European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 29, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday August 29, 1986 the stars and stripes members of Sembach a s civil engineering team work As a synchronized squad at a furious Pace to level out gravel before the top portion of the runway is secured. Olympics give airmen Chance to fix it fast  Bureau ramste1n a Germany just after the explosion . Marie Wynn had Only a few seconds to race to the Toolbox grab her tools and head for a Large stack of Cement slabs. Everyone s got their own special thing to do an out of a reach Wynn said As the Sembach a team completed one event thursday in the 1986 Safe rapid runway repair olympics Atra Stcin. If you Don t do your Job then you re slowing someone else  the blast of an explosive charge Simu lated a bomb hitting a runway. The 16 Mcm bar team from the 66th civil engr so at Sembach grabbed tools jumped into machinery and began filling a mock bomb Crater. In about 25 minutes the Crater had been covered with a special cloth filled with stones and levelled with Large slabs of pre formed Cement. The runway repair olympics Are an an Nual Competition that brings together teams from civil engineering squadrons from air Force bases in Germany. This year seven teams competed in eight events. If an air base suffers damage from bomb attack planes cannot land or take off until holes in the runway have been filled. After a Hole is filled the repair work must be levelled. An uneven runway Means a bumpy ride that could cause plane s wings to Flop up and Down and reduce the aircraft s ability to get off the ground. The Competition gives engineering units an Opportunity to hone their skill in repair methods. The first thing we think about is safety Wynn said. The second thing is getting everything in its proper place. The last thing is the  during the contest the Sembach team resembled a Highway repair Crew gone berserk. Massive forklifts dump trucks and front end loaders zipped from Rock pile to Crater. Some team members show eled furiously while others swept excess Rock from the Edge of the Hole. After dumping the Rock the heavy machinery did double duty by lugging a girder on wheels called a screed beam Over the Hole to carefully level the gravel. With the Cement slabs wedged into place the team fell into line and cheered the steamroller moving at a Snail s Pace to Complete the exercise. For us it went excellent said senior master sgt. Ralph Van Der Wysel of sem Bach. It s Only the fourth time we be done it and it s our Best  that time included a few extra Sec . Marie Wynn yells encouragement to team members is photos by Ken George everyone has a Job to do and the Sembach Cre gels to work As Competition begins. Ones to retrieve a Broom left on the screed beam. Team members shouted supportive and not so supportive re Marks to the airman sprinting to the beam to recover the Broom and place it in the tool Box. Other events included driving dump trucks Forward and backward through a course. The Large trucks had to nudge a Barrier at the end of their race without toppling an egg balanced on top of the Barrier. The Drivers of the front end loaders had to use the Large scoops on their machines to Knock a softball from the top of a stand without disturbing the stand. Teams also competed in other meth ods of Large and Small Craycr repair an took written tests. Points were awarded for each event and totalled to determine an Overall Winner. The 52nd civil engr so from Spang Dahlem a took first place in the two Day Competition followed by the 26lh c Uil engr so of we Bruecken a. Last h a s Winner. Ramstein s 377th civil engr so placed third. Also competing were the 66th civil engr so from Sembach a the 36thcivil engr so from Bill org a. The 435lh civil engr so from Rhein main a and the 56-4th civil engr so  As. Senior airman Michael Messersmith directs learn members from his forklift