944th Civil Engineers sweat in the cool Arizona forest

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Steve Razo
  • 944th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  The 944th Civil Engineer Squadron has figured out a way to escape the hot Phoenix summer sun and still get paid. 

More than 15 of the 944th CES personnel deployed for a week in July to assist with electrical wiring, plumbing, heater repair, and heavy equipment operations to help maintain more than 2.3 million square feet of storage and warehouse space. 

Camp Navajo, 12 miles west of Flagstaff, Ariz., eagerly awaits the summer CES deployments because that means critical maintenance assistance will be provided to help keep the 28,000-acre munitions storage facility in operational condition.

Established in 1942 by the War Department, Camp Navajo was completed as one of the largest munitions depots in the United States in only nine months. Today, the facility continues its munitions storage mission but is also used by the Arizona National Guard and visiting military units for training.

"This is a positive place for us," said 1st Lt. Oscar Brown, 944th CES operations officer and deployment officer in charge. "We have a great relationship with installation maintenance personnel so we are really able to integrate our folks into projects around the installation."

Tech. Sgt. Warren Bert, 944th CES heavy equipment shop NCO in charge, spent many hours on a front loader moving more than 30 tons of dirt around munitions bunkers to provide needed erosion control.

"Deploying here gives me quality 'stick-time' on the heavy equipment," Sergeant Bert said. "I enjoy helping Camp Navajo out because they would have to wait quite awhile for this work to get done if it wasn't for us coming up here and helping them out."

Deploying a group of hard working civil engineers also gives Senior Master Sgt. Dan Kelly, 944th Services Flight superintendent, an opportunity to put his rolling "chuckwagon" on the road. Sergeant Kelly, along with Tech. Sgt Gordon Wharff, 944th SVF services technician, put in 10-hour days planning daily breakfast and lunch services for the troops.

"We like to prepare special dishes like Louisiana Style Gumbo and Chicken Stir Fry because they do work hard and we want them to get a good meal," Sergeant Kelly said.