European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 3, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 8 the stars and stripes prime beef Cam members pull together to set the tent s roof into place. When the segments arc Lif cd Inlo position the team pulls and twists them into alignment. Sis photo by Dick Hodgson Hahn Feam beefs up its skills Tor readiness Challenge 86 . Jerry Reardon saws determinedly through one last Corner Brace. By Paul Cozby kaisers Lufern Bureau Ramstein a Germany . Daniel Messier stood Halfway up a ladder and pounded Home a Nail in the Short Rafler of a hardback tent Frame. When the Nail was in Messier spun on his precarious Perch leaned Down and drove Home a Nail in the base of the beam. Without a break he jumped from the lad Der and joined his co workers frantically hammering floor decking into place. Little More than an hour earlier Messier and the learn from the 50th civil engr so at Vlahn a had stood at attention before a pile of Wood a few tools and some level ground. In 77 minutes they again popped into formation having built a Complete Frame for a hardback tent. Thirteen minutes More and the tent had siding a Canvas cover electrical outlets and a stove. I would say sawing is the hardest part staff sgt. James n. Zolkan said. Sweat the team is making Good use of this tent one of the first of 12 erected during the training Camp at rams Cin stains marked his Green jumpsuit and hat. After a while you just lose your sol. Bill Dow cuts through two segments at a Lime of the a Inch plywood used for Lent flooring. Me used to do them six at a time but it was wearing him out too fast said tech. Sgt. Gilbert Harris one of the team s cos. The team from Hahn is at Ramstein a to train for readiness Challenge 86, an air forc wide Competition Between Basic emergency engineering forces More commonly called prime beef units. The contest at Eglin fab fla., in june will pit representatives of All air Force commands. The prime beef units will compete in 15 areas covering jobs that fall to civil Engi Neering during combat. The contests in clude rapid runway repair Camp planning and construction of Field housing. As Safe s team the 50th quickly Learned that getting ready for the games would be no easy task. We Start each morning at 5 . With calisthenic said tech sol. Wayne Roun Trcic. We do 50 push ups 50 sit ups and 50 toe touches. Then we run four Miles. When we started 1 could t even run half a when they began training the tent construction team took More than three hours to build the 15.5-fool by 30.5-foot Frame. Using Only hand held non Power tools the 11 team members had to place Stone mud seals in the ground Lay floor joists build and erect Wall frames build and attach rafters and Lay floor decking. For every Board or Nail out of place penalties ranging from one to 15 minute arc added to the time. We knew the Best Lime last year was just a Little More than an hour round acc said. We just worked at it until we got our time Down. Then we found out they used 21-Man teams on the tents last were Matching their time with 11 the team from Hahn has 25 members for All 15 events and Confidence is High. The teams i m really concerned about come from the air National guard and the reserves said capt. Craig Harrell who Heads the group. But we be got the advantage As far As training in Competition for rapid runway repair and in the use of heavy equipment the 50lh gets hands on training with machinery available in Europe. Many units in the United Stales Don t have the equipment to practice on. Harrell said. Those Guys in the reserves will be running one of those machines for a living he said. The team from inc 50lh will be training with Ramstein s 7002nd civil engr so through mid May
