Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force
Encyclopedia
The United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

's Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force (BEEF) are rapidly deployable, specialized civil engineer units, that provide a full range of engineering support required to establish, operate, and maintain garrison and contingency airbases.

The primary mission of Prime BEEF is to provide civil engineer support for the beddown of personnel and aircraft. Prime BEEF capabilities include airbase site surveys, establishing bare base camps and operations and utility system installation. Since Prime BEEF forces specialize in airfield operations, they are the primary units considered when establishing and sustaining airfield operations at locations where Air Force aircraft operate.

Prime BEEF forces have the necessary command, control and communications to support beddown; fire emergency services; emergency management; explosive ordnance disposal; expedient construction; explosive incident response; chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear response and other specialized teams that provide unique engineering capabilities.

Prime BEEF teams are also called on to support recovery operations after a natural or man-made disaster to assess damage, fight fires, mitigate hazards, provide emergency utilities, beddown military forces and disaster victims, repair facility damage, and control and monitor contamination.

Although Prime BEEF units are rapidly deployable and capable of providing support anywhere in the world on short notice, they are typically assigned to an installation. Therefore when operations require heavy construction support, the USAF employs the capabilities of RED HORSE (Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron, Engineer) units.
After the events of Sept. 11, 2001, Prime BEEF teams were the first USAF Civil Engineers deployed across the Southwest Asia AOR to support Operation ENDURING FREEDOM in Afghanistan, and then, Operation IRAQI FREEDOM in Iraq.

History

The Lebanon Crisis of 1958, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 demonstrated a need for the capability to respond to worldwide emergencies. Aircraft and support personnel were being deployed without providing runways, water supply, electricity, housing, and other facilities necessary to support them. Civil engineering personnel, who could rapidly respond, were needed to accompany aircraft and to provide basing facilities. The Air Force's answer was the Prime BEEF program.

The Air Force established the Prime BEEF program in 1964, posturing civil engineers to better respond to worldwide contingencies. Military civil engineers were divided into specially trained and equipped mobility and recovery teams, each with their own unit type code identifier. The first Prime BEEF deployment went to San Isidro AB, Dominican Republic to support the airlift moving U.S. Army forces into the area in May 1965.

That same year the Air Force deployed dozens of separate teams as the buildup of forces in Southeast Asia began, base civil engineering forces were inundated with construction, operations, and maintenance requirements. Large numbers of USAF strike aircraft were sent to bases where pavement for aircraft parking was at a premium. Aircraft were parked wing tip to wing tip, vulnerable to an accidental explosion or enemy attack. A need for aircraft revetments was dramatically brought home on 15 May 1965 when the explosion of a bomb under the wing of a loaded B-57 aircraft set off a chain reaction of explosions on the parking apron at Bien Hoa Air Base, South Vietnam. Forty aircraft were destroyed, 26 Americans killed, and over 60 wounded.

Three 25-man Prime BEEF teams were organized from Air Training Command, Strategic Air Command, and Air Defense Command. Teams were deployed to Tan Son Nhut, Bien Hoa and Da Nang Air Bases (all in South Vietnam) to construct aircraft revetments and complete whatever work that was needed. During their 120-day deployments, the teams constructed over 12000 feet (3,657.6 m) of revetments, parking aprons, and several miles of roads. The revetments paid for themselves in saved aircraft in just the first six months.

Soon other specialized teams were deployed to bases in Vietnam and Thailand to perform short-term construction projects. A Prime BEEF team was sent to Tan Son Nhut to ensure the rapidly growing base had an adequate water supply. Prime BEEF III sent teams to several other bases to build housing. The teams erected "hootches," framed tents, and constructed over 34000 square feet (3,158.7 m²) of support facilities at six bases in South Vietnam.

Prime BEEF teams continued to perform critical repair and construction work in Southeast Asia. Between 1965 and 1972, nearly 2,000 Prime BEEF team members were deployed to Southeast Asia to construct vital petroleum, oil, and lubricant (POL) pipelines and storage facilities; install jet engine exhaust blast deflectors; provide electrical power to buildings; and to erect small buildings.

The Prime BEEF program proved its value in additional situations. Several hundred personnel were deployed to Korea during Operation Combat Fox
Operation Combat Fox
On 23 January 1968 North Korean patrol boats supported by two MiG-21 fighters captured the USS Pueblo northeast of the North Korean island of Ung-do. The seizure of the Pueblo lead to President Lyndon Johnson ordering a show of force with a massive deployment of U.S. air and navy assets to Korea...

, following the seizure of the USS Pueblo in 1968. These teams dug wells, laid airfield matting, erected frame buildings, installed aircraft arresting barriers, sandbagged bunkers, and rehabilitated building and utility systems to facilitate the buildup of American forces at Korean air bases.

As the Vietnam War began to wind down, Prime BEEF teams remained in great demand by the Air Force. A number of these teams completed civic action projects in the Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands (which became the Federated States of Micronesia). In 1969, firefighters, now a part of the Prime BEEF program, were sent to locations around the world to provide fire protection and crash/rescue support. Teams also provided civil engineering support for various research projects. For example, they supported a project of the Air Force Weapons Laboratory testing on Eniwetok Atoll in 1972.

See also

  • Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency
    Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency
    The Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency is a Field Operating Agency of the United States Air Force. The agency manages contracts that provide civil engineer support to help restore and modernize buildings and infrastructure at Air Force bases around the world.-History:The AFCESA began as the...

  • Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers
    Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers
    United States Air Force Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers units are the Service's equivalent of the USMC Combat Engineers and Navy Seabees....

  • Seabee
    Seabee
    Seabees are members of the United States Navy construction battalions. The word Seabee is a proper noun that comes from the initials of Construction Battalion, of the United States Navy...

    s
  • United States Army Corps of Engineers
    United States Army Corps of Engineers
    The United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...

  • Sapper
    Sapper
    A sapper, pioneer or combat engineer is a combatant soldier who performs a wide variety of combat engineering duties, typically including, but not limited to, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, demolitions, field defences, general construction and building, as well as road and airfield...

  • Combat Engineering
    Combat engineering
    A combat engineer, also called pioneer or sapper in many armies, is a soldier who performs a variety of construction and demolition tasks under combat conditions...

  • Military Engineer
    Military engineer
    In military science, engineering refers to the practice of designing, building, maintaining and dismantling military works, including offensive, defensive and logistical structures, to shape the physical operating environment in war...

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