JOINT BASE BALAD — The engineering flight of the 332nd Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron here has earned the Brig. Gen. Archie S. Mayes Award for 2008 -- an Air Force-level award that recognizes the most accomplished CE programs flight for the year.
“[The flight] feels honored,” said Capt. James Rosner, Green team lead project manager. “This [Air Expeditionary Force] rotation and the two previous to this one all contributed to the award. It’s amazing to see the baton passed from one team to the next without it dropping once. That is the key to our success: the dedicated people from the past year ensuring that the job is getting done right, the first time.”
The flight, comprised of 30 Airmen, designed and facilitated many projects throughout the year -- ultimately earning them the award.
“We do more construction at Balad than some major commands,” said Maj. Rockie Wilson, 332nd ECES Engineering Flight chief. “We have approximately 87 current projects under construction and even more in the design phase.”
The flight designs construction projects and performs long-term strategic planning, Wilson said. The flight also performs quality assurance for all construction projects to make sure Air Force standards are met.
Currently, the engineering flight is in the works of designing incinerators that will burn waste more cleanly and efficiently. Another project in the works is to build new facilities for the north and south entry points to Balad, Wilson said. This will improve the quality of life for security forces Airmen.
“Other quality-of-life projects the [flight] constructed throughout the year were the Housing 6 Shoppette and the extension to the H6 gym,” the major added.
The flight built the facility transition plan for the transition of base operational support from the United States Army to the United States Air Force, Wilson said. Balad is one of the only and certainly the largest installation in the central command area of responsibility where the Air Force has base operational support, providing services to more than 30,000 people across nearly 8,000 facilities.
Another reason the flight earned the prestigious award was saving taxpayer money by cancelling projects not needed.
“We cancelled some large projects that are not going to be useful,” Wilson said. “These items would be nice to have, but are long projects and we would not get much use out of them if we pull out soon after.”
“We’re honored and humbled to be recognized as the best programs flight in the Air Force for 2008,” Rosner said. “Greatness is cumulative. We could not have won this award without the hard work and dedication of all those who preceded us. We appreciate winning this award but also want to thank the AEF rotations before us.”
(By Staff Sgt. John Gordinier, 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs)