AFIT alum Maj. Peter Sabatowski (M.S. Engineering Management, 2010) wrote an article titled “Completing New Horizons during a national weather emergency” published in the Air Force Civil Engineer Magazine, Vol. 25 No. 3, Fall 2017. The full article can be read on pages 32-33 here.
 

By Maj. Peter Sabatowski
823rd Expeditionary RED HORSE

This year’s New Horizons exercise in the Dominican Republic was anything but a normal chance to provide construction, medical and other support. New Horizons, sponsored by U.S. Southern Command and executed through Twelfth Air Force, is an annual training opportunity funded as a combatant commander’s exercise engagement. Since the mid-1980s, the Air Force and her sister services have built schools and community centers while providing medical care and more to bolster partnerships among the U.S. and Central American, South American and Caribbean nations. This year’s exercise focused on training readiness and providing tangible humanitarian and civic assistance benefiting the Dominican Republic in and around San Juan. Unique challenges tested the readiness and flexibility of the units involved.

The 823rd Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineer, or RED HORSE, from Shaw AFB, South Carolina; Marine Corps 8th Expeditionary Support Battalion from Camp Lejuene, North Carolina; Louisiana Army National Guard; and Air Force National Guard 231st civil engineering flight from Missouri teamed up to form the 823rd Expeditionary RED HORSE. The new unit constructed three clinics and a school between San Juan and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The coordination across these joint entities was critical during the initial planning phases through execution. Additionally, the 635th Material Maintenance Squadron from Holloman AFB, New Mexico, deployed to initiate and maintain camp operations as part of the 346th Air Expeditionary Squadron.
In June 2016, planning efforts refined the facility designs from construction, developed bills of materials, and identified personnel and equipment requirements. The tasked units were responsible for determining their own equipment and personnel requirements and shipping them to the Dominican Republic in order to successfully complete construction with organic assets.

Construction of the facilities started in January 2017 with contracted services at the four sites due to military manpower and equipment availability. Quality assurance and control was completed by the 823rd ERHS to ensure utility systems and foundations were completed according to design specifications. During this period, leadership began mobilizing containers, vehicles and personnel to support vertical construction work beginning in April.

Personnel arrived at the beginning of the month and immediately started vertical construction. Within the first 30 days, all concrete blocks had been placed, but roof systems and concrete still needed to be completed on all facilities. On May 1, a massive rainstorm caused floodwaters to rise across a normally passable riverbed, essentially isolating the living compound. Until this point, construction was progressing at a rapid pace and it appeared that all projects would be completed ahead of schedule.
An assessment of rainstorm aftermath was accomplished the following morning and roadway passages were eroding because of the water flow. The alternate route, normally crossed by wading through a shallow river, had turned into raging rapids. With heavy rains expected to continue because of the start of the country’s rainy season, engineers, support personnel and group leadership were essentially cut off from all construction sites and support. Crisis planning began with two focal efforts: how do we continue construction operations and what do we do with all the personnel and equipment in the compound.

Capt. Matthew Fecke, 823rd ERHS deputy commander, devised a small maintenance and repair team, consisting of the site project managers and craft leads, to traverse the damaged roadway and continue construction operations with a separated incoming Army team and legal officer. Although it was dangerous to cross the roadway, the risk was accepted to try to maintain construction progression. The team, composed of eight Air Force, 17 Army and two Navy personnel, was able to successfully core fill, with buckets, all facilities’ walls with 28 cubic meters of concrete and place 19 roof trusses across all four buildings. The efforts of this small team resulted in no loss in the construction timeline. Meanwhile, I led planning efforts to develop courses of action for all other personnel and equipment isolated from additional water, fuel and support. The planning committee considered all factors of costs for hotel fees, service contracts for base camp operations and fuel requirements necessary to complete construction and maintain support operations. Multiple site visits and key leader engagements with local leadership over the first 48 hours created the underlying assumption that the roadway would not be repaired in a timely manner due to competing priorities — a national weather emergency was declared May 3. Due to the tremendous risk of road failure and the timeline for applicable repairs, the decision was made to relocate construction operations to hotels.

The compound population was approximately 180 personnel. Over the next three days, 100 people redeployed to their home stations. Of those remaining, 63 were assigned to the 823rd ERHS and identified as the bare minimum needed to complete construction. Although billeting was now split between two regions, construction continued to progress and was completed in the next 30 days, making all troop construction work completed in just over 60 days.

The training exercise initially focused on mobilization, construction execution and demobilization, but this year was unique. Exercise New Horizons 2017 further tested crisis management and our ability to adapt and overcome significant challenges. The events that transpired relied heavily upon the planning team’s experiences and backgrounds to be able to solve problems and develop a continuation of operations plan with no prior foresight. In a matter of just 72 hours, we developed, decided and executed to ensure the mission was completed not only on time, but nearly three weeks ahead of schedule.