It’s Been a Busy Year

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Michael Beach
  • 17th Civil Engineer Squadron
At this time last year, I wrote an article outlining the big projects and initiatives the 17th Civil Engineer Squadron would be working on through FY09. I highlighted the chapel, the design of the new Joint Intel Technical Training Facility, and the design of a new 100-room pipeline student dorm as a few of the largest projects. I am happy to report that what was already anticipated to be a big year for Goodfellow turned out to be record breaking. 

First of all, at the end of FY08 Goodfellow received over $3 million of fallout funds; this enabled us to accomplish projects like the new Predator static display, the new troop walk under construction in the intelligence campus, road repairs on Comanche Trail and Fort Lancaster Avenue and room repairs in the student officer dorms to name just a few of the projects. Hot on the heels of this unprecedented single-year investment in the wing's infrastructure, President Obama's economic stimulus initiative was passed by congress as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This program resulted in another $7.8 million of facility repair projects for the 17th Training Wing. Of that $7.8 million, $3.5 million was spent on improving the quality of life for students through dormitory and lodging upgrades and repairs. 

The other $4.3 million was spent on infrastructure upgrades that support many different functions including roof repairs, road repairs, new underground utilities and the like. In addition to upgrades to base facilities, we have also seen the rapid construction of new family housing areas for our servicemembers. 

This year our partners at Pinnacle-Hunt have constructed 143 brand new homes. Many families have already moved into our new neighborhoods and are enjoying the amenities and sense of community that living in a base housing area offers. Even though the construction is almost complete, we are not going to rest. The wing leadership team is fully engaged with Pinnacle to ensure we continue to provide quality homes for Airmen at a reasonable cost. To ensure we are meeting the needs of Airmen we conduct customer satisfaction surveys of  Pinnacle's tenants. In addition to our surveys, we encourage members living in housing to stay engaged with their neighborhood tenant representatives. Pinnacle and the Air Force are committed to providing quality homes for families, candid customer feedback will help us focus our efforts on the items of greatest importance to you. So far I've been talking about what we have done over the past year; let's shift gears and talk about the year coming up. 

The upcoming year will have even greater activity than last year. We will break ground on four major projects: a fitness center addition; a 200-room pipeline student dorm; a Joint Intel Technical Training Facility; and a new 100-room pipeline student dorm. The fitness center addition will add over 15,000 square feet of space and include new multi-purpose fitness space, a new ladies locker room, and some repairs and upgrades to the existing facility. The new 200-room pipeline dorm was originally to be constructed in FY12, but we pulled it forward to FY08 as part of the ARRA. The JITTF will add 50,000 square feet to our intelligence campus. Lastly, the 100-room pipeline dorm will proceed in FY10 as originally scheduled. In addition to all of this major military construction, we are also working on new programs for next year.

 Besides the normal upkeep and infrastructure replacements that keep the 17 CES busy, we are also pursuing a program to upgrade Camp Sentinel. To start off we are going to expand the camp and construct an expeditionary intelligence training facility. We are looking to transform Camp Sentinel into a true joint service expeditionary training center to serve the pre-deployment needs of service members going down range, as well as the needs of joint service pipeline students.

 As you can see, your Civil Engineers are still hard at work improving the base for everyone. We are proud to support the wing. Remember, who gets it done?...CE!