An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Red Horse: 'Always doing big things'

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Renni Thornton
  • 451st Air Expeditionary Wing
Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan --  Pounds and pounds of concrete, intense heat and lots of anxious "Dirt Boyz" make grueling work on an early Saturday morning in mid-May at Kandahar Airfield seem easy.
The men and women of the 809th Expeditionary Red Horse Squadron are working on various projects on KAF and in many regions of Afghanistan.

Among the projects the 809th ERHS have begun to tackle at KAF include installing taxiways, concrete slab floors for buildings, and K-spans.

But these are only a few of many projects the members of the 809th ERHS have taken on since they arrived in late April.

The more than 300 construction specialists, utilities experts, electricians, carpenters and other Airmen are assembled into one unit. More than half of the members are deployed to the 809th ERHS from the 200th RHS out of Port Clinton, Ohio, while the remaining members of the team are from Detachment 1, 200th RHS, from Mansfield, Ohio.

A unique feature to all Red Horse units is its self-containment.

"We are completely self-sufficient," said Master Sgt. Victor Conley, airfield heavy equipment superintendent, 809th ERHS. "We have our own cooks, medics, dining facilities," he said. "We can forward-deploy out of here tonight and be set up tomorrow morning. We have everything we need to deploy anywhere, anytime."

Some of the materials needed could cost the military hundreds of thousands of dollars. But the Red Horse unit is resourceful, and they pride themselves on finding ways to get the job done and saving the Air Force money.

"We needed fill for an area where we are installing large area maintenance shelter pads. The pads are the concrete slabs the shelters are placed on. To do that, we needed 20,000 cubic meters of fill material.

"Well, it just so happened that a contractor is doing some digging elsewhere on KAF. We made a deal with them--we could start the digging for them if they would allow us to take some of the dirt and use it for the aircraft aviation facility LAMS pads area," said Master Sgt. Rudy Moreno, project manager, 809th ERHS.

Sergeant Moreno is deployed from the 820th Red Horse Group, Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.

The company agreed and instead of having to buy the fill material, which is sometimes the case, the unit was able to get it from the excavated area, saving the military more than $150,000, said Sergeant Moreno.

Once the unit was able to get the dirt, they began filling the area and pouring the concrete.

The men and women of the unit have to be resourceful, said Maj. Mike Hrynciw, 809th ERHS commander.

"Right now we are working on multiple projects that will support the coalition efforts. We have teams working here and at various FOBs. Our job is to get big projects completed quickly. One of our biggest hurdles is getting materials. Sometimes we have to be resourceful," he said.

The team just completed laying more than 1.5 million cubic feet of matting for helicopter taxiways and aviation maintenance pads worth more than $700,000, said Sergeant Moreno.

As they finish pouring the concrete slabs for the LAMS pads, another military construction team, the Navy Seabees construction battalion, will work side-by-side with the team to construct other buildings in that area.

809th RHS is based at a forward-operating Enduring Freedom location. They are then deployed to other locations like KAF.

Being Dirt Boyz is a badge of honor, said Sergeant Moreno. "We use big equipment to get our job done and we are used to getting dirty," he said.

The term "Dirt Boyz" is a slang term used among those Red Horse similar to a term of endearment--one that is said with respect, admiration and distinction throughout the civil engineer career field.

"We are up and working by 5 a.m. and we don't quit until dusk most days. We have to get these projects done. People are amazed that we can accomplish so much and so quickly. But that's what we do. We do big things."