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Rapid Engineer Deployable, Heavy Operational Repair Squadron, Engineer provides the Air Force a civil engineer response force to support contingencies and special operations.
“RED HORSE’s mission is to deploy,” said Air Force Staff Sgt. Patrick Zimmer, 819th RHS project manager. “We are a self-sustained unit [capable of rapid response in remote, austere environments]. When we are not deployed, we perform training projects that assist base construction efforts.”
As a result of the short summer the RHS plans to move another 850,000 cubic yards during Phase I of their project, which started three years ago and to make a rough grade or a level base to establish a foundation for a runway.
“We are moving a big hill,” Zimmer said. “So far we have moved more than 3 million cubic yards of material. The [installation’s] plan is to extend the runway another 2,500 feet to allow a safer environment for JBER aircraft to operate and to deconflict with the Anchorage international [airport] airspace.”
Due to the 819th RHS flexibility and training, they are able to operate at any given time filling multiple positions. Currently, they have a carpenter working in an excavator and a power production mechanic who has been in a bulldozer.
While at the construction site Zimmer mentioned a lot of his Airmen would never see a project of this magnitude in their military career again. The project scale is so large that some of the machines they are currently working with do not exist in the Air Force inventory and had to be rented.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Jonathan Rankin heavy equipment operator and first time Alaska visitor said he has never dealt with this size of project and excavation.
“This is the biggest excavation I’ve been on,” Rankin said. “We are moving a pre-existing hill. Most of the time we are working on asphalt and concrete. This is a different pace of doing dirty work.”
All of the materials removed are being relocated to establish a bird and wildlife free-zone to minimize the possibility of a potential threat to runway and aircraft operations.
“Before the RHS came the base hired a contractor [which] moved less than one million cubic yards of materials. The RHS will move almost 2 million cubic yards of materials,” Zimmer said. “So we are saving the base tons of money – almost every job that we do – we do it twice as quickly as a contractor. A contractors base access time is limited but we can work 24-hours a day, six days a week.”
In a couple of weeks, the 819th RHS will be joined by 12 additional members from the 554th RHS, Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. Once all members are here, Zimmer said that they would start 24-hour operations, six days a week, but as for now, they are currently working around 12 hours a day.
| Date Taken: | 06.09.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.09.2017 20:39 |
| Story ID: | 237168 |
| Location: | AK, US |
| Web Views: | 48 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, RED HORSE Squadron returns to JBER, by Sheila deVera, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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