ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. – A four-man team from the 97th Civil Engineer Squadron structure shop recently returned from assisting Little Rock AFB, Ark., which was devastated by a tornado, April 25.
The four-man team consisted of Tech. Sgt. Robert O. Findley, 97th CES NCO in charge of the structure shop; Staff Sgt. Paul C. Northrup, 97th CES structural craftsman; Airman 1st Class Dustyne K. Timm, 97th CES structural apprentice; and Airman 1st Class Jonathan T. Daniel, 97th CES structural apprentice. They spent seven days at Little Rock AFB working 12-to-14 hour shifts, helping clean up debris and fixing structural damage to base facilities.
“It was rewarding,” Daniel said. “I am from Arkansas. It is two-hours from my house and I actually went to [my supervisor] and asked if I could go help.”
The tornado damaged more than 100 on-base housing units, three C-130 Hercules and damaged many base facilities and homes.
“The overall damage that was done to the base is just shy of $90 million at the latest estimate,” said Lt. Col. Lance D. Clark, 19th Civil Engineer Squadron commander, Little Rock AFB. “It was incredibly helpful [to have this team]. Because of their efforts, they were able to help us speed up the recovery. We were able to get temporary fixes for those facilities done within 10 days of the tornado.”
Upon arrival to Little Rock AFB, Findley found out he would be working for an old supervisor of his and the team did not waste any time getting right to work.
“We hit the ground running,” Findley said. “It is just a work ethic kind of thing. Working for my old boss - I wasn’t there to play games - we took care of business and got out.”
“There was one day that we were the only ones working because there was so much flooding that people off base couldn’t even get on,” said Daniel.
During their time at Little Rock AFB, the 97th CES structural team showed the true character of the Mighty 97th by working hard and getting the job done.
“They were great. My lead electrician told me they did an outstanding job,” said Michael Duhon, 19th CES deputy operations chief at Little Rock AFB. “They helped replace 12 utility poles, 22 cross arms, approximately two miles of high-voltage primary wire, one mile of secondary wire and seven high-voltage transformers while they were here. I couldn’t have asked for a better set of people.”
| Date Taken: |
06.02.2011 |
| Date Posted: |
06.06.2011 10:39 |
| Story ID: |
71658 |
| Location: |
ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE, OKLAHOMA, US |
| Web Views: |
72 |
| Downloads: |
0 |
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This work, Mighty 97th CES airmen help Little Rock AFB recover from tornado, by MSgt Kenneth Norman, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
