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375th CES trains through Prime Beef Day

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Sabrina Foster
  • 375th Airlift Wing Public Affaird
SCOTT AFB, Ill. --- 8/1//06 --  When most people hear the words Prime BEEF, the first things that come to minds would typically be a juicy hamburger or a mouth-watering steak. But, the members of the 375th Civil Engineer Squadron Prime BEEF (Base Engineer Emergency Force) teams would probably think bed down, buildup, or sustainment. 

The 375th CES held their monthly Prime BEEF training day July 20. “We kicked the day off with an open ranks uniform inspection and our ‘sharp troop’ award presentation,”’ said Master Sgt. Scott Durbin, the 375th CES readiness flight superintendent. “It’s good for morale and espirt de corps to start the day off recognizing the troops for their outstanding dress and appearance,” he added. 

Two winners were chosen for the sharp troop award – one Airman and one Noncommisioned officer. The winners for this month were Senior Airman Eric Jedlica and Staff Sgt. David Keck, both members who work in the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration shop. 

“All Prime BEEF team members will be involved in some type of in-house readiness training today,” said Sergeant Durbin. “They will either be completing ancillary training – M16 and self aid and buddy care or task qualification training – performing their jobs in mission-oriented protective posture level 4,” he said. 

“This is how we train to fight”, said Lt. Col. Darren Piedmonte, the 375th CES commander. “We have to find new ways to accomplish the mission, so performing our jobs in MOPP 4 will better prepare us to do that in a wartime environment.”
“Our wartime mission is to beddown an Air Force base and sustain it,” said the colonel.
“If you are not trained, you will not be ready to fight.” We do not want to wait to learn the job in a war, we want to learn it here and then go out and do it,” said Colonel Piedmonte. 

“We have 200 members assigned to Prime BEEF teams, and right now there are 85 currently deployed. We have a 55-man team in Iraq that was tasked with quick runway repair so that Air Force One could land when the president made a surprise visit to the deployed location recently,” said Colonel Piedmont. 

The stateside mission of the Prime BEEF team is a little different than one in a deployed location, said the colonel. 

“We use the same skills in both locations, but we apply them
differently in a deployed location,” he said. 

“We do a lot of upgrade and repair work here, but a lot of sustainment work over there.”
Furthermore, there are permanent facilities and infrastructure at homestation, but downrange the facilities are all expedient and temporary, so the skill sets may be the same, but the equipment may be different, said Sergeant Durbin. 

Tech. Sgt. Eric Guess, the Prime BEEF noncommissioned officer in charge, recalled his last deployment to Iraq in May 2003. 

“We deployed to an undisclosed location as the lead Prime BEEF team prior to Baghdad International Airport falling.

“We were able to buildup a tent city in this location and use it as our staging facility, " he said. 

“As soon as the airport fell, we moved right in and took over, said Sergeant Guess. “We were responsible for rebuilding the airport, now known as Camp Sather. We have a team there now improving the quality of life issues for deployed personnel, he added.” 

To sum it all up, the next time you hear the words Prime BEEF, think about the men and women of the 375th CES, who are not only upgrading and improving facilities here on Scott, but also transforming foreign lands into operational facilities that allow deployed personnel to have a quality of life while deployed in a wartime environment.