TOP STORY >> CPTS, CONS, CE take the base back to the future

By Airman 1st Class Regina Agoha
19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs


It was a dark and stormy night … really.

Little Rock Air Force Base was pitch black the evening of April 25, after an EF-2 tornado plowed through the base, leaving in its wake more than 100 damaged housing units, distressed buildings in the base’s flightline area and a handful of crippled C-130 aircraft. Approximately $54 million in damage was the initial assessment. In the aftermath shrouded by the darkness, the resiliency of Team Little Rock Airmen, their families and off-base neighbors and communities shone through the night. Base Airmen immediately launched recovery efforts to continue the C-130 combat airlift mission in trademark fashion.

Now from cleaning and clearing damaged buildings to creating contracts for funding and projects for renovations, the end of this fiscal year will give much ease to the base as the pieces to the puzzle start fitting once again, by the allotment of funds dedicated to taking the base back to April 24.
The 19th Civil Engineer Squadron was on scene in minutes after the tornado swept through the base, said 1st Lt. Chad Fulgham, 19th Combat Engineers executive officer. “Our fire department fought their way out of their damaged facility to lead sweeps through the housing and industrial areas. They partnered with our defenders and housing residents already on scene to comb all the affected housing units and save the personnel that were present in them. In addition, they organized volunteer manpower from maintenance group to survey the base’s industrial and flightline areas, identifying the facilities and infrastructure that was damaged,” he said.

The resource advisors put together a list of all the things that were damaged: the buildings, the tornado tracker, equipment, infrastructure, facilities, vehicles and aircraft, said 1st Lt. Leif Brustuen, 19th Comptroller Squadron chief of financial management and analysis. This list was compiled within 48 hours after the tornado struck and submitted to the 19th CES.

“We had to figure out what we needed to fix before we asked for money or anything,” Brustuen said. “So everything had a price tag and cost tied to it. That price tag was sent up to Air Mobility Command and the Secretary of the Air Force level, then the appropriate funding was allocated to each line item on that list. Depending on dollar-threshold amounts, different kinds of money applied to different projects on that list.”

A task force twister team, comprised of the 19th Contracting Squadron, financial management and 19th CES was developed. They would get together and meet with the customer about what needed to be fixed, said Brustuen. The purpose of that was to hone in on what specific requirements there were and to make sure requirements were valid. The validation process is usually intended to be two weeks long, but in this situation, it ended up being about a month longer, Brustuen added.

“We defined requirements to AMC and SAF after we went through task force twister,” said Lt. Col. Christina Collins, 19th CPTS commander. “Air Mobility Command sent over $24 million dollars for tornado damage recovery. Those dollars will be used to repair hangars, buildings, equipment, and other miscellaneous damage at Little Rock. The majority of the money will be spent on construction projects.”

There are 32 projects worth approximately $29 million, said Fulgham. A total of 27 projects were awarded in fiscal year 2011 valued at approximately $23 million; we are still coordinating with AMC and Air Staff on the remaining two. “Our team was able to garner more storm money in FY11 than eight other AMC bases received in all of FY11,” he said.

Construction also took on projects to help repair tornado damages.

“We did 10 construction contracts over $5 million,” said Lt. Col. Matthew Sinning, 19th CONS commander.

Brustuen said they needed to verify where the money would be used before reconstruction could begin.“We would certify that the funds are available and that the requirement is a legal use of appropriated funds. Then CES would work with CONS as far as which deadlines within the fiscal year needed to be met,” said Brustuen. “We closed out the fiscal year at midnight, Sept. 30. We’re done allocating FY11 dollars and have now turned our focus on FY12 where we have not had any storm damage. If the storm happened in FY11, the repair had to be charged in FY11. We’re done financing it,” he said.

Now that the finances are done, the construction can begin.

The actual repairs have just started, said Collins. Contracts just got finalized, and construction begins. CES and CONS negotiate with contractors last week to get that price down as far as they could get it.
Completion dates for each project will vary, dependent on the start date of the repair, the complexity of the repair and the funding available, said Fulgham. “We will host a pre-construction meeting between CE, CONS, the contractor and each facility manager prior to starting any construction, and will be able to tailor a timeline to each specific project at that time,” he said.

Collins wants Team Little Rock to understand that this process takes time. A trait she advises them to have is patience.

“It takes a lot of time to narrow in on the specific requirements of how to get the base back to where it was, sorting out the mess, developing strategies for a way forward and also finding someone to do the work,” she said. “Usually they have a whole year to work on their projects, meaning before that year starts they’ve got their eyeballs on which building will need the roof repaired in a couple of years. This was a quicker timeline. The tornado happened halfway through fiscal year and we knew we had to use FY11 dollars on it. They only appropriate the operations and maintenance dollars one year at a time to find and fund the requirements at the end of the FY.

All the efforts to the repair of the base were major, but Brustuen and Sinning both give much respect to the man hours and processes that CES put into taking the base back to April 24, in order to build to improve the future.

“In addition to CES’ in house design, programming, and engineer team, we worked with the Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency’s contract team to complete all the documentation. Together we spent over 10,000 man hours working storm projects between April 25, and September 30,” Fulgham said.
“Civil engineering really saved the base,” said Sinning. “From their initial response, getting power back on the base, to getting all these contracts awarded at the end of this fiscal year, a lot has really been on their backs. Their professionalism and dedication really shown through with what they did. Not only did they deal with tornado construction, but there’s also $50 million of normal end-of-year construction that they were designing and managing. It was pretty amazing how it all came together.
“We’re really just the wind beneath civil engineering’s wings, enabling them to accomplish the mission,” he said.

CES and CONS did a really good job this year negotiating the contracts, said Brustuen. “Major kudos goes to all who were in the whole recovery of everything from the very initial minutes after the tornado to end of last Friday. Everyone stepped up big. Thank you to the whole base,” he said.
(Lt. Col. Lance Clark, 19th CES commander; Don Smart, base fire chief; Maj. Charles Fletcher, operations flight chief; and Michael Boyle, program flight chief; contributed background information for this article.)