Civil Engineering Direct Mission Support Forces

In Southeast Asia, USAF Civil Engineers have proven their ability to provide, operate, and maintain the facility platform from which the Air Force flies and fights. Base Civil Engineering personnel, Prime BEEF teams, and RED HORSE squadrons have provided the Air Force with responsive organic military engineering capability. Their performance reflects planning which anticipated the requirement for this capability.

In December 1963 a combined Civil Engineering/Manpower Study Group was established. The Study Group sought to determine the distribution, alignment, reliability, credibility, and skills required in the Civil Engineering manpower resource to perform essential Civil Engineer functions in support of the Air Force mission. Three working postulates were adopted:

Results of the study showed that the Civil Engineering’ force of approximately 100,000 people—2000 officers, 41,000 airmen, and 57,000 civilians—was not aligned to provide a rapid mobile response capability for tactical air operations or contingencies. In addition, many Air Force installations lacked sufficient Civil Engineering airmen to ensure continuity of essential operations during emergency conditions.

To correct this situation, the Air Force program designated Prime BEEF (Base Engineer Emergency Forces) was initiated in October 1964. The program envisioned has three phases, to be conducted simultaneously.

Phase I or Quantitative Phase was to determine the alignment and distribution of the Civil Engineering manpower resources needed to perform the direct combat support mission. This was a long-term effort to identify the minimum number of military required and to align the civilian/military mix accordingly. No new authorizations were to be added. Civilian positions identified for conversion to military were to be converted only upon attrition of the Incumbent civilian. The key aim was to develop a direct mission support capability within existing resources. The final Prime BEEF program will reduce the total number of military spaces and increase civilian spaces, but the military skills will be compatible with direct mission support requirements.

Phase II or Qualitative Phase was undertaken to upgrade the quality of the force. It was necessary to develop entirely new airman career progression patterns. Career ladders that ended at the five or seven level were restructured. New career ladders were added in order to develop additional military capability in engineering and craft skills. Areas concerned were surveying, drafting, electrical power production and distribution, heating, air conditioning, pavements, construction equipment, carpentry, masonry, plumbing, sanitation, and fire protection. These changes were designed to provide NCOs with improved opportunity to progress to key supervisory positions in the base Civil Engineering organizations. New and revised technical training programs were required to develop a military force that possessed the necessary engineering skills and supervisory knowledge to perform successfully in these new positions.

Phase III was to establish within the Air Staff a field activity to manage the development of the military Civil Engineering force.

The single most important area in Prime BEEF was defining the requirement for military Civil Engineers over the entire spectrum of probable contingency response. For Civil Engineers this ranged from site survey, selection, and buildup of new bases to the augmenting of Civil Engineer forces at established Air Force bases. The requirement must be defined in quantitative as well as qualitative terms. That is how many people are needed, and what skills should they possess?

The task was simplified to some extent because it was not necessary to add new authorizations to the work force which operates and maintains Air Force facilities. Rather, it was possible to realign the military/civilian mix in this work force. Thus it is possible to have an in-being mobile military engineer capability as part of the normal day-to-day base maintenance force.

Over the years, consideration of the military/civilian mix at only one base or one command made it difficult to justify a military position rather than a civilian position. Consideration of the total Air Force mix of skills and grades made it possible to get a much better balance of military skills and grades, with the result that even though Prime BEEF reduces the overall military authorizations and increases civilian authorizations, there is much greater confidence that the Air Force has a military force with the required skills. Standardizing grades and skills makes it possible to tailor a Prime BEEF deployment to the requirement. For example, entire teams can be deployed or teams consisting of skill blocks from several teams, such as electricians, can be formed.

These concepts in Prime BEEF require centralized management of the Civil Engineering force in some areas. The USAF Civil Engineering Center was established at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, with management and monitoring of the Prime BEEF program as one of its principal functions. In addition, the center has Air Staff responsibility for planning, coordinating, and integrating all actions involving the activation, manning, training, equipping, and deploying of squadrons known as RED HORSE (Rapid Engineer Deployable—Heavy Operations Repair Squadron, Engineer). The center’s responsibility for sustaining and improving Civil Engineering mobile capability also includes mobility planning, facilities, materials, and equipment and pavements.

Several types of mobile teams were established, each manned, trained, and equipped to deploy with as little as four hours’ notice. Upon arrival at their operating location, they are able to sustain themselves completely for a period of 72 hours. Assigned personnel are part of the normal base work force when not deployed.

The contingency or “C” team is a 60-man team designed to support contingencies and special air warfare operations. Forty-seven of these teams are located at installations throughout the Air Force. Their equipment is limited and consists of individual equipment and tool boxes. There are also team kits which provide items such as generators, power tools, and welding equipment. The equipment is air-transportable.

The flyaway or “F” team also consists of 60 men. There are 24 “F” teams, each assigned to a specific unit of the Tactical Air Command or Military Airlift Command. These teams are primarily concerned with the immediate beddown of tactical units, using prepositioned Harvest Eagle kits for immediate facilities.

The engineering or “E” team consists of 40 men. There will be a total of 15 of these teams. They perform the functions of site selection, engineering design, and construction surveillance.

Logistic support or “LS” teams of 144 men are located on Air Force Logistics Command bases, and missile teams of various sizes are located in the Strategic Air Command.

Each Air Force base also has a recovery team, consisting of the minimum number of military personnel required to maintain essential services during attack or emergency. Composite teams can be formed, consisting of skill blocks tailored to a given job, such as plumbing, electrical, or sanitation. This increases the flexibility of Prime BEEF.

Prime BEEF “C” and “F” Team Composition
Title		Quantity
Civil Engineer Center Metal processing Electricians Electrical Power Production Refrigeration/air conditioning Heating systems Pavements Construction equipment Structural Plumbing Site development Sanitation Fire protection Miscellaneous		1 2 5 4 2 3 3 5 7 5 2 6 10 5
	Total	60

Just ten months after the program was initiated, Hq Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) requested a Prime BEEF team to erect protective aircraft revetments in Vietnam. Requests for other teams followed. A total of 49 composite teams totaling over 1800 men were deployed to Southeast Asia (SEA) to accomplish a wide variety of projects.

The Civil Engineering response to the Pueblo incident as part of Combat Fox was the first deployment that tested the mobile response concept fully. The entire “C” and “F” teams (not composite teams) were deployed from several bases. Teams were alerted and deployed from their bases in the United States within the prescribed response limits. In Korea, Prime BEEF teams played a key part in providing the facilities essential to the operational mission of other deployed units. They erected tents and frame buildings, dug wells, laid airfield matting, installed aircraft arresting barriers and sandbag bunkers, and rehabilitated buildings and utility systems.

Prime BEEF teams have also deployed to Alaska, Antarctica, Keesler AFB, Mississippi, and within commands to provide disaster recovery and satisfy requirements for skilled personnel.

Although the Prime BEEF teams provided mobile rapid-response forces, they were not manned or equipped to repair or upgrade airfields and facilities required by the tactical forces. In Southeast Asia the demand for heavy repair forces in 1965 and 1966 far exceeded the capabilities in-theater. RED HORSE was conceived to provide the Air Force with an organic capability for heavy repair and to erect theater-of-operations facilities. Heavy repair includes repairing bomb or other enemy-inflicted damage and major restoration of badly deteriorated facilities. Erecting theater-of-operations facilities includes transportable, pre-engineered or modular buildings, aircraft revetments, and shelters,

RED HORSE is manned and equipped to accomplish much larger projects than Prime BEEF teams. A squadron has 400 military personnel assigned. It has its own food service, medical, and supply personnel. A squadron has 290 items of major construction and vehicular equipment. Air Force policy requires that RED HORSE squadrons be assigned no lower than to numbered air force, so as to ensure their full utilization on the highest-priority projects and to maintain their mobility.

To alleviate the critical demand for Air Force facility support in Southeast Asia, two RED HORSE squadrons were activated and deployed in four months’ time. Later, in the spring and summer of 1966, four additional squadrons were formed and deployed to SEA. Without RED HORSE in Southeast Asia, many of the facilities necessary for conducting air operations would not have been available.

RED HORSE was required again in Korea, Shortly after the initial deployment of Prime BEEF, a RED HORSE squadron was formed and deployed to augment and finally to replace the Prime BEEF teams. RED HORSE erected protective aircraft shelters and pre-engineered buildings and provided operational and support facilities for crew quarters, ammo storage, and aircraft maintenance.

Mobility is rapidly becoming the trademark of the Air Force. In many areas of the world, it is highly unlikely that tactical forces will be able to deploy to airfields that are capable of sustaining combat operations without facility upgrading. Experience in Southeast Asia and in Korea has demonstrated that Prime BEEF and RED HORSE, the Air Force organic engineering forces, are required to ensure a credible Air Force response to contingencies. In-being military Civil Engineers, trained and ready with necessary equipment, must be available for rapid deployment.

The outstanding performance of Civil Engineers in Southeast Asia, Korea, and elsewhere substantiates the efforts made to upgrade the quality of Civil Engineering personnel. The technical training courses established in pavements, carpentry, masonry, construction equipment operation, site development, plumbing, electrical distribution, and numerous other areas provided a foundation; day-to-day challenging work provides the experience; and individual desire and confidence provide the motivation. There is no longer any doubt that Civil Engineering Prime BEEF personnel possess the training, experience, and motivation to ensure a credible response in support of worldwide short-term contingencies, For longer operations, Civil Engineering RED HORSE squadrons are available to erect and maintain necessary sustaining facilities, Air Force Civil Engineers are ready and capable of responding to all types of worldwide emergencies and contingencies.

Major Thomas S. Collins (B.A., Colby College; M.B.A., George Washington University) is a personnel officer assigned to the USAF Civil Engineering Center, Directorate of Civil Engineering, DCS/Programs and Resources, Hq USAF. Previous assignments have been as a personnel officer with Allied Forces Northern Europe (NATO) and 5th Weather Group, Westover AFB, Massachusetts. Major Collins is a graduate of Squadron Officer School and the Professional Personnel Management Course, Air University.

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.