Air Force Magazine – July-August 2019

    JULY/AUGUST  AIRFORCEMAG.COM

Photo: TSgt. Rachelle Blake

WORLD

Water, Water,

Everywhere

How Outt is getting back on its feet after a “500-year flood.”

By Rachel S. Cohen

T

he runway again hosts airplanes instead of oodwaters
and sh, but Outt Air Force Base still faces a long slog
to normalcy.
Following a historic ood that covered about one-
third of the base in March, ocials here, just 12 miles
south of Omaha, Neb., say it could take ve years or more
to fully restore damaged assets from the 55th Wing and US
Strategic Command. Today’s “get-well plan” includes mostly
temporary xes, such as replacing simulators destroyed by
oodwaters with an RC-135 withheld from deploying so air-
crews and maintainers have something to train with; moving
about 3,200 employees into interim workspaces; and adopt-
ing around-the-clock maintenance shifts to make up for lost
maintenance capacity.
e intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance wing lost
three aircrew training systems, including one that can simulate
all three RC-135 variants—the Rivet Joint, Combat Sent, and
Cobra Ball—and two Rivet Joint-specic simulators. A fourth
simulator, for sustainment, was damaged but was expected to
be back up and running by the end of June. e best case for

mission crew trainers would have “Band-Aid xes” in place

by the end of the year.

But these will not replace everything crews had before,

said 55th Wing spokesman Ryan Hansen. “e ‘Band-Aid’ x

refers to the use of old but functioning spare parts to create

what unfortunately will have limited capabilities, but meet

minimum training requirements. A follow-on [simulator] will

restore full capabilities lost in the ood.”

Despite the ood damage, the 55th Wing hasn’t missed a

deployment. Col. Eric Paulson, 55th Operations Group com-

mander, said the wing is meeting continued demand.

Maintainers quickly bounced back, as well. e rst day they

were able, maintainers moved tools out of the main mainte-

nance complex and salvaged what they could from oces.

One top priority was cleaning airplane docks so the airplanes

could come inside for shelter and xes.

“e rst thing we did was inventory and relocate assets that

were critical to the operation,” said 55th Maintenance Group

chief Col. Todd Hammond. “We created space in the docks

at rst, and then all the maintenance backshop capability. ...

Even without power ... they were in the shops, cleaning, in an

eort to get those shops back online.”

e workshops support C-135 variants, as well as the Air

Floodwaters spread over the flight line and surrounding areas at Outt AFB, Neb., March 16, leaving tens of millions in
damages.

O AFB, N.—