CE builds at Kulis

Photo By Mark Olsen | U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Steven Romine, 177th Civil Engineer Squadron, New Jersey Air National Guard, flattens the ground around the newly installed storm drain catch basin outside the flight line facility at Kulis Air National Guard Base, Anchorage, Alaska, May 23, 2001. The 177th Civil Engineers are with the 177th Fighter Wing at the Atlantic City Air National Guard Base in New Jersey. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Mark Olsen)  

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA, UNITED STATES

05.28.2001

Story by Mark Olsen  

New Jersey National Guard   

Its spring, although for the Airmen of the New Jersey Air National Guard’s 177th Fighter Wing’s Civil Engineer Squadron that’s a bit of a stretch, especially when its barely above 40 degrees – and there is still snow on the mountains.
Wait, snow, mountains? We’re not in New Jersey anymore.
From May 12-25, 2001, 48 Airmen with the 177th CE Squadron deployed to Kulis Air National Guard Base, home of the Alaska Air National Guard’s 176th Wing at Anchorage, Alaska. Following a two-day trip flown on a West Virginia Air National Guard C-130 Hercules, CES began work on remodeling a communications/control center for the 210th Rescue Squadron – the largest and most complex job of the deployment; installing a set of steps more than 40 feet long and 10 feet wide which included excavating, creating the forms, and pouring the cement; removing the existing wiring and rewiring the non-destructive inspection shop; installing a drainage system to prevent reoccurring flooding; and laying a concrete pad for a pavilion funded by the Kulis Chiefs council. In addition, nine services members are working at Elmendorf Air Force Base.
The deployment follows the type of tasking CE would normally do when the squadron is deployed on a wartime basis which is base recovery. This means CE is required to deploy to undergo training. Deployments play a key role in the development of CES members’ skills. “By going to Kulis, everyone gets the chance to adapt to working at a different base while working in their Air Force Specialty Codes,” said Chief Master Sgt. Herbert Mimler, noncommissioned officer in charge, CES. “During these two weeks, they will get the same amount of training they normally would get in two years of drill weekends. It also gives them the opportunity to see a project from beginning to end, the chance to work together, and build team spirit.”
Everyone is getting a chance to do that; the electricians are doing electrical work, the plumbers plumbing, the carpenters and utility people remodeling rooms, the masonry, and the heavy equipment operators get to work with equipment that for those of us who played with Tonka trucks as kids only dreamed about. “CE is unique, it is a great place to learn because these people have a lot of talent,” said Mimler.
Learning is a key part of this deployment. The concrete steps that were formed behind operations are a good example. Of the eight people working at the site, only two were experienced in working with concrete. Yet with their leadership, the steps were done by professionals.
The 177th CE Airmen have a reputation for hard work. In a space of three days, an empty room in the 210th Rescue Squadron communications/control center - 60 feet long by 22 feet wide – was turned into a six-room work area with floor-to-ceiling walls.
With the first week of the deployment complete, the work is moving along at a brisk pace. “The jobs are going great, everything is on schedule,” said Mimler.

• Date Taken: 05.28.2001
• Date Posted: 07.16.2025 12:25
• Story ID: 542929
• Location: ANCHORAGE, ALASKA, US