Tech Orders,

File: aacep_34.txt
Page: 34
Total Pages: 59
      





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       loop. They were also tasked to erect revetments for twenty spaces
      
       more and larger equipment, the engineers completed the nearly 4.5
       million dollar project on time. At Al Minhad AK, the RED HORSE
       engineers constructed a 190 by 1,050-foot concrete and asphalt
       parking apron for an additional F-16 squadron set to deploy to the
       base. What would have taken civilian contractors gore than five
       months was completed in thirty days, just four hours before the F-
       168 touched down.
      Even with the expanded Air Force presence on the existing
      bases, General Homer wanted to put more aircraft closer to the
      Kuwaiti border. To do Ellis, he directed his engineers to open two
      new sites in Saudi Arabla. The first was about sixty miles south
      of Riyadh, near the town of Al Khacj. The site was programmed to
      be a massive Saudi military installation, but only a runway,
      tangily, and parking apron had been constructed. The site barely
      fit the definition of a classic bare base. The nearest water
      source was twelve miles away and would have to be trucked to the
      base for purification and storage. The objective was to generate
      more sorties by moving the elements of the 4th OFT, Seymour Johnson
      AFB, North Carolina, deployed at Thumrait, Oman, closer to the
      Ha.
       bring the expected base population to 5000. This presented one of
                ^ Was ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ at.
      On 12 November, members of the 4th CES met with Colonel
      Rothenberg, CEN~AF/DE; Colonel Thomas F. Wilson, commander, 823d
      RED HORSE Civil Engineerlng Squadron; and members of their staffs.
      RED HORSE was given overall responsibility for the construction at
      the site and the 4th CES and other Prime BEEF personnel would
      augment them. The 4th CES would operate and maintain the base when
      completed. RED HORSE had been constructing a munitions storage
      area on the base for several weeks and had already done some
      preliminary site surveys and prepared a base development plan.
      After a few false starts when the Saudi contractors refused to
      allow the Air Force engineers on the site and then told them the
      original site chosen for tent city was unavailable, the RED HORSE
      and Prime BEEF personnel went to work on 25 November.
      The engineers hauled clay from a borrow pit on base and built
      a clay pad twelve inches thick to serve as a foundation for tent
      city. The massive earth project i hauling, grading,
      and compacting more than 200,000 cubic yards of red clay. The
      heavy equipment operators and dump truck drivers literally worked
      around the clock The only Air Force civil engineering casualty
      occurred in a construction-related accident in the pre-dawn hours
      at Al Khacj.76
      Engineers began erecting TEMPER tents as soon as an area of
      clay pad large enough was completed. They continued to cover the
      clay pad with more than 630 TEMPER tents as it was expanded. Four
      kitchens, a gymnasium, twenty-one latclnes, and twenty-six
      shower/shave units finished out the tent city area. In the center
      of tent city was a mall area with the exchange, post office,
      chapel, carry-out food outlets, and offices. They constructed a