Air Force engineers make home for 82nd Airborne

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Bryan Bouchard
  • 4th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
LOUIS ARMSTRONG NEW ORLEANS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, La. (AFPN) --  After a week of sleeping on ponchos inside hangars, nearly 900 Soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division can now rest easy in an Air Force tent package thanks to the efforts of Airmen deployed to the 4th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron.

The engineers worked hard to establish a bare base for Airmen providing relief to Hurricane Katrina survivors and then quickly turned their attention to building a tent city for Soldiers as well, said Lt. Col. D.J. Junio, 4th ECES commander who is deployed from Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

“We had our plan in place within a day,” said Maj. James King of the 4th ECES who is deployed from Shaw AFB, S.C. “It took about one more day to draw up a site plan, have our ‘dirt boys’ level the ground, and have our engineering assistants mark off the areas for the tents.”

While the Army typically has its own tents, the Air Force tents may have an amenity some Soldiers are not used to having.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Bryan Krueger, a paralegal for the 82nd Airborne, said this is the first time in his 22 years in the Army he will sleep in a tent with air conditioning. He and dozens of other Soldiers assisted the 4th ECES Airmen in the tent city’s construction.

“It’s nice,” he said of his time working side by side with the Airmen. “I’ve never really hung out with Air Force people before. Working together with this great bunch of people will help us get this work done quickly.”

Working with Sergeant. Krueger was Staff Sgt. Damon Weigl who is deployed from Shaw. He said he set up a bare base for Marines in the past and said this project was a great opportunity to show that “we in the Air Force don’t just keep to ourselves.”

“We can show that the Army and the Air Force can work together,” he said. “And we’ll work till the work is done.”

“The Air Force is helping us improve the quality of life of the task force working in support of the displaced Americans in New Orleans,” said Army Maj. Kevin Brown, the assistant division engineer for the 82nd Airborne deployed from Fort Bragg, N.C.

For many 82nd Airborne Soldiers, the tent city is another in a long line of examples of joint operations success.

“(We) expect to work in a joint environment when we deploy,” Major Brown said. “The Army also conducts joint operations every day back at Fort Bragg. So of course, with open arms we accept the assistance of the 4th ECES. We see no problems with being able to work with the Air Force here, and we’re excited to do so.”

Colonel Junio said the people building the new tent city may be Soldiers and Airmen, and his own Airmen may come from 10 separate bases, but they are all a part of one team now.

“It’s great to see how people have merged here from all over the country to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the hurricane relief effort,” he said.