April 4, 2003
size="4">Deployed Scott civil engineers build cities in the desert
>By Christi Spargur
375th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
>SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AMCNS) - The 375th Civil Engineer Squadron here is as mighty as the red bull that sits atop their building marker. With eyes full of fierce resolve, its men and women transform barren lands into operational camps complete with work facilities and living quarters.
>The work is part of their wartime mission as providers of bare base support. In that role, the squadron deploys to remote locations as members of a Prime BEEF team or Base Engineer Emergency Force. In some cases, they are the first to arrive.
>"Our Prime BEEF teams are responsible for setting up the wartime mission in a new location," said Lt. Col. John Cawthorne, the commander of the 375th CES. "We build tent cities, put in water lines, and generate electrical power."
>"We essentially build and maintain everything that is needed to support a base or build a new one," added Master Sgt. Nicholas Weizman, Prime BEEF's superintendent.
>Though not always visible, their work is essential to the U.S. and allied forces' operations. "The Prime BEEF team allows everyone else to do their job," said Colonel Cawthorne. "In contingency operations, for example, if our engineers aren't there to recover the airfield, then airplanes don't fly."
>But pilots are not the only ones benefiting from the services provided by Prime BEEF. In addition to building tent cities and setting up power and water lines, they provide many amenities that add to servicemembers' quality of life while far from the conveniences of home.
>During a deployment last year, structural journeyman Senior Airman Hector Mendiola of the 375th CES, spent much of his time building walls for over 100 tents. The walls gave those living inside something that is often hard to find in open areas like a previously uninhabited desert - privacy.
>"It's difficult to see our importance here in the states," said Airman Mendiola. "But when you deploy, you see firsthand the impact you make," he said. "The routine jobs we do stateside like hanging drywall takes on a different meaning when we go to a deployed location overseas. We know someone else down the road is going to not only use that facility but may also need it to survive."
>During a deployment two years ago to Saudi Arabia, Sergeant Weizman and other civil engineers maintained the Combined Aerospace Operations Center in Saudi Arabia, the theater's primary command and control facility where air campaigns were orchestrated.
>"If we were not there to fix and maintain that facility," said Weizman, "then those missions could not have been planned or carried out, which wouldn't have just affected our air campaigns but also the delivery of other needed resources."
>"Everything we do as a Prime BEEF directly impacts the success or failure of military operations," said Colonel Cawthorne. "This is why we take readiness training very seriously."
>The squadron trains regularly, building upon the skills used in their peacetime mission of base maintenance and adding to it specific wartime procedures like work-party security.
>"A lot of what we do when we deploy is similar to what we do here," said Sergeant Weizman. "For example, the people who work on the pumps and valves in our liquid fuels department, which is responsible for moving fuel on base, will use the same equipment to do the job when they go to a remote location."
>"What we do on an everyday basis is training and practicing for our wartime, Prime BEEF mission," said Airman Mendiola. "Sometimes what we're doing here may seem insignificant. But when you deploy and look at the surrounding landscape, you can see everything you helped build and create.
>"That's when you know, you really are a part of it," said Airman Mendiola. "It's not just something you read in a paper or watch on TV. You are there, and that's something you can always tell people: 'I was there.'"
>The 375th CES is currently deployed as a Prime BEEF element in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in an austere location.
>Since leaving in January, they have helped build tents, and a new base exchange, as well as an expansion of the current runway. The plumbers have fortified the tank farm increasing the camp's water supply capacity by 60,000 gallons, and those in the structures shop are working on building a community area for the troops.
>Master Sgt. Scott Young, the squadron's first sergeant who deployed with his unit, said in an e-mail message home, "The troops are working very hard here and have a lot to show for it. Most of them are so exhausted that they're asleep by nine."
>Even though the workload may be heavy and will likely continue to be so for the duration of their deployment, the squadron continues to carry their "bull mentality," overcoming every obstacle with pride, might, and determination.
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