squadron’s return to Gowen Field at the end of February UTA.
During the outbrief evaluators declared Idaho’s WFM as the best they’ve observed in the past two years of Silver Flag. WFM flight focused on the tasks required to create a bare base in a forward operating location (known as bed down) and then sustain a war fighting posture in theater using Basic Expeditionary Airfield Resources.
“It was eye-opening and worth the effort” said Staff Sgt. Johnnie Jarnagin, an entomology specialist from WFM who completed his first Silver Flag.
Alongside the civil engineers, services flight performed food service, lodging, fuel fired equipment, search and recovery operations, and limited recreation opportunities during Silver Flag.
“CE touches every aspect of the peacetime and wartime operations of our wing,” said Maj. Ken Williams, deputy base civil engineer. “Less than every four years, they ask us to prove our ability in the forward operating environment,” he said.
During Silver Flag, 124 CES personnel had to coordinate their war fighting with civil engineer specialists from active duty units throughout the weeklong exercise—a practice they
see whenever members deploy to current forward operating bases.
“We demonstrated combat skills while we repaired damage to runways and taxiways, erected shelters and base facilities and stayed ready to respond to any emergency,” said Sergeant Keelin.
| Date Taken: | 03.01.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 03.01.2012 17:49 |
| Story ID: | 84584 |
| Location: | BOISE, IDAHO, US |
| Web Views: | 37 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Engineers return from Florida ready to deploy, by Lt. Col. Gary Daniel, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
