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File: aacep_46.txt
46
team from RiYadh AB led by Capt Juan Ibanez, Jr., BQ AFESC, made
further improvements to the site providing new lat~lnes and more
eff lclent air conditioning.
RED BORSE tackled the most challenging post-war project. On
26 February' General Homer tasked RED HORSE to deny two air bases
in soutbeastern Iraq to prevent their future use by returning Iraqi
forces. The work was to be completed before the signing of a
cease-fire agreement. Working with Explosive Ordnance Deposal
(EODj personnel, two teams of engineers arrived at the bases on ~
March aboard C-130s. Within four days' the engineers and EOD
personnel had completed their work. At Tallil AB' RED HORSE used
approximately 80~000 pounds net explosive weight of munitions. Ibe
primary munitions used were 40-pound shape charges and MK-82' 500
pound bombs. The team made cuts in the runway and taxiway every
2~000 feet. At Jalibah AB' the engineers denied a concrete runway
and two parallel asphalt taxiwaYs. A total of twenty-seven cuts
(seventy-two craters up to forty feet wide and twelve feet deep)
were made in the pavements. On 10 March, the final members of the
team were aboard CH-47 helicopters heading for Saudi Arabla. When
they were finished' the engineers concluded it would cost less to
build a new base than to clean up and repair the denied bases
Air Force Engineering and Services had once again proved their
importance to the flying mission in Operations Desert Shield/Desert
Storm. The 3~000 Prime BEEF personnel had bedded down 55~000
people and 1,200 aircraft at nearly thirty sites. They erected
5~000 tents and constructed 100~0Q0 square feet of buildings- The
1~200 Prime RIBS personnel had served more than ~ million meals.
More importantly, they maintained their reputation of getting the
job done, no matter what. But their work was not done.
Operation Provlde Comfort.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ am, ~^ Gas
fleeing into Turkey to escape the Iraqi military. As an
international relief effort was begun, the allied military was
called upon to provide security for the Kurds and the relief
workers. Operation Provide Comfort was created to oversee the
effort. A Combined Task Force at Incirlik AB coordinated the
operation. Within bourn, food shipments were on their way to the
Kurds biding in the mountains. The Combined Task Force Commander,
Lieutenant General J. Sbaliskasbvili, US Army, tasked the Air Force
engineers to e~tablisb and maintain the various base camps Pnom
hich the other services and allies could operate. The engineers
had just dismantled "Pornado ~own" when they received orders to
rebuild it to support the influx of allied personnel. fit. Col.
Alfred B. Hicks and his Prime BEEF team from Bitburg AB were
recalled to Turkey after being home for only a few weeks. Ibey
were joined by engineers from several other USAFE bases. The
engineers built a major Humanltarian Service Support Base at Silopi
that served as the center of activities for the region. Other
camps were constructed at Yuksekova' Diyarbakir, and Batman,
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