Defenders get new search facility

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Brittany Y. Bateman
  • Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs Office
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  The Airmen here are sometimes required to work in harsh weather conditions, from below freezing temperatures, to heavy downpours and severe, high winds.

To help shield Airmen from these conditions, members of the 5th Civil Engineer Squadron are building a search facility for the 5th Security Forces Squadron defenders.

"The search facility is being constructed in order to get our security forces brothers and sisters out of the harsh North Dakota elements when they have to inspect inbound traffic to the base," said Master Sgt. Matthew Voorhees, 5th CES readiness and emergency management superintendent. "We all know how frigid the temperatures can get here in the winter, and this facility will help keep them a little warmer and able to complete their mission with a better quality of life."

In addition to sheltering defenders from harsh weather, the facility will also increase commercial vehicle search capabilities with a more robust and secure search facility.

"The new search facility significantly increases the overall searching capabilities with a new enclosed search pit that can hold two commercial trucks at one time," said Staff Sgt. Daniel Baker, 5th SFS police services NCO in charge. "Additionally, it helps to mitigate possible threats to Minot Air Force Base by separating the distance from all gates and specifically base housing. It also will decrease gate entry delays by allowing military and civilian members more time to gain access through the main gate."

There are approximately 60 Airmen from eight different Air Force specialty codes within the 5th CES involved in this project.

"This project is estimated to take around 3,500 man-hours to complete," said 1st Lt. Brendan Maestas, 5th CES lead engineer and project officer in charge. "The search facility will cost approximately $250,000 in materials. All of the labor is being done by our Airmen, and security forces has also purchased an accompanying guard shack that costs around $30,000."

The 5th CES is also using this project as Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force training for their engineers.

"Prime BEEF is not so much a section as it is a training model that allows civil engineer units to train at their home station to be proficient in activities that they would normally only see in a deployed environment," Maestas said. "The search facility is being constructed as an Expeditionary Engineering project, using troop labor and skills for construction."

Maeatas also stated this project has been in the works for about two years as an idea, although the majority of the design and planning has occurred within the last year. Actual construction began March 25 of this year.

"There is a long-term, construction project on the books that will completely renovate the south gate," Maeatas said. "But this project will serve as a temporary solution until the major renovation takes place."