Photo By Senior Master Sgt. Kendra Owenby | Members of the 241st Engineer Installation Squadron, erect a communications tower at...... read more read more
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17 members of the 241st Engineering & Installation Squadron, Chattanooga, Tennessee Air National Guard recently installed a 50-foot communications tower at McGhee Tyson ANG Base. The tower has a 10 year life-span and will serve to improve communications between the aircraft and the Operations Group command post.
Master Sgt. Butch Davis, 134th Communications Flight, explains why the tower was an important addition.
“We had noticed some limitations in our air-to-ground frequencies that our pilots use so we put in a work order and the job request for this tower to go up to try to limit any vulnerabilities that we may have with our pilots talking to the command post.” said Davis.
The tower was constructed piece by piece on the ground by the Airmen and then set in place with the help of a crane.
The team used heavy equipment to dig trenching to allow for underground cables from the tower to the command post.
While Staff Sgt. David Johnson operated a back hoe in the background to dig a trench for buried cables, Tech. Sgt. Tim Holcomb, team leader for the 241 EIS group, explained to 134th ARW Video Broadcaster Staff Sgt. Teri Eicher, that the process was not accomplished in a short time.
“It actually began quite a while back. We have to put the concrete pad in and let it cure for at least 30 days. So we have to wait for that, and now we have to construct the entire tower, then we will erect it, which should take about 2 days total time.” said Holcomb.
Along with trenching the cables and constructing the tower the team had to run cables from outside into the Operations Group building and route them to the command post to complete the communication lines.
Tech. Sgt. Holcomb also explained that just installing the tower did not complete the project for them.
“Every, I think 18 to 36 months, we’ll do what is called a PMI, or Preventative Maintenance Inspection for the tower. So we will be coming and looking at it and we don’t just check the tower, we check the antennas and their capabilities. The 241st, we’re an engineering and installation squadron based in Chattanooga. We’re one of, I think, 15 kind of a small set of highly skilled units. I think they only have one active duty version of us. It’s a very unique skill set. We do the outside plant, like we do here. We also do the inside. A lot of the infrastructure we put in is fiber optics, and like your base comm will roll out, or combat comm will roll out and do your initial install. Well we come in and harden that, so it’s a permanent fixture when we get done.”
The 241st Engineering Installation Squadron specializes in the installation of hardened communications structures and recently became a tenant unit of McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base.
| Date Taken: | 04.14.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 05.08.2017 12:36 |
| Story ID: | 233018 |
| Location: | KNOXVILLE, TN, US |
| Web Views: | 160 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 241 EIS Install Communications Tower at McGhee Tyson ANG Base, by SMSgt Kendra Owenby, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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