Tech Orders,

File: aacep_13.txt
Page: 13
Total Pages: 59
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       each commander had his or her own set of priorities.
       The priorities for engineers upon arrival varied from site to
       site' depending on what was available. The overall guidance was
       set by the deployed wing and combat support element commanders
       based upon inputs from Engineering and Services personnel.
      At a bare base beddown, engineers were responsible for several
      operational concerns such as aircraft arresting barriers' airfield
      lighting, runway sweeping' and fuel storage. The most common
      arresting barrier was the BAK-12 system. This consisted of two
      rotary friction energy absorbers joined across the runway by a hook
      -cable or by a nylon barricade net. Engineers installed the BAK-12
      by either bolting each absorber to a concrete pad for surface
      installation or in a concrete pit for below grade installation.
      Nine of the sites used the BAK-12. Another type of barrier was the
      mobile aircraft arresting system (MASS)' which provided for rapid
      deployment of aircraft recovery capability' enabling high cycle
      arrestment of hook-equipped tactical aircraft or bomb damaged
      planes on redundant surfaces in a postattack environment. It was
      easily transportable and could be set up on various types of
      surfaces. Fight sites received a MAAS, but only half that number
      actually installed them.
       Airfield lighting was not a major problem at most of the
       initial beddown locations. Because they had existing flying
       missions at the sites' adequate approach and runway lighting was in
       place. The exception was A1 Ayn. The airfield was under
       construction for use by the royal family. There was no airfield
       lighting on the site. This created difficulties in the early days
       and weeks of the deployment. Aircraft loaded with equipment and
       Harvest Falcon assets for the site were often unable to locate the
       airfield after dark. They went to A1 Dhafra, the nearest base, and
      unloaded their cargo there. Of course, many times this cargo never 
      made it to A1 Ayn. After several days, the Scott AFB engineers
      received and pieced together two 5,000-foot Harvest Falcon lighting
      sets for a 13,000-foot runway. They also designed and fabricated
      their own lighted distance-to-go markers.
      Electrical power hag become a critical element to any beddown
      location. with the sophisticated computer and test equipment
      required by the Air Force' the demands for reliable electrical
      power have increased dramatically since Vietnam. The necessity for
      air conditioning in the SEA theater also increased the demands for
      electricity. The Air Force used several different sized mission
      essential power (MEP)] generators for bare base operations (MEP-4,
      40KW;  MEP-6; 60KW; MEP-7, 100KW; and MEP-12, 750KW). During the
      initial days on site' small portable generators provided electrical
      power. The MEP-4,6, and 7 generators were considered as back-up or
      emergency generators, yet they were often used to provide primary
      power to small clusters of tents or facilities in the early days of
      Desert Shield. These required frequent servicing and refueling and
      were noisy. This was particularly noticeable because they were
      placed near tents (since most personnel were working sixteen to
      twenty hour days in the first few weeks, a little generator noise
      did not keep them awake). These were replaced by MEP-12A diesel