News

Civil engineers perform renovations on CATM facility

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jared Duhon
  • 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  Since 2001, the Air Force has increased the amount of Airmen deployed. Qualifying on weapons is a mandatory part of deployment processing for many locations. Increased deployment tempo has increased wear and tear on shooting facilities including the one here at Team Dover.

To combat this the 436th Civil Engineer Squadron and 436th Security Forces Squadron are working together to renovate the Combat Arms Training and Maintenance facility that has not been upgraded since 1987.

"The primary mission of combat arms is training deploying personnel to use the weapons systems they see downrange," said Staff Sgt. Ryan Duerr, 436th Security Forces Squadron combat arms instructor. "Secondary to that mission is the handling all weapons for Dover AFB, to including security forces, the air crew and the Logistics Readiness Squadron's weapons."

The project started in May and the civil engineers have been working to expand office space to accommodate the combat arms instructors.

"This project was command directed by our commander, Lt. Col. Joel Briske," said Duerr. "He looked at the facility and realized we had a need for not only more office space and instructor work stations but also a real need to streamline a better environment for the students that come through."

The buildings' internal space is being moved around to allow classrooms a more efficient operation and allotting the instructors additional space.

"The renovations will basically enhance their training and storage requirements," said Staff Sgt. Bryan Beckwith, 436th CES structural engineer. "We framed 80 feet of drywall creating an area for more workstations for the instructors."

Security forces and civil engineers have been working together to make other changes as well. The civil engineers have been using their expertise to suggest other changes that the security forces personnel had not thought of.

"CE has been nothing but helpful in addressing our needs on the buildings' renovation," said Duerr. "They suggested many helpful changes that would meet our needs, such as carpet to help cut down echoing, a walkway from the parking lot to the range and improving the driveway."

Civil engineer personnel said the improvements to the facilities driveway were long overdue and that making improvements now will save a lot of money later.

"They used to use a gravel driveway which over time of erosion would cost time and money to do maintenance," Staff Sgt. Cesar Salas, 436ths Civil Engineer Squadron payment and equipment operator. "We will be adding more than seven yards of driveway to allow the CATM instructors to load and offload ammo and equipment in a safer manner, as well as increases the appearance of the building."

Duerr said what started as a small project is going to have a big impact on his organization's mission. He said he is excited to try out some of the new functionalities of the shooting range.

"This project started as a way to make a streamlined and professional facility that will accommodate the amount of students we have," said Duerr. "It transformed how our building functions and how we can make it work towards our customer's needs."