Quiet Professionals

Story and photos by A1C Michael Swingen

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Every day, people flip on a light switch, run hot water, and turn up the A/C without giving it a second thought. Phones charge. Toilets flush. Stormwater drains away. Every day, people drive on smooth, paved roads and work in buildings that stay upright with silent beams and pillars.

Although oftentimes invisible in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, even the smallest part of the built environment is a testament to the civil engineers who make the world a hospitable place. Although they work in plain sight, they are quiet professionals who do not seek recognition or praise.

They just want the lights to come on.

The Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron recently returned from a weeklong trip to the North Carolina Air National Guard Regional Training Site, where they all received hands-on training in their respective trades and crafts. The trip also included 15 Airmen from the 90th Civil Engineering Squadron at F.E. Warren Air Force Base.

Specialists in Heavy Construction Operation, Structural, Water and Fuel Systems Maintenance, Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration, or HVAC/R, Electrical Power Production, Electrical Systems, and Engineer’s Assistants all do their part in the world of civil engineering.

And while working in the Wyoming Air National Guard, they do their part in a unique context, too.

“We build bases,” said U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sergeant Christian Lowe, who helps lead the 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron. “You take a patch of dirt somewhere in the world and the Air Force says, ‘Dibs,’ and it’s flattened. Then there’s tents, air traffic control towers, and a runway. All these things are built up. It’s tangible, it’s palpable, it’s touchable. And for the right-minded person, it’s hugely gratifying.”

In the Air National Guard, civil engineering is divided into two specialized units with distinct but overlapping missions. One unit is the Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineer, also known as RED HORSE. They are a highly mobile, rapidly deployable response force that builds bases in combat zones. The other specialized unit is Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force, or Prime BEEF, which focuses on maintaining bases and their utility systems, whether at home or abroad.

The Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron is a Prime BEEF squadron.

During the weeklong training exercise, U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Vinny Wagoner, who is an Engineer’s Assistant, peered through a surveying instrument while measuring the 3,500 feet long airstrip at the North Carolina Air National Guard Regional Training Site.

Resting at a cross-section of theory and application, an Engineer’s Assistant uses a lot of math, maps, and rulers.

“The thing I enjoy about the job is you get a lot of updated toys, like state-of-the-art surveying equipment,” Wagoner said. “You have to keep up with the times.”

An Engineer’s Assistant resembles a superhero with a day job, like Clark Kent, with his two distinct wardrobes. Indoors, Wagoner sports business casual while plotting an airstrip from scratch on the geospatial software program GeoExPT. Outdoors, Wagoner dons a hard hat while making onsite inspections, muddying his steel-toe boots in a construction zone.

They also help if an airstrip gets bombed.

The system the U.S. Air Force uses to repair a cratered airstrip is called Rapid Airfield Damage Recovery, or RADR.

After an attack, damage assessment teams glass the airstrip with binoculars, collecting information. Drones sweep overhead. Towers detect. Together, they identify the debris, unexploded ordinance, craters and camouflets, and spall damage from an attack. The information is fed into GeoExPT, which creates a real-time map of the pockmarked airstrip.

Members of Explosive Ordnance Disposal, or EOD, are the first personnel on the airstrip, combing it for munitions that failed to detonate on impact. They neutralize them through a variety of means. For example, they carry out Blow & Go Operations, placing pre-made charges near the munitions and detonating them. They carry out Standoff Munitions Disruptions, employing small arms from a distance. Sometimes they unwire the unexploded munitions.

Once bulldozers broom off all the shells and debris, the craters must be filled. Each step in the process has a dedicated crew that performs their tasks with assembly line execution.

First, the Engineer’s Assistant measures the lip of the crater’s edge, homing in on the entire patch of airstrip that has bulged, even to the slightest degree. For safety and functionality purposes, it is imperative the runway remain level.

Another crew attaches a wheel saw to a compact track loader, or CTL, to cut out the cratered patch of airstrip. The wheel saw looks like a giant steel pizza cutter that is 45-inches or 60-inches in diameter, respectively. The six-person crew divides into two sub-crews, each with two CTL operators and a spotter. Two CTLs face each other on parallel sides of a crater, cutting through concrete at approximately one foot per minute. The whirl of the wheel saw is shrill.

The next step removes the crater and the surrounding upheaval. An excavator with an impactor pounds the cut-out block of concrete, pulverizing it. An excavator with a bucket scoops out the rubble, leaving behind a precise square hole in the ground. It is two feet deep.

The Slash and Splash technique is a method used to backfill the excavated area. A 3,000-pound sack of flowable-fill material is suspended over the square hole on the fork of an excavator. A spotter slashes the bag, pouring out the material until it reaches ten inches to the top. The remaining inches are capped with rapid-setting concrete or asphalt poured from a volumetric mixer. Finally, the new patch of airstrip is rolled and raked smooth.

After an attack, one team can repair up to 18 craters in less than seven hours.

“Muscle memory gets built into all these pieces of equipment,” Lowe said. “That’s why we have our guys practice going out there, finding a crater, and getting it back to where we are launching planes off that runway again.”

In addition to ensuring operational readiness after an attack, the 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron put their skills to work in a variety of other contexts and scenarios during their weeklong training exercise.

All week long, the Dirt Boys reared in their heavy machinery, kicking up dust all around them. Before the dust settled, the black silhouette of the bulldozer resembled an apex predator on the savannah. U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Nicholas Cardillo and U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Levi Phillips, who are both specialists in Heavy Construction Operation, wore mirrored sunglasses that reflected the glare of day as they worked late into the afternoon.

Before enlisting, Phillips worked construction in the private sector before realizing he wanted to do it in a more challenging context. Navedo came from a military family and knew he wanted to serve but wasn’t sure how. They both landed in the 90th Civil Engineering Squadron at F.E. Warren Air Force Base and haven’t looked back.

“Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to get behind a piece of equipment or drive a truck,” Phillips said. “For my job, we grade roads. Then we drive on it two weeks later, and you’re like, ‘Oh, I did that.’ I just think it’s cool.”

Cardillo agreed. “It’s fun,’” he said. “You always have something different going on. And then you get to see the work you’ve put in. You get to see it pay off. There’s so many things we drive by right now that we had a hand in building. That part of it is really cool.” 

Neither of them had operated a crane until North Carolina. They took turns in the cab with the joystick, feeling the flow of the boom as it swung across the sky. The test weight they used was a 900-pound drum. Cardillo dropped anchor and hooked the drum. 

“It seemed easy at first when you were dropping the claw,” Cardillo said. “But when you put weight on it and you start moving back and forth, it really starts swinging. It took me some time to get used to that and figure out how to catch the load swing.”

Once he began to operate the joystick with just the tips of his fingers, the movements became smoother.   

Over the course of the training, Phillips discovered a passion for crane operation. “That crane really put something in me,” he said. “With the crane, you boom out, stick up, pick the boom up, and lower your winch all at the same time. There’s always something going on. It’s just very cool.” 

Thanks to their training in the military, Cardillo and Phillips are certified in dozers, excavators, jackhammers, rollers, loaders, graders, sweepers, water truck, dump truck, asphalt, concrete, and more. Phillips wants to get certified in crane operation now. All this is training is provided by the U.S. Air Force.

The training in Civil Engineering is always cutting-edge. Back home, the 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron partners with the local Laramie County Community College, sending shops to get trained with staff and instructors at the school.

“All our training is in line with the industry standard in the private sector,” Lowe said. “If you’re going through an electrician’s course, for example, you’re training to the National Electrical Code. You’re getting exposed to everything you would see on the civilian side and getting qualified for it.”

U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Luis Navedo did his research before signing on to be a specialist in Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration, or HVAC/R. “I have my universal license through my Air Force training, and that’s for life,” he said. “Once I get out after four years, I can buy and sell refrigerant anywhere.”

Also, Navedo is proud to be a specialist in HVAC/R for the military. “Think of a base like Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada,” he said. “It’s like 115 degrees there every day. Let’s say there’s no HVAC, all the servers would melt. Then the mission is impacted, and everyone starts losing their head. Cooling and heating is essential.”

During the weeklong training exercise, the instructors at the North Carolina Air National Guard Regional Training Site marveled at the work ethic that was on display by the 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron. “They were phenomenal,” U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant Tyler Nadeau, who is an Electrical Cadre, said. “They were proactive. They asked questions.”

Other equipment the 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron trained on during the week included the Mobile Aircraft Arresting System (MAAS), the Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit (ROWPU), the BEAR Distribution System (BDS), and the Expeditionary Airfield Lighting System (EALS).

“On Monday, they had no clue about a new piece of equipment,” Nadeau said. “On Friday, they could teach it.”

Soon it was time to go back home. The 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron packed up and headed to the airstrip, waiting for a lift.

After a while, a shimmering trace appeared in the sky, magnifying into a C-130 Hercules in its final descent. It thundered down at around 100 knots, roaring by the cheering 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron. The buzzing propellers still whirled ferociously as the aircraft turned around and taxied back to the passengers before coming to a full stop.

The rear cargo door lowered, settling into the baked airstrip. A loadmaster in a flight suit approached the 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron. An officer broke from the group and met him at the edge of the airstrip, shaking hands.

With cargo bags hoisted over their shoulders, the 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron filed onto the rear ramp of the C-130 Hercules, locating their seats. They buckled in and grabbed a fistful of red netting. The loadmasters worked in a whirl of straps, winches, and staticky headset communication. Soon the rear cargo door raised again, pinching off the North Carolina daylight.

A few remaining Airmen watched as the aircraft peeled off the runway and shrank soundlessly into the sky, bringing everyone back home. The takeoff and landing of a C-130 Hercules would not be possible without the 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron at the Wyoming Air National Guard and people like them. But they do not seek glory or praise. They are the quiet professionals.