MORÓN AIR BASE, SPAIN -- The 911th Civil Engineer Squadron from Pittsburgh, Pa.
recently spent their annual reserve tour at Morón Air Base where they aided the local CE shop with a few major projects.
Consisting of only three people, Morón Air Base’s CE shop is limited on what they can accomplish on a large scale.
“Our goal for our entire annual tour was to come in and do some of the projects that didn’t necessarily have the funding or manning,” said U.S Air Force Senior Airman Josh Hemus, 911th CES engineering apprentice. “Even with the local force, it would be challenging to get everything done, and that is why we are here to assist.”
During the two weeks spent in Spain, the 911th CES was able to pick up on projects that were started by the previous stateside CES that was there for the previous rotation.
“We’ve been working on a bunch of projects that either were already started, or needed to be started,” said Airman 1st Class Nicholas Doyle, 911th CES structural apprentice.
“We’ve worked on everything from patching drywall to ripping up carpet, replacing flooring, repainting wood and trim work for the chapel. We also did tile work and laid the floor in one of the on-base houses.”
One of the biggest projects the 911th CES undertook was to restore houses on base that suffered water damage.
“The whole house had to be remediated,” said Chief Master Sgt. Frank Monacelli, 911th CES chief enlisted manager. “There was water damage to the doors, wooden trim, cabinets, tile and walls.”
The 911th CES made quick work of the water damage issue.
“We refinished it and brought it back to serviceable conditions so that when we leave here, we will have completely refinished these homes,” Monacelli said. “There are not a lot of houses on base so every one of them is valuable.”
Monacelli also remarked on how proud he was of what his squadron was able to accomplish in such a short amount of time.
“We came here with a very young group of first term Airmen, about 75 percent of them have only been in about two years,” said Monacelli. “We have a very small group of seasoned veterans here and I'm just impressed with how the younger Airmen have worked their butts off.”
The opportunity to travel to Spain and do their job was not taken for granted.
“We enjoy doing this kind of work a lot,” said Tech. Sgt. Nicholas Lightcap, 911th CES electrical systems journeyman. “We love being able to come out here and show other bases what we are capable of.”
As reservists from the 911 CES departed from Morón AB, planning started for another reserve unit to provide valuable assistance and keep Moron AB mission ready.