Prime BEEF stamps hoof prints on Gitmo

  • Published
  • By Army Sgt. Sarah E. Stannard
  • JTF-Guantanamo Public Affairs
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (AFPN) --  Airmen from the 474th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron have started the process to transform Guantanamo's McCalla Airfield into an expeditonary legal complex here last month. 

The airfield resembles a military construction site in Iraq, complete with blowing dust, heavy equipment and a sprawling tent city. However, the 474th ECES plans to complete the $10.2 million dollar expeditionary legal complex project next year. Upon completion, the complex will be home to U.S. Office of Military Commissions. It's their mission is to charge and try enemy combatants detained in the war on terrorism. 

Lt. Col. James Starnes, commander of the 474th ECES, estimates nearly 80 percent of his aggregate-force have returned from a deployment in Iraq, Afghanistan or the U.S. southern border within the last two years. The unit is comprised of Airmen from the Indiana Air National Guard's 122nd, the Wisconsin Air National Guard's 128th, the Vermont Air National Guard's 158th, the New Mexico Air National Guard's 150th and the California Air National Guard's 163rd. These "Prime BEEF" (Base Engineer Engineer Forces) teams arrived here in full force this August poised to construct the Department of Defense (DoD) project, whose budget had been recently slashed on the floor of Congress, as plans for a more lavish military commissions court complex here were dismissed. 

"We're an Air Force unit on a Navy base using Army assets to build a DoD project," said Staff Sgt. Mathew Johnson, a utilities specialist from the 122nd focused on plumbing, liquid fuels and pest management. He continued, explaining that typically Prime BEEF teams are responsible for the maintenance of already established bases. The unit, however, is functioning in the capacity of a "Red Horse" team, whose war-time mission is to stand up a temporary air base in an expeditionary location. 

Using plans developed by the 883rd Red Horse Team from Hurlburt Field, Fla., the Red Bull's construction will include a series of prefabricated buildings, one of which will be on a permanent foundation. Particularly challenging, said Staff Sgt. Shawn Karzman, a utilities specialist also from the 122nd, will be providing a "finished" interior to the building which is essentially a non-permanent infrastructure. 

The Red Bulls began construction on what they have since dubbed, "Camp Justice" shortly after their arrival here, and within two weeks, the site had already been classified as operational. Using large tents which had been shipped in by barge earlier this year, the 474th built, from the ground up, their own living quarters, office areas and morale welfare and recreation building. 

"We have to make do with what we have here," Starnes said. "We needed a [power screed] for concrete, so some of the guys built one using a washing machine motor. They've all got a skill or trade, so you put them all together and they can do anything." 

Deployed for approximately 120 days, the Red Bulls will stay with the project through completion. They will then hand it off to another Prime Beef team whose job it will be to maintain the site. The complex is expected to be ready for commissions proceedings to resume once the courts have resolved jurisdiction issues. 

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