Communications construction crew makes mission happen

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Aldric Borders
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) --  In the face of mortar attacks, gun fights, restricted movement and a heavier than normal workload, Airmen pressed on to finish a mission paving the way for enhanced communications for servicemembers throughout the AOR.

These Airmen, assigned to the A67, the engineering and installation arm of the A6, headquartered at the Combine Air Operations Center, did their job under unusual conditions, said Lt. Col. Michael Schultz, A67 division chief.

"This project, which constructed one of a series of towers needed for a larger project to build a communications network supporting servicemembers throughout the AOR, challenged us with extraordinary obstacles right from the beginning," said Colonel Schultz.

"Our teams, who actually construct the tower, don't normally get so involved in the construction of the foundation for the project; that is typically contracted to an outside company. This time around though, our EI engineers played a much larger role."

The engineering and installation team engineered the foundation and worked with the contracting office to find a source for the more than 180 cubic meters of concrete that was poured to create the foundation, all this before they even started erecting the tower.

Getting the concrete to the site was a challenge in and of itself, said Colonel Schultz.

"The nearest concrete batch plant to the construction site was a 30 minute drive. The challenge in that was when hauling concrete in 120 degree weather, the concrete can only stay in the truck for 45 minutes before it hardens up."

"This meant during perfect driving conditions, we would only have 15 minutes to get the concrete poured once we got it to the site."

To add even more on the engineers' plate, driving conditions were not always perfect.

"Many times while transporting concrete from the batch plant to the site, the road went red, meaning the roads were closed due to gun fights and militia attacks," said Colonel Schultz. "Once, because of being held up due to militia forces fighting, the EI team had to dump two full truckloads of concrete on the side of the road. If they hadn't, the concrete would have dried up inside the trucks rendering them useless."

Fighting didn't only hold up the construction process during concrete transport.

"At one point, all construction work had to stop for an entire week. There was fighting in the town where the batch plant was, and the EI team was receiving mortar attacks at the site and had to stay in the bunkers. Curfews were set due to the fighting causing additional problems since no one was allowed to drive," said Colonel Schultz.

After the team was finally able to finish the foundation work, they started to actually build the tower.

"The construction of the tower went smooth until the EI team was ready to build above 100 feet," said Colonel Schultz.

"At that point they had to bring in a bigger crane because their current one could only reach 100 feet." Knowing they would be limited by the capabilities of the first crane team began working more than a month in advance of needing the large crane just to complete the contracting paperwork for the larger crane.

"When it was time to transport the crane, we found out it was too big to be transported by truck and trailer. The crane had a lift capacity of 300 tons and a reach of 365 feet. It was so large in fact it had to be moved under its own power."

"Unfortunately it had a maximum speed of 25 mph, and had to stop to cool off every 30 minutes, not a good thing in this part of the world. It took a week's worth of coordination and a couple of days just to get it to the site; a couple of long days."

"Because the crane was so large and we were required to go through several checkpoints to get to the site, several barriers and barricades had to be moved to get the crane through the checkpoints. This of course required a lot of coordination with convoy security and our coalition partners who were manning some of the checkpoints," said Colonel Schultz.

"Once we got the crane to the site, we were able to finish building the tower, and it is in use today providing enhanced communications in the AOR."

"In spite of all the hurdles, we actually finished the project three days ahead of schedule."

"I am extremely proud of the Airmen who persevered through all the obstacles put in front of them during this particular project."

For their efforts this team was awarded the Combined Air Operations Center's award for Outstanding Team of the Quarter by Maj. Gen. William Holland, deputy Combined Forces Air Component commander for U.S. Central Command.

"It's Airmen like these who make the mission happen and keep us winning the war on terrorism."