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557th ERHS paves the way

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Hannah Landeros
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
AL UDEID AIR BASE, Qatar --  The 557th Expeditionary Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineer Squadron, or RED HORSE, provides heavy repair and construction capabilities when building requirements exceed normal civil engineer unit capabilities.

The 557th ERHS's mission is to assess, plan and establish mission essential facilities and infrastructure to support contingency operations and combat missions. When units need a new facility to support operations in the U.S. Air Forces Central Command area of responsibility, RED HORSE is ready to forward deploy within 48 hours wherever they are needed to perform special capabilities such as water-well drilling, explosive demolition, quarry operations, material tests, expedient facility erection and concrete and asphalt paving.

On Wednesday, the 557th ERHS paved an access road in nearly three hours for the 379th Expeditionary Medical Group's new Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility.

The 557th ERHS started construction on the CASF in July 2013 to meet the U.S. Central Command's directive to provide service members with continuous medical treatment that cannot be provided in forward deployed locations.

"We provide a variety of engineering capabilities and when other agencies throughout the AOR need our services, we provide them quickly and efficiently," said Senior Airman Jason Collins a 557th ERHS heavy equipment operator specialist deployed from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., and a Warner Robins, Ga., native.

Paving the road from scratch in one day instead of contracting the job out saves the Air Force time and money explained Collins. Laying concrete and asphalt paving is his favorite part of the job.

"We are essential to the mission because we build and construct projects efficiently and in a timely manner," said Senior Airman Arash Mozaffari, a heavy equipment operator specialist deployed from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., and a San Diego native.