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380AEW Article

To the HORSE: Highly mobile always deployable

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Joshua J. Garcia
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
Southwest Asia --  The 557th Expeditionary RED HORSE Squadron can enter a bare base and build from the ground up, it is only fitting that their name is an acronym for rapid engineer deployable heavy operational repair squadron engineer.

Dealing mainly with heavy construction ranging from runways to erecting buildings, the 557th ERHS may consist of all the same trades as a civil engineer squadron, but they have a different mission.

"We are a self-sufficient team with the capability to start projects from the ground up," said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Joel Ortega, 557th ERHS cantonments project manager. "We have trades-men from every craft of the civil engineer career field and we travel with our own security and medical personnel."

The self-sufficiency and wide-array of career fields traveling as a unit allows the RED HORSE Airmen to provide highly mobile, rapidly deployable civil engineer response. Even though they are attached to the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia, they always have the capability to forward deploy to other locations if needed.

"We don't let our forces get idle, if there is a mission to accomplish," said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Brian Woods 557th ERHS structural craftsman. "We move on to another spot to complete a different mission."

Not only are RED HORSE Airmen mobile, but the team is highly efficient in completing construction projects.

"Some of our construction projects are pre-engineered buildings where a manufacturer will build it, take it apart and send it to you to put back together," said Woods. "Block buildings are different, every construction and material used is going to take a different amount of time, but as long as we have the materials we should finish prior to our deadline."

The ability to rapidly complete projects allows the squadron to work on multiple worksites at multiple bases. Ortega, a Chicago native, said they have a constantly-changing mission, and members are sent to other locations based on the mission and skill sets required.

The 557th ERHS is able to accomplish this by having personnel from their home station, Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., deployed to several locations around the area of responsibility. Woods, an Oswego, N.Y. native, said he in-processed with the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing and then traveled around to several other locations in the AOR before working projects here.

Woods and Ortega said team chemistry helps their crews get the job done. More often than not Airmen spend more time with the squadron than with their own family creating a close-knit unit.

"It's a great place to work and a great place to learn," said Ortega. "We get to see the fruit of our labor. When we are done with a project and leave; people know that we've been there."
With a rapid mobile mission, RED HORSE continues to complete the mission not only at the 380th AEW, but around the AOR.

"The capabilities between RED HORSE and CE are the same; we have the same skill sets. We might get different opportunities," said

Woods. "In the end we are all part of the civil engineer career field, we just have different missions."