Squadron christens new RED HORSE headquarters
By Kenneth Fine
Published in News on March 11, 2010 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/KENNETH FINE
The 567th Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron headquarters are seen at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. The facility once housed a federal prison camp that closed in 2006.
Nearly a year-and-a-half after the 567th Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron was established at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, unit commander Col. Timothy Lamb officially opened its headquarters at the site of the former Federal Prison Camp that was closed several years ago.
"We're proud of our new home," he said.
The 567th, known as RED HORSE, is a mobile squadron capable of rapid response and independent operations in remote, high-threat environments worldwide, providing an engineering response force, supporting special construction efforts and humanitarian civic action projects in remote areas, or operating contingency airfields and operating locations.
It is a self-sufficient, mobile group that provides heavy construction support -- runway and facility construction, electrical upgrades and equipment transport-- when requirements exceed typical civil engineer capabilities and where Army engineer support is not readily available.
Lamb said he and the airmen under his command have been preparing over the last year to deliver on that description during their first Air Expeditionary Forces deployment -- one scheduled for 2011.
And until that time, they will celebrate their new home, one the colonel called "another major milestone" for RED HORSE, and train for upcoming ventures that include an upcoming deployment to Panama.
The 567th, which was made up of 85 airmen when the unit was formed, now stands at more than 200.
"A year ago, we had a stand up ceremony for the unit," Lamb said. "We've come a long way in that year."
The RED HORSE facility site originally housed a Federal Prison Camp, one that was closed in 2006 as part of a cost-cutting program developed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.