Construction of research radar towers a team effort

  • Published
  • By Cindy Holbrook
  • Skywrighter staff writer
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  The Wright-Patt skyline has officially changed, and that change was achieved through the hard work and total team efforts of several groups on and off the base.

Three new radar towers now provide a commanding view over the base's Area B, which will provide the Air Force Research Laboratory Sensors Directorate with new capabilities to perform radar research from Wright-Patt.

The Sensors Directorate consolidation, directed by BRAC 2005, required disassembly of the radar systems from Rome, N.Y., and shipment and reassembly here.  However, the condition of the towers that previously held these radars prevented them from making the trip.

Sensors Directorate planners turned to a total force team of Air National Guard Airmen from across the country and active duty Airmen from the 820th RED HORSE Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., to install new towers and equipment needed to support the radars.

The skyline at the corner of National Road and Colonel Glenn Highway now consists of three 100-foot radar towers, jointly assembled by the Engineering Installation and RED HORSE Airmen and Guardsman from Engineering Installation squadrons located from Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.

"Truck after truck came in with the pieces of the radars on it," said Gary Scalzi, project leader from the Sensors Directorate. "The towers were newly constructed here as part of a 5-year project, and it was a huge task. Having the radar system here is a huge capability for us that didn¹t exist here before."

Original plans called for contractors to install each of the 100-foot towers, all electrical wiring, infrastructure and the radar sitting on top.

Actual bids for the project came in at an estimated cost of $25 million to $35 million, Mr. Scalzi said.

But Rick Shaughnessy, with Sensors Directorate operations in Rome, N.Y., said that he has a better idea. His idea came to fruition, as the Air Force decided to do the work with its own people. Shaughnessy knew what the RED HORSE and EI teams were capable of doing, and that it would not only save the military money, but that it would also be the perfect training for all involved.

Just a few days after getting the request for support, Master Sgt. Philip Nicholson's group of 10 Airmen from the 820th RHS Airborne Flight arrived to install the various electrical wiring, air conditioning and communications equipment for the research radars.

"We all drove in from Nellis and brought our equipment with us," said Sergeant Nicholson, non-commissioned officer in charge of the deployed RED HORSE team. "We installed electrical and structural support equipment on the towers for the new AFRL research radars."
 
Members of RED HORSE, a highly mobile self-sufficient combat construction unit, are capable of worldwide deployment in a short period of time. The squadrons are unique because they have their own medical, supply, food services and vehicle-maintenance support to provide self-sufficiency for extended periods of time in a hostile environment.

RED HORSE personnel provide heavy repair and construction for the Air Force, both in the continental United States and at deployment locations overseas.

Nicholson noted that everyone on his team, identifiable from their Guard counterparts by the bright red ball caps or hardhats they wear, is U.S. Army paratrooper jump qualified.

The RED HORSE team came to Wright-Patterson on Sept.12 and finished the job on the final day of the month with final inspections. Units worked 12- to-13-hour days, six days as week to get the job done, according to Nicholson.

It was a great training exercise for RED HORSE and the EI mission, according to Lt. Col. Rex Mykrantz with Ohio Air National Guard's Communications and Information Systems Directorate. He noted that the active and Guard units worked together seamlessly.

"We don't get a chance to train that much for war-time tasking, and essentially this allowed us to do that," said Lt. Col. Mykrantz. "We built the towers from the ground up and will also do a fourth tower later at the Springfield Air Guard Base. Our team provides for the engineering, installation or relocation of ground communication-electronics systems. It was a very much a collaboration from many groups.

"We were all like ants on an ant hill. You couldn't tell who was who working out there. We just did the job together." More than 50 men from six different Air National Guard units and six different states working the project from EI, the colonel said.

"I am amazed at how quickly everything was done," Scalzi said. "It has been great. Everyone told us that there was no way this will be done on time, and here we did it nearly a year ahead of schedule." The EI team is also capable of emergency and programmed mobile on-site maintenance and modifications of the systems.

David Coates, a contractor with AFRL's Sensors Directorate, echoed Mr. Scalzi's sentiments that the uniformed Engineering Installation and RED HORSE teams' selfless efforts were invaluable.

"It's about the money we saved and the training we were able to do on the job," Mr. Coates said. "You can't get that type of training anywhere else. Now we can do it all here. These groups made it happen and now have provided us with a pool of talent to install, maintain and repair the system, another cost savings."