Manas fire department switches to contract services

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Jerome Baysmore
  • 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan (AFPN) --  Officials of the 376th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron turned over fire protection and prevention responsibilities to civilian contract firefighters in a small ceremony June 2 at Manas Air Base.

The 36 military firefighter positions seen over the past six years have now switched to about 28 contractors, but the level of service will remain the same, said Lt. Col. Mike Griffin, the 376th ECES commander and base fire marshal.
 
"The Air Force civil engineering community has been stressed with a lot of taskings ever since 9/11," Colonel Griffin said. "This is a great opportunity to relieve some of those stressed career fields by allowing contractor support or the outsourcing of civil engineer functions. 

The switch is beneficial to both the military and civilians, said Senior Master Sgt. Tony Phillips, the 376th ECES outgoing fire chief.

"I was looking forward to coming here for four months to be the fire chief and gain the experience," he said. "But the switch to civilian contract is bittersweet. I will be here in a (quality assurance) capacity so I'll be able to interact with the fire chief and the civilian contractors to learn a little bit about the aspects of contract firefighting."

Although the Manas AB fire department had a recent changeover, most of the contractors have their roots in the military and the new program is very similar.

"The fire emergency services and paramilitary organizations have rank structures like the active duty," said Jodie McKenna, the Manas AB fire chief and retired senior master sergeant. "So going from active duty to the contract is quite similar. We have as much experience as our active-duty counterparts from a firefighting standpoint, which provides our customer a great service."

Mr. McKenna said he feels the contract will also help ease the burden on the active-duty firefighters.

"I think it's a great opportunity both for the military and civilian counterparts," he said. "Due to the overextension of the fire prevention career field, they decided to contract out Manas AB. We believe that's going to help lessen the burden for the active-duty personnel by not having as many rotations within the (air and space expeditionary force) cycle."

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