Released: Apr. 10, 2003
Airborne RED HORSE takes the field
By 2nd Lt. Anna Siegel
Air Combat Command Public Affairs
LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (ACCNS) -- The Air Force has a new capability
thanks to the members of three new Airborne RED HORSE teams.
"Airborne RED HORSE was stimulated by the vision of the Chief of Staff, Gen.
John Jumper, based on his experiences in (U.S. Air Forces in Europe)," said
Brig. Gen. Pat Burns, The Air Combat Command Civil Engineer.
ARH squadrons parachute into remote and inaccessible airfields and or are
inserted by helicopter in an air assault style, said Maj. Charlie Perham, the
chief of the ACC RED HORSE Program.
Each of Air Combat Command's three active-duty RED HORSE squadrons have built
Airborne RED HORSE teams, Major Perham said. The three teams are now deployed
to the U.S. Central Command area of operations and are working at seized
airfields for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
"We're now able to meet the CSAF's vision that combatant commanders will have
an airborne airfield assessment and repair capability," General Burns said.
"We are making Air Force Airborne combat engineer capability available to the
combatant commanders so they incorporate it at the planning level and use it
correctly," Major Perham said.
Airborne RED HORSE teams are significantly different than the rest of
traditional RED HORSE combat engineer squadrons in that members are airborne
qualified and use much lighter specialized equipment, Major Perham said. ARH
teams take 21 traditional RED HORSE members and augment them with six
firefighters, six explosive ordnance disposal technicians, and two chemical
and biological readiness experts.
The men and women who make up an ARH team volunteer from within the
traditional units and have to be physically qualified, Major Perham said.
ARH engineers are trained to rapidly deploy into barren locations, assess
airfield capabilities, prepare helicopter or aircraft landing areas, clear
obstacles, install emergency airfield lighting systems and repair airfield
damage, said Chief Master Sgt. Linnard Ford, the ACC RED HORSE superintendent.
They also test for potable water sources, construct force protection
structures, clear explosive hazards, assess potential nuclear, biological, and
chemical and toxic industrial material hazards, and provide fire rescue and
emergency medical services.
Although the Army's airborne combat engineers have traditionally been the unit
of choice when combatant commanders needed air-insertable combat engineers,
the Air Force was able to change that paradigm with the help of Capt. Andy
Taylor, an Army Combat Engineer exchange officer in the ACC CE Readiness
Division, Major Perham said.
"Captain Taylor brought actual combat-tested Army airborne engineer experience
to our team building the Air Force Airborne RED HORSE capability," he said.
Many of the airborne team members have spent three weeks at Army Airborne
School, and all will eventually earn their jump wings, Captain Taylor said.
ARH team members also will attend a 13-day Army Air Assault course to learn
how to sling-load their equipment and rappel from helicopters.
"It's a work in progress," he said. "The vocabulary, mentality and doctrine of
the Army and Air Force are different. But we're smoothing it out."
The teams can be employed independently after ground forces have seized an
airfield or as part of an Air Force Contingency Response Group package, Chief
Ford said. These ARH concepts and equipment were tested during Exercise Safe
Flag at Avon Park Field, Fla., in November.
"We're now doing this for real, taking the lessons learned from Exercise Safe
Flag and actually doing it," Major Perham said. "There are going to be some
great lessons learned for us to improve Airborne RED HORSE in the future.
Air Force teamwork was the key to transforming the RED HORSE capability to
airborne, he said.
"The effort to stand up this mission was huge," he said. "It's been awesome to
see the RED HORSE squadrons, contractors, base level folks, guardsmen, the Air
Force Civil Engineer Support Agency, and deployed troops come together to make
it happen."
The ACC team credits Senior Master Sgt. Anthony Shigouri, the air clearance
authority for the East Coast, and Dave Wagner, an AFCESA equipment specialist,
with being champions for the airborne cause.
"We'd call them and tell them what we needed, and they made it happen," Chief
Ford said.
The equipment needed, like the mobile airfield repair equipment set, had to be
lightweight yet able to withstand an airdrop or sling-load stresses, Captain
Taylor said. ARH engineers are also using lighter, leaner all-terrain dump
trucks, loaders and firefighting equipment that is less than one-third the
size and weight of the equipment the traditional RED HORSE squadrons use.
"General Jumper's transformational vision for 'Jumping HORSEs' in Bosnia is
now a reality in action in Iraq!" General Burns said.
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