CE cements relationship with Airfield Ops

Published Aug. 14, 2018
By Staff Sgt. Joshua King
386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- After the wear and tear of thousands and thousands of landings and take offs, airfields eventually need to be repaired. Without a strong relationship and good coordination between airfield operations and civil engineering, the process could get messy.

On Tuesday mornings, a group of company grade officer’s, comprised of Airmen from the 386th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron and the 386th Expeditionary Operational Support Squadron, meet in an effort to mitigate these issues and make construction projects as streamline as possible.

“Airfield projects are inherently difficult because you have to manage aircraft traffic while doing pavement repairs,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Jarrod Brunkow, 386th ECES project manager. “You have to break projects into sections and think about how the aircraft are still going to be able to move while we replace the pavement.”

While all units on an installation work toward the same mission, their individual missions could take precedence over others and that’s where the Tuesday morning meetings shine.

“I think we all bonded over the fact that this is all for the airfield,” said Brunkow. “This is going to be a good thing for the base, the only thing standing in our way is the coordination. When the coordination is there we can let these construction projects go with minimal disturbances.”

In the first half of 2018, this relationship produced. They were able to complete more projects than rotations before them, totaling nearly 20 million dollars in upgrades and repairs. They worked so well together that projects that had been ongoing for years were finished.

“The contractors said this was the most construction that they have been allowed to do in a six-month rotation in about five years,” added Brunkow.

These many projects took up large portions of the airfield at different times, but because of the partnership between ECES and airfield ops, there was no impact to the wing's flying mission or the mission of coalition partners.

“In a deployed environment like this, where the operational tempo is fast and the need for quick answers is high, meetings like this provide that” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Justin Dunn, 386th Expeditionary Operational Support Squadron airfield operations flight commander.

With deployments lasting six months, the team of CGO’s hopes to pass the experiences on to the group that will replace them.

“These projects require heavy pre-coordination to ensure all requirements are met while complying with the many regulations surrounding the airfield,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Jeremy Vaughan 386th ECES project manager. “These projects could have gone 180 degrees in the other direction had we not come together, worked together, and built the relationship we have today.”