51 CES hard at work to heat up Osan

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Terri Barriere
  • 51st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --  As Old Man Winter sweeps through Osan fall leaves and sunny afternoons are replaced by cold mornings and snow on the ground setting the stage for a myriad of winter sports, a large cup of hot chocolate or just curling up under a warm blanket. However, the drop in temperature is also responsible for other things; frozen pipes, busted pumps and an influx in service calls to the 51st Civil Engineer Squadron Heating, Ventilation and Air Condition customer service department.

According to Senior Master Sgt. Ponciano Nuque, 51 CES Infrastructure superintendent, service calls are now rolling in by the dozen.

The sergeant said these calls are placed into categories by priority - emergency, urgent and routine. Emergency calls require an entire building outage, life or death situations or health concerns. Emergency situations are required to be completed within 24 hours. Urgent and routine calls are handled in as timely a manner as possible based on mission priority.

The HVAC shop typically fields anywhere from five to 10 calls a day, but during peak seasons such as the winter and summer months, they receive upward of 25 calls a day, most of which Sergeant Nuque said are preventable.

"We're asking facility managers and tank custodians to meet us half way by helping us maintain their facilities," he said. "All mechanical equipment needs care and upkeep, and that includes facilities and fuel tanks."

Sergeant Nuque said facility managers are charged with caring for their facilities as well as ensuring they call in maintenance request when needed. It is the job of the tank custodians to upkeep the maintenance on fuel tanks and perform frequent checks to ensure tanks are properly charged and operational.

"As everyone is doing more with less, we are depending on the facility managers and tank custodians to help us get the job done more efficiently and effectively," he said.
Sergeant Nuque said his Airmen are committed to serving the Osan community.

"Our office is working long hours to reduce the surge in work requests during this peak season," he said. "We've got a night shift stood up and are working over-time to deal with the influx of calls in addition to work orders that have already been put in. We're here to serve you."