Red Horse Squadron honored for work done in Afghanistan

Jace Radke

Thursday, April 3, 2003 | 9:01 a.m.

More than 200 members of the 820th Red Horse Civil Engineering Squadron were to receive medals today for building and maintaining the runways and facilities in Afghanistan that allowed Air Force planes to provide support during Operation Enduring Freedom.

Red Horse, which serves as engineering and infrastructure specialists for U.S. forces and is stationed at Nellis Air Force Base, was in Afghanistan from January 2001 through June 2002, Nellis officials said.

Shortly after arriving in Afghanistan, squadron members worked around the clock to complete emergency construction of a temporary aircraft ramp and two tension fabric hangers in just 16 days. Also constructed were a 1 million-square-foot aircraft parking apron, four more hangars, a fire station, a warehouse and an operations building, said Col. Paul Minto, the Red Horse commander .

"It was a huge job," Minto said. "The aircraft ramp alone was the size of 18 football fields."

Parts of the squadron began traveling to the Middle East in November 2001. Red Horse was deployed to Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates before moving into Afghanistan in June. The infrastructure built by the squadron is valued at more than $26 million, and allowed temperature-sensitive reconnaissance aircraft to remain operational during the war.

Much of the work was done in what people there called "hellish" conditions, temperatures of 118 degrees and 70 percent-plus humidity.

"It started off with mild days and cold nights, but later we got temperatures of hot and hotter," Minto said. "The thing I'm most proud of is that we had 285 people out there working 24 hours a day in 12-hour shifts and we didn't have one safety incident or accident.

"Everybody did their job."

Red Horse completed a year's worth of design in 45 days, and also assessed numerous airfields in Afghanistan. The squadron trained U.S. Army personnel to repair airfields that were used to launch sorties in support of Operation Anaconda.

Among the medals scheduled to be presented are three bronze stars, one of which will be awarded to Minto. Minto served as commander of all construction activities in Afghanistan, which included work sites at 25 locations and more than 900 personnel.

Others receiving bronze stars, the medals given for heroic or meritorious achievement of service in connection with operations against an enemy force, are Lt. Col. Patrick Morris and Chief Master Sgt. Tony Savo.

Meritorious Service Medals were scheduled to be awarded to Tech. Sgt. Michael Geer as well as Master Sgts. Wuilk Fung, Calvin Coleman, Roberto Reece-McClaren, Steven Holman, Ernesto Marra, John Dodd and Eddie Mcanally.

About 220 other Red Horse personnel were scheduled to be honored with an Air Force Commendation Medal or an Air Force Achievement Medal.

Red Horse has in recent years undertaken humanitarian missions in addition to support of U.S. forces abroad. Since 1999 the squadron has helped repair airport runways in Albania, built a school in Grenada and worked to repair damage caused by Hurricane Mitch in El Salvador. Currently about 50 members of the squadron are deployed to the Caribbean constructing roads and buildings.