Civil engineers deploy to help Washoe Nation

  • Published
  • By Ruby Zarzyczny
  • 939th Air Refueling Wing
WASHOE INDIAN RESERVATION, Nev. (AFPN) --  "We will help each other to protect and preserve the land, water and air for our generations to come” is a Washoe American-Indian tribal creed.

Through the Civil-Military Innovative Readiness Training program several Air Force Reserve Command civil engineer units are keeping this Washoe creed alive by deploying to the Washoe Indian Reservation near Carson City, Nev., from March 29 through June 24 to conduct military readiness training -- an initiative that is literally rebuilding the communities there.

For 12 weeks civil engineer units from Maryland, Oregon and Ohio will deploy about 150 reservists to the reservation to help finish building a 5,100 square-foot Head Start building, renovate a 2,100 square-foot convenience store into a tribal wellness center, pave a parking lot, and build a home for an elderly, handicapped tribal member. This project, which began March 29, is one of three such projects.

In May, the 939th Civil Engineer Squadron from Portland, Ore., deployed 30 reservists who are engineering assistants, electricians, plumbers, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning specialists, structures specialists, and heavy equipment operators to the reservation to train.

They started their training by working on the Head Start program building and the wellness center.

“The Head Start building was started and then sat for six years unfinished,” said Chief Master Sgt. Kenneth Woody, the project manager, from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo. “When we started the project it was total chaos. We had to make corrections to the building and redo doorways, kitchen plumbing and some wiring.”

“We hung about 300 pieces of sheetrock in the building to make four classrooms, a kitchen, administrative offices and two full-size children’s bathrooms," he said. "(We) poured concrete for sidewalks, ran some additional wiring, installed air-conditioning systems and finished the playground.”

Chief Woody said the crews from the 939th are real go-getters. They jumped right into the projects and got the job done.

“They had forms set up (for the walls in the building) and the sidewalk built in the first three days they were here,” he said. “The electricians and (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) guys were very knowledgeable. They found mistakes from the original contractors and corrected them right away.”

“So far, the 939th has been one of the best teams I’ve worked with,” Chief Woody said. “And when you get teams like that, it makes my job a lot easier.”

Chief Woody said tribal members and people in the community really appreciate what the Air Force Reserve is doing here.

“Right now, the Head Start program is being run out of the tribal community center,” Chief Woody said. “When the new building is completed, the Head Start program will increase their enrollment to 65 children, and the tribe will once again be able to use their community center.”

While the communities near Carson City appreciate the reservists' service, the reservists are getting excellent training.

“This program provides us the training to practice our peacetime mission skills,” said Senior Master Sgt. Steve Watson, squadron utilities superintendent. “We have a wartime mission too where we deploy to an area and set up bare-base camps. We set up little cities in the contingency areas, and then we maintain the bases. Everything we’re doing here helps us learn and improve the skills we’ll need to do both missions.”

“It also gives us a chance to work as a team and get to know the people you’re working with,” Sergeant Watson said. “We get a lot of work done working 10- to 12-hour days in hot sweaty conditions during these exercises. It allows us to see how people are going to react to hard work, and what skills each person has and where they need to learn.”

While the reservists get great training, the tribe gets to save money. For the tribe the project isn’t just a luxury, but instead a matter of life or death. The Washoe Health Center originally had a contractor set up to renovate the store, but it was too expensive for their already strained health center’s budget.

“We have patients here with some major medical conditions who need to be taken care of, so we try to save every penny we can for them,” said Mrs. Maryjane Bean, Washoe Heath Center administrative assistant. “Having the Air Force Reserve help us with the wellness center has sped up the building time and saved us $20,000. That is a substantial amount of money that we desperately need to use for our patients.”

Right now, the medical center and the wellness center are separated by a few miles and a bridge that goes over the river.

“When you give patients bad news or find them in distress, you don’t want them driving to the wellness center while they are crying or upset,” Mrs. Bean said. “We want to give them help and comfort immediately. Having the wellness center located across the street from the health center makes it convenient to provide support to our community.” 

The project should be completed in June.

“This training also gives us a sense of satisfaction because at the end of the tour we’ll be able to look at what we’ve been able to accomplish,” Sergeant Watson said. “We are getting great training, and the customer gets free labor. When we’re done with the training here, the Washoe Tribe will have saved money and have nicer buildings.”