Prime BEEF training keeps Osan’s civil engineers mission ready

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Chad Thompson
  • 51st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --  One-hundred fifty Airmen with the 51st Civil Engineer Squadron participated in their monthly Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force training here June 22.

Prime BEEF teams are rapidly deployable, specialized civil engineer units, which provide a wide variety of engineering support required to establish, operate and maintain garrison and contingency air bases.

A big part of being a member of this team is to stay mission ready and train monthly.

"This is one of my favorite days of the month," said Lt. Col. Scott Matthews, 51st CES commander. "And our mission here is as real as it gets."

He said maintaining a high level of readiness is one of the most important parts of being a member of Prime BEEF.

"We are a vital part of the war plan to execute the wing's mission," Colonel Matthews said. "Not only do we provide repairs to the airfield, roads and base perimeter, but we also support base recovery during disasters."

He said it was essential for every member to know their roles during any contingency, and more importantly to be ready at a moment's notice.

The day's training included land navigation, night vision and night operations, and tactical convoy training.

Explosive Ordinance Disposal and the CE Readiness flight provided some realism during the tactical convoy training.

Two explosions, seven vehicles, 50 Airmen and 10 members of opposing forces came together during each rotation of the training.

The members went through about 30 minutes of classroom discussion and then mounted up and hit the road to get some hands-on training.

Senior Airman Anthony Alverson was one of the lead members during the training. He said this type of tactical convoy refresher is very important to civil engineers since any one of them could perform a wide variety of convoy missions during a deployment.

The Air Force established the Prime BEEF program in 1964, posturing civil engineers to better respond to worldwide contingencies.

Military civil engineers were divided into specially trained and equipped mobility and recovery teams, each with their own unit type code identifier. The first Prime BEEF deployment went to San Isidro Air Base, Dominican Republic to support the airlift moving U.S. Army forces into the area in May 1965.

The Air Force deployed dozens of separate teams to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, proving the value of the program that has sent thousands of engineers around the world since 1965.