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File: aaabm_21.txt
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$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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