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Prime Beef builds better bases

  • Published
  • By Maj. David Kurle
  • 455 AEW public affairs
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan --  The more than 10,000 people deployed here may not have heard of the 755th Prime BEEF engineers, but nearly all have benefited from their work.

For six months the base engineer emergency force, deployed from Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan, has not only kept Bagram in the fight against extremists, but has made life better for the base’s residents.

Senior Master Sgt. Michael Irons, the superintendent for the 55-person engineering team, credits his Airmen for the huge amount of work done in Afghanistan during the unit’s deployment.

“It’s the E-6s and below who made this happen over here,” Sergeant Irons said. “They really have accomplished an amazing amount of stuff. It’s hard to describe.”

The 755th Prime BEEF team deployed in January for an “in-lieu-of” mission, which means Airmen fill a requirement on behalf of Soldiers. While the team reports to the 755th Expeditionary Mission Support Group, which manages the Air Force’s in-lieu-of missions in Afghanistan, the engineers work on projects assigned by the Army.

From constructing living quarters, called “B” huts, to improving more than 25 miles of roads, to expanding dining facilities to finishing electrical and plumbing jobs, the 755th Prime BEEF has completed or started numerous projects.

“We definitely made people’s lives better, especially here in Bagram,” said Tech. Sgt. Todd Anderson, in charge of the electricians on the team.

As the team gets ready to re-deploy and turn their efforts over to a new group of Prime BEEF engineers, the Airmen know they have made an impact not only at Bagram, but around Afghanistan.

“Last month, they sent some of us to (Forward Operating Base) Gardez to make four sea huts for the Army,” Sergeant Anderson said. “They were very appreciative because we provided a bigger chow hall. We’re giving a better life to people who are deployed.”

The team constructed 12,000-square-feet of living and dining space for Soldiers at Gardez.

“Gardez was probably the most challenging because of what we went through to get supplies to them,” Sergeant Irons said. “It’s in the middle of the mountains, so everything has to go by truck.”

Staff Sgt. Todd McAda, a structures craftsman, said the team had to raise the ground seven to eight feet to level the building site before construction.

“This is the first time any of us had gone and done this large of a structure at a forward operating base,” Sergeant McAda said.

The team was short on construction specialists for the project so Airmen from other specialties, such as plumbers, pitched in and helped do a lot of the building, according to Sergeant McAda.

“We had 19 of the best workers you could have,” he said.

Other recently-completed projects include a 10-foot wide sidewalk that runs the length of Bagram’s main thoroughfare. The Prime BEEF team cleared the ground for the sidewalk then managed the contract for a local company to lay down the pavement.

The team also practiced some good old fashioned diplomacy during their deployment, teaching Afghans how to operate newly-acquired heavy equipment.

One of Prime BEEF’s last projects was re-wiring the electrical service to a field hospital run by the Egyptian military. A lot of the exterior lighting consisted of bare light bulbs hanging by an electrical wire over the tents that make up the hospital complex.

With bare bulbs touching the fabric of the tents, the potential for a fire was very real, according to Senior Airman Phillip Esmeli, an electrician working on the hospital project.

“We’re improving the lighting for everyone and eliminating the fire hazards,” Airman Esmeli said. “When we got here, I was amazed at the wiring. I didn’t even know anyone could do that.

“I feel really good working this kind of a job,” he said. “It’s satisfying because we’re giving them something they really need.”

Attitude is everything when working engineering projects, especially in the extreme hot and cold weather of Afghanistan, according to Sergeant Irons.

“Their attitudes have been super,” Sergeant Irons said. “They’ve overcome every obstacle put in their path.

“Nothing was ever handed to them that wasn’t completed, usually ahead of schedule,” he said.