Power pro creates energy to sustain base operations

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Melissa Phillips
  • 407th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
ALI BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  One office here works behind the scenes day and night to harvest an under-appreciated necessity everyone needs to do their job -- electricity.

Every time a person here flips a light switch, turns on a computer, gets a cold drink out of the refrigerator or relaxes in air conditioning, he or she can thank the 407th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron’s power production element, or more commonly called power pro.

“No one on base can do (his or her) job to the fullest extent without electricity,” said Staff Sgt. Jeremy Schoneboom, a power production craftsman who is deployed from Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England.

The Airmen here maintain two power plants with rows of interconnected generators and more than 100 stand-alone units at buildings throughout the installation to provide power for military operations here.

Nothing would turn on, beep or flicker without the generators the technicians maintain, and the base would return to the dark ages.

Unlike on most overseas and stateside bases, Ali Base has no permanent electricity lines piped into the installation. Where the cable infrastructure is hardened at home station facilities, here cables are shallowly buried and are subjected to heavy foot-traffic and continual heat.

Therefore, power outages are almost an unavoidable part of deployment life, although it is something the civil engineers strive to avoid through a preventive maintenance plan.

“Most people take for granted they have power,” Sergeant Schoneboom said. “They don’t realize the work that goes into providing that power.

“Just like in a vehicle you have to get an oil change every 3,000 miles, so you’re vehicle runs right. We have to do an oil change on the generator every 300 hours,” he said.

With more than 100 generators under their control and more than 30 of those requiring daily inspections, the power pro Airmen remain busy around the clock.

For the majority of their shift, the crew does not have the opportunity to appreciate the air conditioning their equipment generates, because the Airmen spend their time driving location to location fixing generators.

“They installed a generator at the towers near the entry control point, so the personnel sitting inside the towers don’t have to sweat to death in those little metal, hot boxes,” said Staff Sgt. Chad Steele, a 407th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron tactical automated security system administrator who is deployed from Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho.

Knowing that the generators he maintains provide electricity to allow security forces Airmen to stay comfortable while providing base defense is something Sergeant Schoneboom said he takes pride in.

“It makes me feel good to know we are aiding the security forces with their comfort, so they don’t have to sit in those towers without air conditioning,” Sergeant Schoneboom said.

Although electricity is often used to make people’s daily lives easier, one of the services power pro Airmen provide could save a life in an emergency.

They maintain the aircraft arresting system, which is a cabling system that essentially acts as a reverse sling shot and provides enough tension to catch fighter aircraft and bring them to a complete stop.

Whether it is an aircraft breaking system or one of the many generators on base, power pro Airmen are always out there turning wrenches to keep the generators working in the dusty, desert environment under punishing weather extremes.

“I feel like I have a bigger part of the mission here,” said Senior Airman Thompson, a 407th power production journeyman, who rotates with other people inside a control room to watch for spikes and power fluctuations.

“At home station, we only provide back up power. Here, we directly support the war on terror, because we provide power for everyone to do their job,” Airman Thompson said.