RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas –
Engineers, contractors and personnelists alike, worked overtime to build and staff the Basic Sensor Operator Course's campus in less than a month.
By readying dorms, the dining facility, converting a shell of a trailer into fully-functioning classrooms for students and finding Airmen to man the school's staff, Team Randolph accomplished a monumental task in only a few weeks.
Francis Dinh, 12th Civil Engineer Division engineer, said once the contracts for the work were signed, the clock was ticking fast.
"The timeline was the biggest obstacle we faced," Mr. Dinh said. "We started renovations three weeks prior to the students' Aug.14 arrival."
Mr. Dinh's initial challenge he and contractors faced was providing electrical power to the classrooms, where there would be numerous computers needed. Walls and two restrooms were added, carpet was laid and furniture was placed in the building.
"We worked late hours," Mr. Dinh added. "We were there at two in the morning sometimes, but it took only three weeks, with a price tag of $243,000."
Contractors also spent a portion of the $1.7 million allocated to renovate the enlisted dorms in Building 861 for the influx of enlisted BSOC students expected to arrive at the Air Force's newest technical school fresh from basic training.
"The initial students were all prior-service Airmen, so they had no need for the dorms," Mr. Dinh explained. "But we had to convert what was once a hotel-lodging facility into a facility that meets Air Force technical training standards for incoming pipeline Airmen in subsequent classes."
That conversion meant going into rooms and replacing vanity areas, closing off walls, installing new lighting and a closed-circuit TV security system, converting four rooms into laundry facilities, and putting in new doors and locking systems for the rooms.
Mr. Dinh said 25 percent of the planned renovations for the school's enlisted dorms are done. That's sufficient to house the first influx of students expected soon. And the rest of the renovations are underway now.
At the dining facility, Mr. Dinh said contractors replaced interior walls, restrooms and mechanical systems and upgraded carpeting, at a cost of about $1.4 million.
"The challenge there," Mr. Dinh added, "was to phase in the rehab work in the dining facility without shutting operations down."
While all of this construction was happening, personnel experts were at work filling manning quotas for instructors and other school staff members. But first, the school had to be formed into an Air Force unit.
"We first had to create a unit to put the people in," said Dave Foret, 12th Force Support Squadron management analyst, "so we worked with Air Education Training Command manpower, in conjunction with the 12th Operations Group leadership, to establish the '12th OG Detachment 1' on Aug. 1. Once the unit was established we had to get the people we needed to make the mission a success."
Mr. Foret praised Col. Jimmy Donohue for working with the headquarters to establish 25 positions on the unit manning document before to the first BSOC class's start during a period of tight resource management.
"We worked the manpower requirement and were able to get the right mix of people," he said. "I've been in the Air Force 28 years and in manpower for 25 of those years and what Colonel Donohue did to get this project to successful fruition was one of the most remarkable achievements I have ever seen."