Airmen build Army, Marine FOBs in Afghanistan - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Airmen build Army, Marine FOBs in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — Air Force engineers are not only building up the service’s bases in Afghanistan; they’re also building up the Army and Marine forward operating bases.

Several hundred airmen are working on more than a dozen FOBs in the violent southern part of the country. Many arrived earlier this year from Iraq, where they were told to pack up their gear and finish their deployments in Afghanistan.

They arrived to find an area underdeveloped and in need of many bases built from scratch, said Lt. Col. Rick Sloop, an Air Force engineer working for the 25th Naval Construction Regiment, which oversees construction in southern Afghanistan.

“We are trying to do with the bases in Afghanistan in six months what we did to the bases in Iraq over four years,” he said. “The [demand] is … pretty steep right now.”

The airmen — many working for the Army in joint expeditionary taskings — are assigned to the 809th Expeditionary Red Horse Squadron here and a soon-to-be-established prime base engineer emergency force, or Prime Beef, squadron.

The airmen live at the undeveloped FOBs, assess the ground commanders’ needs, plan the structures, requisition building materials and do the construction. The conditions are austere — no real living quarters, latrines or dining halls.

The engineers’ biggest project so far has been the construction of Leatherneck and Bastion, a massive Marine Corps camp complex in Helmand province.

“Leatherneck five months ago was a 460-acre site of dunes and moondust, and it is now a 10,000-person camp,” Sloop said. “That’s larger than most Midwest [towns].”

Another project was the construction of FOB Wolverine, a base for an Army Stryker brigade and air cavalry unit. Sloop described that project as particularly challenging because the engineers showed up to find that they had to build the base in and around a huge wadi, or dry riverbed.

Right now, the biggest effort is at FOB Dwyer, a joint Marine and British base in southern Helmand province. Red Horse airmen there are preparing to build an 8,500-foot runway that can accommodate C-17s.

The airmen face substantial challenges, ranging from acquiring enough building materials to being attacked while on convoys to remote bases.

Air Force engineers often put up the buildings that provide soldiers and Marines with the first hot meals or real beds they’ve had in weeks or months. They appreciate the work airmen are doing for them, said Tech. Sgt. Craig Domko, assigned to the new Prime Beef unit.

“They definitely are glad when we show up to improve their FOB,” he said. “We hit the ground running, and we just don’t stop until the job’s done. … They know when we show up their quality of life is about to improve.”