Posted on 03/13/2009 4:35:36 PM PDT by SandRat
ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md., March 13, 2009 – Air National Guard civil engineer squadrons comprising hundreds of construction and repair experts will involuntary deploy overseas in historic numbers and scope over the next two years, senior Air Guard officials said.
The mobilizations involve nearly one-eighth of the Air Guard’s civil engineer squadrons and differ from previous deployments, when citizen-airmen stepped forward as volunteers to man joint expeditionary groups.
"We have large groups being involuntarily mobilized in the beginning and middle of 2009,” Air Force Col. John Elwood of the Air Guard Readiness Center's civil engineer office said. He said that notices also are coming for 2010.
Since 9/11, civil engineers have provided ongoing support among the nearly 60,000 Guard soldiers and airmen now supporting operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
These new deployments will put more boots on the ground in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan, and where the Air Force’s civil engineers operate in theater, Elwood said.
The tons of equipment and acres of command centers that civil engineers manage, improve, move, take home and stand up put them in high demand, Elwood said.
There are 87 Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force, or Prime BEEF, squadrons in the Air National Guard. Prime BEEF airmen include trained electricians, plumbers, carpenters, heavy equipment operators, and heating and air-conditioning specialists who maintain military bases at home and overseas.
"As you take down a base or build one, someone has to manage the electric, the water, the buildings, and the runways and maintain them," Elwood said. "This is all part of that process."
Prime BEEF teams will mobilize almost all of their airmen with the exception of base firefighters.
Air Force Lt. Col. Paul Novello, commander of the New Jersey Air National Guard's 108th Civil Engineer Squadron, broke the news of their involuntary deployment during the February training assembly.
As a Prime BEEF unit, Novello’s nearly 90 airmen are recognized as the Air Force’s civil engineers of the year for the Guard and Reserve.
His airmen have volunteered for individual combat deployments since 9/11, and the unit has deployed groups of 30 to 40 airmen for training events and exercises.
But their recent orders to involuntarily deploy the squadron are the first he can recall. "Overall, everybody took it very well," he said.
Their notification comes months before their departure, so Novello said they will train and prepare their families and employers until then.
"The two things we don't anticipate worrying about over there is mowing the grass and snow removal," he said joking.
But on a more serious note, Novello said the absence of his entire squadron, which maintains its own infrastructure on McGuire Air Force Base, N.J., will require "strict planning" to keep their base construction and repair projects going. "That's a problem we are addressing," he said.
New Jersey's governor and adjutant general are well prepared to handle any state emergencies in their absence, he added.
"The beautiful part of New Jersey is we have two quick reaction forces, so we have some depth to our state missions,” he said.
The airmen soon will head to Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa., and its regional training center, where they and other Prime BEEFs will train in their wartime skills, he said. They also plan to attend an Air Force Silver Flag expeditionary exercise at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.
Novello said the advantage of deploying as a hometown unit is that they know and trust each other. Most of his airmen have more than 20 years of service and just as many years working together.
“We are one big team,” he said. Another advantage, he added, is that the leadership and unit experience they gain in theater will carry over to their state missions and Air Guard.
But for other squadrons, the involuntary deployments are business as usual. While full squadron mobilizations for Prime BEEF are unusual, RED HORSE -- Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers -- and Army Guard engineers have normally deployed as hometown units.
Lt. Col. Terry Robinson, logistics officer for the Pennsylvania Guard’s 201st RED HORSE at Fort Indiantown Gap, said their combat area deployment this year will be their third since 2002. The Air Guard has eight RED HORSE squadrons, and Elwood said three more will deploy into next year.
RED HORSE is a heavy repair and construction element. Two, 200-person squadrons join in deployment as a full RED HORSE that can build bases and operate independently of other organizations.
Their special capabilities include explosive demolition and concrete and asphalt operations, as well as rock quarrying.
The demand for RED HORSE also is growing, Robinson said. "We recently grew by a full RED HORSE in the Guard," he said.
For their mobilization, Robinson said his big concern is to prepare everyone it affects. "We've done it a couple of times, and we understand how it works with our employers and families. The best advice I can give [Prime BEEF] is to train like you intend to go to war.
"It’s a simple concept we all try to do, but we all make concessions, and we need to make training as real as possible,” he continued. “Keep abreast of what’s happening in theater, because that’s what you have to train to."
(Air Force Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith serves with the National Guard Bureau.)
I would be more likely to think that they are being deployed o remove American Military presence from around the World.
A prelude to MASSIVE reduction in America's Military looming????????????????
If you just got in to get a free education be prepared. This is a risk you took when you signed on your contract.
What did you sign up for then? Before someone says "college," that ain't right either...... if you signed up for college $ the military/guard would have issued you a letterman sweater instead of an M16.
Jeeze honor courage.... can't even fill a part-time commitment
This great piece of PR follows the last great piece I read about an Air Force TechSgt who was at near 300 pounds and lost about one hundred on deployment. Air Force was bragging about that one too.
When I deployed with a ANG Civil Engineer unit like the article is referencing, the other CE Airmen and myself were all volunteers. What the article is saying is that it’s no longer going to be voluntary. Actually this is a good thing because there’s way too many full time state technicians in CE units that never deploy and pull their own weight. My former NCOIC spent 35 years in the Air Guard as a full time technician and NEVER deployed!
It's really just a technical term to indicate that the unit is being called up, as a unit, or that the person did not individuall step forward and volunteer for this particular deployement.
I've got a nephew that has one "voluntary" year of deployement (all over CENTCOM's AoR) and who I think is now on an "involutary" call up, but is not deployed outside the country.)
I guess the critical difference is one of choice for that particular deployement/call up. His first one, they may or may not have asked him specificaly to volunteer, but either way, he did. The current one, he no choice, given that he'd signed up, and had not requested separation or transfer before the orders came.
But yes, they are all volunteers in the sense that they were not drafted or otherwise forced to be doing what they've been doing. (He's a SFC (E7), and served on active duty for however many years with the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield barracks. While there he often served as burial honor guard. He did it again a couple of years ago, for his grandfather's funeral.
Actually they can be, in the sense that they'll put out a call for individual volunteers with specific AFSCs or MOSs. That's the way my nephew went the first time. This time his unit was deployed. Yes he had "orders" both times, but in the first instance, they asked him before cutting those orders, in the second they got warning orders and then call up orders as a unit.
My issue is with the spokesman terming "involuntary deployment." Obviously he is correct from a legal standpoint, that orders are involuntary, that is why they are called orders. But, if I am someone who has never served, it would seem like you have a unit of a bunch of folks who would rather dodge deployment than meet the requirement of the oath when you use the term “involuntary”. As I pointed out in my other post, this also follows another “feel good” story the Air Force did and subsequently posted about an Airman who wen from almost 300 lbs (couldn't even wear a flak vest) to around 190 by the time he came back.
Folks that have served were frothing at the mouth. Obviously there are cultural differences among services, but sometimes it is frustrating when you see chasms.
I hope you didn’t take my previous response as my taking offense. I agree with the point you made. We all signed on the dotted line and know what that means. I was just trying to clarify the former policy since the article was being vague.
No, not at all. After I re-read my post, I thought maybe it could be taken in a manner different than I intended.... so before I got flamed (by someone else) I added my qualifier.
Roger that. One thing I will have to admit IMO is that the AF sometimes does a poor job of getting it’s message out to the media. It did look like in the article that these troops were being forced to go against their wishes.
BTW, that's not me in the photo.
I know that very MEP 12 well. Power pro 13 years and still going
Hi, I’m preparing to join the air guard and thinking of Power Pro, Electrician or HVAC. Can you advise on civilian equivalents, job outlook and/or long term benefits. Any thoughts or comments are appreciated.
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