Four 'horsemen' assist with Haitian airfield evaluations

  • Published
  • By Valerie Mullett
  • 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs Office
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  Four pavements and equipment craftsmen with the 819th RED HORSE Squadron teamed up with three members of the Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency from Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., to travel to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 29. The team was on a mission to evaluate the Port-au-Prince airfield to ensure it was capable of handling the increased volume of air traffic following the Jan. 12 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit the island nation.

Master Sgts. Eric Johnson and Dave Haight, along with Tech. Sgts. Rob Cullison and Chad Lepley, departed Malmstrom Jan. 23 in a Dodge Ram loaded to the brim.

"We were initially told that we would be gone up to 30 days and we had to be self-sufficient for that time," Sergeant Johnson said. "So we took all the essential things we would need to do that with us in the truck."

It took the group four days to drive to Tyndall where they met up with Capt. Tim Barnard, Master Sgt. Bruce Schulte and Staff Sgt. Harold Muniz, AFCESA members. The group then loaded their vehicles - the pick-up and a testing vehicle from AFCESA -- onto a C-17, boarded the plane and headed for Haiti.

With Army and Navy personnel already in place on the island, the group found their temporary home in a tent city already established by the American military in extremely close proximity to the Port-au-Prince airport runway. There were showers and portable toilets available to them, but for sustenance, they relied on their MREs [meals ready to eat].

"Trying to sleep was a bit of a challenge for us at first," said Sergeant Cullison. "Plane after plane providing relief supplies for the Haitians landed and took off and we were housed about 1,000 feet off the apron. You hear about it on the news but until you see it, it's hard to imagine 200 flights a day coming in and going out."

That increased traffic was the initial reason the team was called to action.

"If that airport goes down, there's a lot of aid that will not come in," Captain Barnard said. "We're going to make sure the Port-au-Prince airport is structurally capable to handle all the missions they are seeing."

The other challenge was trying to drill core samples on the runway when it was so busy.

"We had to conduct most of the tests at Port-au-Prince at night when the flying missions ceased," Sergeant Johnson explained. "There was just too much air traffic during the day."
The team took samples from the runways at different features, which they described as potential stressed areas in the tarmac.

"The places where the aircraft touch down receive the most stress, obviously, but we also test areas along the taxiways, and where the aircraft make their turns," Sergeant Johnson said.

In all, the group collected 18 samples from the Port-au-Prince runway to bring back to Tyndall for testing. They made their recommendations for repairs to be done and while the initial plan might have called for more of the 819th RHS members to deploy there for repair work, there was already a Tennesse National Guard PRIME BEEF team in place there.

"We made the recommendation for them to conduct the repair work because it just would have been too expensive to bring everything and everyone we needed down there to do it," Sergeant Johnson said.

While in Haiti and because they were in close proximity to the Dominican Republic, the team was called upon to test an airport in Barahona and the San Isidro Air Base runways as well. A fourth airfield was tested by the AFCESA team following the 819th RHS member's departure.

Having deployed to Southwest Asia numerous times, the team members were thankful to go on a mission where there wasn't as much danger involved.

"There wasn't any hostility with the Haitians," said Sergeant Lepley. "They were glad to see us."

"It was truly humbling how much respect they had for us and all the other Americans in uniform," Sergeant Haight added.

Having accomplished the mission they set out to do, the four returned to Malmstrom Feb. 22.