Barksdale AFB, Louisiana --
The 307th Civil Engineering Squadron (CES), Barksdale Air Force Base, La., and the 301st Civil Engineering Squadron, Naval Air Station, Joint Reserve Base, Texas joined forces in Clarksdale, Miss., to help make improvements to the city airport in late June and early July 2015.
Both the Louisiana and Texas units focused on continuing work that has been perpetuated by previous CES rotations over the past three years. The goals included building a new aircraft hangar, construction of taxiway and runway areas, and new lighting systems for both areas. These new systems and airfield improvements will support a fully functioning runway per Federal Aviation Administration standards.
This joint effort is part of the Air Force Reserve Command's (AFRC) Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) initiative, a program which finds projects across the United States for CES units to complete with a dual purpose of helping underserved communities and giving Airmen valuable experience in a deployed environment.
According to IRT Project Manager Chief Master Sgt. Norman Fink, "bringing multiple units and career fields together, coupled with the many design challenges makes their project more like a deployed location than a stateside project."
The 307th Bomb Wing Command Chief, Master Sgt. Randy Noble who visited the work site and assisted the units said. "This is the reason for this IRT; it brings squadrons together from different parts of the country and lets them hone their wartime skills on whatever the nation's infrastructure needs are."
The squadrons focused on continuing projects that previous CES rotations started over the past three years.
"It didn't take long for the two units to gel and our airmen to start working like a well- oiled machine," said Senior Master Sgt. Danny Jones, of the 301st CES. "Within a few hours of arrival on-site, the Airmen were integrated and assigned to different crews. Those crews are working together like they've been in the same unit all along."
Senior Airmen Bradley Morgan of the 307th CES expressed pride in his civil engineering background, "It was a good experience for us, as equipment operators, to be able work at different locations," he said. "This was our opportunity to show the city of Clarksdale that you can't spell success without CE!"
The project at the Clarksville, Miss. airport is expected to be completed in late September 2015. Project completion will be achieved by other CE squadrons rotating in from throughout the command over the summer. Their mission is to leave this community with a fully functioning hangar and airfield lighting system courtesy the U.S. Air Forces Reserve Civil Engineers.