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File: aaabm_21.txt$60 million. Numerous operational problems had been experienced with both lines before he HQ USAFE Operations Division engineers took over maintenance responsibility before Operation DESERT SHIELD. The pipeline had been damaged at the Ceyhan river crossing, numerous washouts had occurred along the land pipeline and, due to nonaccessibility along the pipeline right-of-way, the pipeline had broken twice. Sea-line hoses and anchor buoys had been damaged and lost due to absence of a maintenance-repair contract, and cathodic protection systems for the sea and land pipeline were frequently inoperative due to lack of maintenance and surveillance. In 1990, the pipeline was tapped twice within a month and emergency welding work had to be performed. While the land pipeline was interrupted, the base had to be resupplied "over the road" with Turkish tank trucks, a tedious and insecure process. The technical expertise of Operations Division engineers quickly reversed this trend and kept these critical mission support facilities operational, ensuring successful delivery of critical fuel to Incirlik when Operation PROVEN FORCE began. USAFE committed all available Prime BEEF and Prime RIBS teams, EOD an DP personnel, and firefighters to the war, and list of units deployed included nearly every base in USAFE. Ramstein's 377 and 7002 CES, Endiedlerhof's 564 CES, Bitburg's 36 CES, Hahn's 50 CES, Sembach's 66 CES, Spangdahlem's 52 CES, Berlin Templehof's 7350 CES, Torrejon's 401 CES Zweibruecken's 26 CES, Aviano's 40 CES and San Vito dei Normanni's 7275 CES all contributed Prime BEEF teams to the effort. They did not restrict themselves to their ES&ABO skills--motivated by the sense of urgency and fueled by dedication, they did whatever was needed to support the mission, including augmenting aircraft maintainers, supply troops, EOD specialists, and all service workers. Their accomplishments are too numerous to detail here, but it is certain that without the contributions of these dedicated men and women, the war would not have been such an unmitigated success. As parades and homecoming parties were taking place in the sates, the HQ USAFE ES&ABO staff was emersed in the long and tedious task of sorting out not only the redeployment of all the tons of equipment, but merging this action with the ongoing European drawdown schedule. The ESRC couldn't just turn the TPFDL around and send everything back to where it came from. In some cases, where it had come from was no longer there due to ongoing drawdown actions. This task would continue for a long time, without the fanfare that accompanied the return of the troops. ES&ABO personnel continue to press so that everything will be ready next time it is needed. The collective effort drew heavily on all the members of the HQ USAFE ES&ABO community. There were many long days that blurred into long nights and then into day again; the weeks were endless strings of nonstop work. At any time of the day or night, ES&ABO people were on the job, supporting the mission. Among the unsung heroes of these successful operations are the ES&ABO people who worked day in and day out over the years to design, fund, build and maintain to top standards the systems that performed so magnificently under the demands of these contingency operations. And HQ USAFE is no small part of the ES&ABO. HQ USAFE ES&ABO folks have been establishing, improving, and enforcing the standards at our bases for decades. The investment made in ES&ABO services was returned with enormous interest during the contingency operations of DESERT SHIELD, DESERT STORM, and PROVEN FORCE.
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