Guard civil engineers to deploy to Arizona desert for fence building duty

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Bob Oldham
  • 189th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
LITTLE ROCK AIR FORCE BASE, Ark. --  About 40 members of the Arkansas Air National Guard's 189th Airlift Wing will deploy for training to Yuma, Ariz., March 31 - April 14 to support Operation Jump Start, the nation's U.S. Border Patrol support mission for the National Guard. 

A majority of the Arkansas Airmen are assigned to the 189th Civil Engineering Squadron, the rest are Airmen from support agencies in the wing who will perform general labor. 

The team will partner with the 190 CES from Topeka, Kan., and will help fabricate and erect a 15-foot fence on a four-foot concrete footer, construct roads, lighting and permanent vehicle barriers, said Capt. Claude Howard, team chief for the deployment. 

"It's pretty heavy-duty steel that they're using," the captain said, referring to the fence material. 

He said the deployment will allow his Airmen to polish their skills. 

"They're going to definitely be able to use their skills in the various disciplines, structures, utilities, electrical," he said. 

And they'll have the satisfaction of knowing they've done their part to help secure the country. 

"We'll have contributed to the Border Patrol operation in mitigating the illegal immigrants from coming over the border," he said. 

The Air Guard started contributing to the fence project in June 2006, said Master Sgt. David Wood, a member of the civil engineering crisis action team in Washington, D.C. 

In January, Air Guard civil engineer units began deploying to the border to pull DFTs - duty for training. Some have deployed for 30 days, others for as little as 15. But it's all helped. 

Early on, the Guard was completing an average of 300 feet of fence per week, said Senior Master Sgt. John Kershaw, a civil engineer from McGhee-Tyson Air National Guard Base, Tenn., deployed to Arizona until September. Since the DFTs started, teams have averaged 900-1,000 feet of fence a week. 

"The task force is elated at our progress," Sergeant Kershaw said. 

In addition to construction in Arizona, teams are building fence in California, New Mexico and Texas, Sergeant Wood said. 

When it's complete, the Guard in Arizona will have built 3.3 miles of primary fence, 7.2 miles of lighting, 7.2 miles of 15-foot tall secondary fence and 7.2 miles of tertiary chain link fence.