Historic RED HORSE statue gets makeover

  • Published
  • By Airman Cortney Hansen
  • 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  In need of restoration, the 819th RED HORSE Squadron statue, originally designed, poured and erected in the spring of 1982 at a remote RED HORSE compound in Egypt, found its way to a local Great Falls business for a top-to-bottom makeover Jan. 12.

"The main reason it's getting re-done is because it needed it," said Tech. Sgt. Kieth McIlwain, 819th RHS vehicle control officer. "The restoration of the statue was a mutual decision between everyone here at the Airfields shop."

In 1990, the 819th RHS was deactivated and the statue, which remained in Egypt, was almost forgotten. Five years later, the 823rd RHS was sent back to Egypt to construct a tent city for the participants of a joint training exercise. Scott Hansen, one of the original creators of the statue, was deployed to Egypt with a civil engineer squadron, tasked to relieve the 823rd RHS from the construction, when he discovered the horse marking a Mobility Squadron at the same location he was deployed to in 1982.

He found the horse statue painted blue with fairy wings attached to the back. As soon as they determined the statue was the original 819th RHS statue, they acquired it from the MOB Squadron, repainted it red, removed the wings and placed it on the highest dune surrounded by their equipment.

Upon completion of the tent city, the 823rd RHS used one of their forklifts to load the six-ton statue onto a cargo plane where it was then transported with them to their home unit in Hurlburt Field, Fla., Sergeant McIlwain said.

The statue stayed with the 823rd RHS until the 819th RHS was reactivated at Malmstrom Air Force Base in 1997. When the horse arrived at Malmstrom, it was in bad shape and broken in several places, so many of the original creators of the horse pieced it back together. It was mended using more concrete, rebar and bondo, followed by a fresh coat of paint and the construction of the base it currently sits on. Since then, the statue has only been repainted once.

"The statue has been a part of the 819th RHS history ever since it was built in Egypt," Sergeant McIlwain said. "We are hoping that this restoration process will make the statue more permanent."

The first step in the restoration process was to remove the layers of red and black paint. Using a sandblaster, the paint was removed to show the years of wear and tear it had endured.

After the paint was stripped off the statue, a layer of U-Crete, a chemical concrete, was applied to help the concrete bond better, said Phil Lane, a local business owner/operator. Any left-over cracks in the statue were filled with a thin substance that gets deep into the concrete to help give it more structure.

"This substance will smooth it out so it can look as close to new as possible," Mr. Lane said.

Following a deep penetrating concrete coating, the final step was to repaint the statue. It was given the familiar red head and black base to maintain the visual integrity of the original.

"I would say morale has improved," Sergeant McIlwain said. "Everyone is glad it's back and looks good - especially us old-timers."

After many years and several thousand miles, the red, horse-head statue has ended up at home with the 819th RHS looking as good as it did in 1982.