Civil engineers earn functional badge

  • Published
  • By Maj. Jack Wheeldon and Capt. Ryan Howell
  • Det. 1, 823rd RED HORSE Squadron
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  In a course that's been a traditional offering for over 35 years at the Air Force Institute of Technology, Civil Engineer School, more than 50 fresh-from-college lieutenants, nine civilians and three international officers combined to learn about the civil engineer career field and earn their CE career field badge during the Management 101 course, Introduction to the Base Civil Engineer Organization.

The nine-week course started in April at the Civil Engineering Schoolhouse, AFIT, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and culminated with the last week at the Silver Flag complex on Tyndall. Capt. Ryan Howell served as course director and also provided Operations Flight overview instruction. The course is now two weeks longer than previous courses so that an additional technical contingency engineering curriculum could be added.

"We train and instruct civil engineer officers. We provide them with the foundational knowledge and tools to go to any base in the world and be able to perform the civil engineer mission," Howell said.

The dozens of students taking the course hold undergraduate degrees from the Air Force Academy and public or private colleges and universities. They hail from many different degree disciplines - from architecture to mechanical engineering - so the course is designed to provide them the same baseline. Civilians new to the career field began the course with the lieutenants and completed the first five weeks of the course. The material covered in that time was focused on management and technical expertise.

By the 45-academic-day class's end, the students experienced 120 different lessons taught by over 40 instructors, Howell added.

The last block of instruction was four weeks long and covered contingency and expeditionary material. In this segment, students learned Air Force expeditionary skills as well as the capabilities of, and, how to work with expeditionary assets. Additionally, three international officers (one lieutenant colonel from Egypt and two lieutenants from Japan) arrived in Ohio to finish out the class with the other students. For the final week of the class, the students were bused to the Silver Flag site on Tyndall.

Silver Flag is home to Det. 1, 823rd RED HORSE Squadron. The squadron's 102-person cadre provides expeditionary mission support training to active duty, Air Force Reserve Command, and Air National Guard members.

"Our mission is to provide expeditionary training free from home station constraints, where expeditionary combat support teams can train, interact, and complete functional area contingency operations in a realistic, integrated environment for rapid deployment," said Maj. Jack Wheeldon, Det. 1, 823rd RHS commander.

The site continues to host other services and coalition personnel when requested. More than 6,800 people are trained each year at the site.

The week of Officer Field Education (OFE) encompassed hands-on education in force beddown, rapid runway repair, disaster preparedness, fire rescue, bare base assets and command and control. The young officers were required to learn and participate in all phases of planning and repair of a damaged, austere runway to receive aircraft and provide life-support and operational work areas to conduct the mission.

The class graduated at Silver Flag June 16, and the newly minted civil engineers were awarded their CE career field badge by Maj. Gen. Timothy Byers, Air Force Civil Engineer, Headquarters U.S. Air Force. Two of the graduates are second generation civil engineers and will continue the engineer legacy in their family. Col. Van Fuller, the Air Force Special Operations Command Director of Installations and Mission Support, pinned the badge on his son, 2nd Lt. Kyle Fuller, and retired Col. Barry Mines, former Dean of the Civil Engineer and Services School, pinned the badge on his son, 2nd Lt. Evan Mines.

A few students received taskings to deploy during the class. The completion of the CE Management 101 course will ensure the young officers are fully capable to execute the mission, "Anytime... Anywhere...".