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Providing power for the people

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Brok McCarthy
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  Almost no one likes walking into their office to find the lights or their computer won't turn on, especially on a base as busy as this one, and it's up to around 20 people to make sure it doesn't happen, or if it does, that it's fixed. 

The people who work in the 379th Civil Engineer Squadron electrical systems shop are responsible for repairing and maintaining all lighting fixtures, street lights, power outlets and other low voltage jobs for all flight line and Ops Town facilities. 

"We take care of all secondary voltage for Ops Town and the flight line," said Master Sgt. Stuart Fawler, NCO in charge of the electrical systems shop. "Most everything is electrical in nature. Our work ranges from new installs to basic things like 'oh I have a tripped breaker, could you come reset it.' Basically, if it lights up, heats you up or helps you get your job done, we had a hand in making it work." 

The shop is split into three shifts with teams of at least four people ready to respond to power outages. Generally, the shop will receive about five work orders per day for power outages and will have several more work orders waiting to be completed because a part is out of stock and they are waiting for it to arrive. 

A large part of their work comes from replacing light bulbs with a basket crane because the fixtures are at least 10 feet off the ground, said the Joplin, Mo., native, deployed here from Moody Air Force Base, Ga. 

"A normal day for us is to come in and grab a few work orders to keep us busy, but our primary job is to take care of emergency calls," said Staff Sgt. Jonathan Williams, electrical shop crew leader, who is deployed here from Langley, Va. He also said emergency calls are defined by either a safety issue or something that prevents primary mission operations from continuing. 

Because so many people are tied into the wing's primary mission, the shop sometimes has the challenge of deciding which emergency call takes precedent, Sergeant Fawler said. 

"Everyone considers themselves to be mission essential," he said. "You obviously do the best you can to prioritize, but basically you have to use crisis management and figure out who is, no (kidding), the person who has a mission related stoppage." 

Along with dealing with the daily emergency calls and work orders, the shop occasionally gets to work on special projects, Sergeant Fawler said. 

"The New Years Ball was our project. We refurbished the ball from last year and made the 2009 box from scratch," he said. "I was kind of sweating bullets that night... I had a three-star and a couple of one- and two-stars here plus about 2,000 people watching. When everything turned on, it was very gratifying to know these people are having a good New Year party and my guys did that." 

Regardless of the job size or how visible the result of the work will be, Sergeant Williams, a native of Blytheville, Ark., said his favorite part of the job is being able to look at something and know he had a direct impact on how it is being used to complete the base's mission. 

"It feels good looking over what you just did," Sergeant Williams said. "It doesn't matter if it's as small as fixing a light, when you flip the light switch and it comes on, it feels pretty good knowing your customer is happy." 

He also said it's gratifying to know just how big an impact he and the rest of his shop have on the mission here. 

"Without us, this base would be just a replica, not the real thing" Sergeant Williams said. "Everything would just be sitting here and would look like it, but that's just about it, you would't be able to use it."