Engineers take teamwork to new level of excellence

  • Published
  • By Valerie Mullett
  • 341st Space Wing Public Affairs Office
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  When it comes to "gettin' 'R done," there's none better than the 819th RED HORSE Squadron. They proved again they can knock out a job ahead of schedule while saving money and doing more than was required in the process.

Thirty-six members of the 819th RED HORSE Squadron deployed to Naco, Ariz., Jan. 27 to March 9 to repair a 1.7 kilometer stretch of roadway that was suffering from water erosion. Their job was to re-grade the road, install four low water crossings, place 12 light poles across a one-half mile stretch of the repaired roadway, including all the cabling and transformers, and assemble and install 700 linear feet of bollard vehicle barriers.

"We ended up building five LWC's instead of four," said 1st Lt. Josh Aldred, the Officer in Charge of the deployed crew. "And doing several other things that weren't in the original plans."

Prior to their departure, a C-5 from Travis Air Force Base came to Great Falls to load up and transport their necessary equipment, which included a trencher, a sanitation trailer, two self-contained refrigeration units, a two-and-a-half-ton truck, a Bobcat, a welder, two pallets with concrete forms, a mobile kitchen trailer.

"We also took a 'very unique' GPS grader with us," said Tech. Sgt. David Haight, the NCOIC assisting Lieutenant Aldred with command and control.

"It's unique because it is about a $230,000 machine that has about $180,000 worth of GPS equipment included on it," Sergeant Haight explained.

In addition, the team line hauled a 5,000 gallon water trailer nearly 1,500 miles from Great Falls to the construction site.

Among those deployed were four cooks who provided the work crews two hot meals a day from the mobile kitchen trailer - breakfast and lunch. Having them there to provide that service was a real money-saver, according to Lieutenant Aldred.

"By bringing most of our own equipment and our cooks, and using military air, we saved nearly $63,000," he said.

While that is an accomplishment in itself, it doesn't compare to the amount of work they accomplished - 10 days ahead of schedule.

Those accomplishments include:
 Constructing five concrete low water crossings, one more than planned.
 Assembling and installing 940 linear feet of bollard vehicle barriers. This included welding 15,000 pieces of steel in two weeks.
 Building 1.7 kilometers of gravel road.
 Installing 12 security lights.
 Repairing four miles of gravel road.
 Grading 2.6 miles of unimproved road.
 Replacing 500 linear feet of electrical cable; repairing 24 inoperable light sets.
 Surveying three large low water crossings for the next rotation.
 Removing 24 tons of scrap steel, generating $700 for the United States border patrol.
 Repairing 100 holes in the border fence.
 Completing emergency repairs to the Naco Port of Entry following a stolen vehicle pursuit into Mexico.
 Removing 30 tons of concrete debris from the staging area.
 Repairing 12 existing low water crossings damaged from flooding.

In all,nearly $700,000 worth of materials went in to accomplishing the above milestones, including nearly 7,500 tons of base course and gravel surface course material. Getting them was sometimes a challenge.

"Often times, the Corp of Engineers who was providing our materials, couldn't keep up with the amount of work we were doing," Lieutenant Aldred said. "That sometimes presented a real challenge, which is why we were able to accomplish some of the other things we did. We wanted to keep busy."

Naco, Ariz., is a city that literally runs across the United States border and into Mexico. The U.S. side has a population of about 2,000 people with the Mexican side being much larger, according to Lieutenant Aldred.

The team worked approximately six feet from the Mexican border while they were in their deployed location.

"Projects like these provide quality facilities and allow great training for our RED HORSE members," said Col. David Funk, 891th RHS commander. "However, as they are generally away from Malmstrom, they add to our ops tempo being that our unit dwell time for AOR rotation is currently in a 1:2 posture.

"We are very proud of all the members on our Naco project team," he said. "They exemplify what the red hat is all about - quality construction in austere environments."

Their motto, perhaps, says it all:
"Any challenge, anywhere, anytime!"