‘Dirt Boyz’ digging in

  • Published
  • By Capt. Michael G. Johnson
  • 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan (AFPN) --  Airmen of the 28th Civil Engineer Squadron woke up to a South Dakota blizzard which closed sections of Interstate 90 and the Rapid City airport. Within a week, some of the same Airmen began waking up in the snow-covered foothills of the Ala Too Mountains in Kyrgyzstan as part of the 376th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron.

The Airmen from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., are deployed here with people from seven different bases as part of Air and Space Expeditionary Force 7 and 8.

It was not long after they arrived that the “Dirt Boyz,” the affectionate name for bulldozer and grader operators, dug into action here working on a fuel storage area.

“U.S. Central Command engineers told us we needed to increase our fuel capacity. A few days later they told us (the job) needed to be done quickly,” said Chief Master Sgt. Terry Sears, operations flight chief and project manager.

When the job is complete, the Airmen will have moved enough rock, gravel and sand to build a 3-foot path, 3 inches deep more than 50 miles long, the chief said. The Dirt Boyz have been working nonstop preparing the site for more fuel bladders that should be ready to pump fuel by March 31.

“Through the normal contracting process, the job would have taken 15 weeks to complete,” said 1st Lt. Dustin Born, a 376th CES flight chief. “Central Command wanted the job done much quicker, so we decided to do the job in-house, knowing that our engineers could get it done in 15 days.”

Before the Dirt Boyz broke ground, the site contained small rolling hills. Today, the hills have been flattened, the dirt has been leveled, and a rock bed has been added. When the site is complete, the project will more than double the fuel capacity for the base.

Staff Sgt. Tyler Adams, a squadron surveyor, said the difference between working here and at home station is operations tempo.

“The ops tempo is 100 times what it is at home, and this [project] is very important; it’s big,” said Sergeant Adams. He said that performing the mission in a combat zone is much different than performing the mission at home.

“It’s going to help by increasing the amount of fuel we are able to provide the warfighter,” he said.

When the project is complete, officials said, the Dirt Boyz will have moved more than 63 million pounds of soil.