Red Horse makes an impact at Dyess

  • Published
  • By Airman Charles V. Rivezzo
  • 7th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Airmen from the 819th Red Horse Squadron from Malmstrom AFB, Montana, arrived here recently to begin building a pre-engineered building for the 7th Civil Engineer Squadron.

The 8,500-square-foot facility will provide the necessary space for CES craftsmen to perform maintenance duties and will also consolidate three other facilities being used by 7 CES.

"This is the cornerstone project of a larger multi-phased CE consolidation plan," said Lt. Col. John Tryon, 7th Civil Engineer Squadron commander. "We have a project in design right now to consolidate several of our CE shops that are dispersed in over 12 buildings across Dyess into a smaller footprint here in our main CE compound."

The new facility will cost $695,000, with more than $600,000 being saved by the Red Horse team constructing the building rather than contracting it out.

"This is a win-win situation," said Col. Mark Zimmerhanzel, 819th Red Horse Squadron commander, who came to Dyess last week to visit his troops and 7 CES. "There is a mutual benefit for everyone involved. Dyess gets a new building and we get valuable hands-on construction training to better prepare our Airmen for when they go downrange."

"Being assigned to a Red Horse unit provides many unique opportunities that allow us to showcase what Air Force civil engineers are capable of," said Senior Airman Joesph Bennett, 819 RHS. "It gives us plenty of hands-on training to enable us to be more efficient at our jobs while deployed."

This project directly supports the Air Force's energy strategy to reduce the portion of the Air Force budget used for installation support by 20 percent and reduce the size of the Air Force physical plant by 20 percent by the year 2020.

Overall, these transformation efforts reduce the cost of installation engineering activities in the long term through consolidation and demolition, which frees up resources for the recapitalization of Air Force weapons systems.

"As with any corporation, the Air Force has limited money and manpower to invest in and maintain its infrastructure. CE is leading the way in reducing excess, obsolete and underutilized infrastructure capacity, so that we can better allocate resources for mission critical facilities," Tryon said.

"We feel very fortunate that Air Combat Command selected Dyess for this Red Horse training project. Captain Saccone and Sergeant VanMeter have their team operating at a very high level," Tryon added.

Construction broke ground Aug. 15, and working 6-days a week and 12-hours a day, the RH team is on schedule to complete this building on Nov. 15.