554th RED HORSE SQUADRON

MISSION
The RED HORSE mission is to support combat air power worldwide, RED HORSE provides the Commander of Air Force Forces (COMAFFOR) a dedicated, flexible, airfield and base heavy construction and repair capability. RED HORSE also provides many special capabilities that allow the COMAFFOR to move and support missions as the air order of battle dictates. The standard RED HORSE capability consists of 404 personnel (engineers and support personnel) with approximately 1,000 short-tons of vehicles, heavy construction and support equipment. This organic support allows the unit to operate independently for extended periods of time until normal supply channels are established. In addition to the standard capability, the RED HORSE special capabilities consist of approximately 2,200 short-tons, which can be tailored to meet specific construction and repair requirements. When operating in a higher threat, non-permissive environment outside a forward operating base or collocated operating base, the RED HORSE commander, in coordination with the area commander (i.e. combat arms land force commander), determines additional security requirements based on operational risk.

HISTORY
The 554th Civil Engineering Squadron (Heavy Repair) (CES(HR)) was constituted and activated on 1 Oct 1965, and was assigned to Pacific Air Forces for organization on 12 Oct 1965. Members of the 554th and 555th, the first two RED HORSE squadrons, received training at Cannon AFB (Clovis NM) prior to their deployment to Vietnam.  The 554th CES(HR) was the first to arrive in country in February 1966.  Its first major project was the repair of the AM-2 runway at Phan Rang AB.  In 1967, it became the first CES(HR) unit to own and operate a concrete batch plant, constructing parking aprons.  The unit also completed numerous dormitories, dining halls, and other facilities at several bases.  It was reassigned to the 1st Civil Engineering Group in May 1967.

In 1970, as RED HORSE reductions took place in Vietnam, the 1st Civil Engineer Group moved without personnel or equipment from Tan Son Nhut AFB, South Vietnam to Wright-Patterson AFB, OH on 16 March 1970.  On 10 April 1970, two RED HORSE squadrons redeployed from South Vietnam.  That left only two RED HORSE squadrons remaining in South Vietnam by the end of the year, the 554th CES(HR) at Cam Ranh Bay and the 823rd CES(HR) at Bien Hoa.

The 554th CES(HR) moved to Cam Ranh Bay AB on 15 February 1970 and then to Da Nang AB on 30 November 1971.  By the end of 1971, the 554th CES(HR) was the only squadron remaining in South Vietnam.  It moved to U Tapao AB, Thailand, on 30 June 1972 to remove modular facilities.  On 5 January 1976, the unit moved to Osan AB, Korea, and was assigned to Pacific Air Forces.  During this time frame, it also had a detachment in the Philippines.  In the early 1980s, the 554th was instrumental in constructing facilities at Suwon AB to bed down an A-10 squadron newly assigned to Fifth Air Force.  The 554th RHS has the only permanently assigned military heavy construction capability in US Pacific Command.

In addition to its construction projects, the 554th CES(HR) was active in natural disaster recovery work in the Pacific region. The Han River flows near Osan AB, and floods on a regular basis.  Using their heavy equipment, 554th CES(HR) repaired levies and minimized damage to the base and the local community numerous times.  It also played an important role in the recovery and repair of Clark AB, Philippines, following the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991.

By 1995, the unit’s size was significantly reduced to 55 persons, but a plus-up began in 1999 and by November 2000 it was back to an assigned strength of 144.  Then In late 2000, the 254th RED HORSE Flight (RHF) a 125 person RED HORSE unit was activated at Camp Murray, Tacoma WA, as an Air National Guard (ANG) associate unit with the 554th RHS in Korea, both of which later relocated to Andersen AFB Guam.  On 1 Oct 2001, the Air Force Reserve Command activated the 555th RHS, Nellis AFB, NV, also to augment the 554th RHS.  At that time, the 554th RHS became the only Total Force Squadron in the Air Force composed of Active Duty, Reserve, and Air National Guard components.  Both the 254th and 555th RHS’s provided one-third of the manpower and equipment of the combined squadron.

In 2014, a reorganization of the Air Force RED HOTRSE program ended the affiliation of the active-duty units with the Guard and Reserve units.

OPERATIONS
In Sep 1986, the squadron demolition team deployed to Seon-gab Do Island to enlarge an existing helicopter pad at the island’s summit, 1,200 feet in elevation above the beach. Flown in by helicopter, the team set up camp on the beach, then began work. Faced with an arduous hour climb followed by nine hours of grueling manual labor, one could always look forward to three scrumptious MREs each day.  This tropical paradise, inhabited only by hordes of rats, clouds of mosquito’s and bird size grasshoppers, remains anything but a pleasant memory for all.

In 1994, RED HORSE projects included: constructing two pre-engineered buildings (PEBs) at Hickam AFB, HI, constructing a base recovery after attack (BRATT) training site at Kadena AB, Japan, constructing K-Spans at Camp Carroll and Camp Humphreys, Republic of Korea, repairing a water line at Kunsan AB, Korea, constructing revetments at Kwang Ju AB, Korea, and constructing fuel berms/-a munition pad at Taegu AB, Korea.

In 2004, the 554th RHS established an airborne capability known as the 554th RHS Assault, Assessment, and Repair Operations (AARO, pronounced “arrow”) team to provide a rapid airfield seizure and repair capability for the Pacific theater.

In 2009, the 554th RHS was selected as the 2009 Major General Robert H Curtin Award for most outstanding civil engineering unit in the Air Force, small unit category. As the first squadron created, it is fitting that the 554th RHS is the first RED HORSE Squadron to win the Curtis Award in either the small or large unit category.

In 2013, RED HORSE civil engineers from Andersen AFB, Guam, were engaged in construction projects valued at $31 million across US Central Command’s operational area from Afghanistan to the Middle East, according to Andersen officials.  “With the scale of the projects we are currently taking on, we have to be considerably more flexible when executing the developmental stages,” said Andersen officials.  The squadron built a new operations center, a large-aircraft cargo ramp, and fuel storage area, in addition to laying new command and control infrastructure and patching runways at eight sites across CENTOM’s area of responsibility.  Andersen officials added “We are constantly mobilizing equipment, materials, and personnel”.  In less than two months in theater, the 554th RHS had moved more than 100,000 tons of earth, according to unit figures.

In 2015, Andersen AFB, Guam-Pacific Air Forces positioned airfield damage repair kits at locations throughout its area of responsibility to enable remote bases to quickly get runways up and running in the event of an attack.  Because of its strategic location in the Pacific and its two runways, Andersen got four of the kits.  One was for the 554th RHS, two for the 36th Civil Engineering Squadron, and one for Silver Flag training, which enabled instructors to introduce PACAF airmen to the new technology.  The large kits were designed to provide everything crews need to fill a crater in the event of an attack, including heavy construction equipment such as rollers, dump trucks, and bulldozers.  PACAF standardized the kits across the region, though it is scaling the kit sizes based on need.

In 2015, The Air Force took a new approach to Base Recovery After Attack (BRAAT).  “The Air Force is instituting large-scale changes to the way it repairs runways after an attack.  They are currently still teaching legacy airfield damage repair field methodology, based on Cold War technology and … threats … but there are some new and improved threats from adversaries in the region that have forced us to come up with a new methodology for recovering airfields,” said Lt Col Kevin Mares, Commander of the 554th RED HORSE Squadron Det 1 and head of Silver Flag training there.  We have always trained to the threat of fixing three 50-foot craters in four hours.  Now, the new threat is going to be potentially 20 to 100 six-foot craters, so there are going to be many more pieces of damage, but of a smaller nature,” he explained. The actual method for filling the holes also is changing.  “Instead of using compacted dirt and then topping it with a folded fiberglass mat, the Air Force is moving to a process called fillable flow, which is more of a very thick slurry used to fill the crater”, said Lt Col Andrew DeRosa, 554th RHS Commander.  “It’s quicker because you pretty much just pump it into a hole, skim it off, and let it set,” he added.

Unit Patch

LINEAGE
1 Oct 1965 – 554th Civil Engineering Squadron (HeavyRepair) constituted and activated
12 Oct 1965 – Organized
15 Oct 1969 – Redesignated 554th Civil Engineering Squadron, Heavy Repair
15 Oct 1988 – Redesignated 554th Civil Engineering Squadron, RED HORSE
8 Mar 1989 – Redesignated 554th RED HORSE Civil Engineering Squadron
1 Mar 1994 – Redesignated 554th RED HORSE Squadron

STATIONS
12 Oct 1965 – Phan Rang AB, South Vietnam
26 Dec 1969 – Cam Ranh Bay AB, South Vietnam
30 Nov 1971 – Da Nang AB, South Vietnam
30 Jun 1972 – U-Tapao, Thailand
5 Jan 1976 – Osan AB, South Korea
22 Jan 2008 – Andersen AFB, Guam

ASSIGNMENTS
12 Oct 1965 – 2d Air Division
1 Apr 1966 – Seventh Air Force
15 May 1967 – 1st Civil Engineering Group (Heavy Repair)
(later, 1st Civil Engineering Group, Heavy Repair)
16 Mar 1970 – Seventh Air Force
30 Jun 1972 – Thirteenth Air Force
5 Jan 1976 – Pacific Air Forces
1 Mar 1987 – Seventh Air Force