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Mighty 97th CES Airmen help Little Rock AFB recover from tornado

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Kenneth W. Norman
  • 97th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  A four-man team from the 97th Civil Engineer Squadron structure shop recently returned from assisting Little Rock AFB, Ark., which was devastated by a tornado April 25.

The four-man team consisted of Tech. Sgt. Robert O. Findley, 97th CES NCO in charge of the structure shop; Staff Sgt. Paul C. Northrup, 97th CES structural craftsman; Airman 1st Class Dustyne K. Timm, 97th CES structural apprentice; and Airman 1st Class Jonathan T. Daniel, 97th CES structural apprentice. They spent seven days at Little Rock AFB working 12-to-14 hour shifts, helping clean up debris and fixing structural damage to base facilities.

"It was rewarding," Airman Daniel said. "I am from Arkansas. It is two-hours from my house and I actually went to [my supervisor] and asked if I could go help."

The tornado damaged more than 100 on-base housing units, three C-130 Hercules and damaged many base facilities and homes.

"The overall damage that was done to the base is just shy of $90 million at the latest estimate," said Lt. Col. Lance D. Clark, 19th Civil Engineer Squadron commander, Little Rock AFB. "It was incredibly helpful [to have this team]. Because of their efforts, they were able to help us speed up the recovery. We were able to get temporary fixes for those facilities done within 10 days of the tornado."

Upon arrival to Little Rock AFB, Sergeant Findley found out he would be working for an old supervisor of his and the team did not waste any time getting right to work.

"We hit the ground running," Sergeant Findley said. "It is just a work ethic kind of thing. Working for my old boss - I wasn't there to play games - we took care of business and got out."

"There was one day that we were the only ones working because there was so much flooding that people off base couldn't even get on," said A1C Daniel.

According to Mr. Michael Duhon, 19th CES deputy operations chief at Little Rock AFB, the team from Altus helped repair 42 roofs across the base, boarded up 73 windows on 12 facilities, cut and removed metal roofing and siding that was blown across the flightline, collected data for engineering and contracting for $4 million worth of emergency roof repair for 55 roof facilities, helped repair four hangar doors, worked with emergency responders on facility damage by collecting and privatizing almost $50 million in facility repairs, and helped drain 12 heavily damaged facilities from 10 inches of torrential rainfall.

"They worked hard and we needed them, as you can tell we had a lot to do and they jumped in and helped us do it all," Mr. Duhon said.