SOUTHWEST ASIA –
In a region where temperatures can get above 100 degrees every day during the summer, the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing looks to its heating, ventilation and air conditioning specialists, deployed from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., to keep people and equipment cool.
HVAC specialists, in some cases, keep mission essential assets from overheating. A building with mission-essential communications equipment lost its air conditioning system one month ago. Within a matter of minutes, the temperature in the room went from 80 degrees to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, said Senior Airman Joseph Cohen, 380th ECES HVAC journeyman, who is a native of Detroit and deployed from the 87th Civil Engineer Squadron at JB MDL.
Cohen said, specialists from the 380th ECES HVAC section were dispatched to the scene immediately to troubleshoot the buildings built-in system. They worked with 380th ECES structures shop to remove a door and build a wall to fix the problem. Later, HVAC specialists brought in two field deployable air conditioning units and punched two holes in the new wall to connect the new system. Eventually cooling the room and possibly saving millions of dollars of equipment.
Emergency scenarios are just a small portion of the HVAC mission here, which encompasses work on thousands of HVAC systems, such as air conditioners and ice machines.
Tech. Sgt. Marcelo Arellano said, 380th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron HVAC noncommissioned officer in charge, the HVAC team is operational 24/7. His teams spend little time in the office because they are always responding to work-orders or doing preventative maintenance.
"We field about 230 to 265 work-orders per week," said Arellano, who is native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and deployed from Yokota Air Base, Japan. "The bulk of those calls are small air conditioning units, but we have some large units with intricate systems as well."
The small units cooling most of the buildings on base are designed to last three years, but in the environment the 380th AEW operates in, none of them last the designed life-span, said Arellano.
Some common problems with the AC units are dust build up inside the system, and extreme heat causing pressure issues. When this happens, HVAC specialists can either spray water on the system to cool it, or replace some parts, which typically takes 20-30 minutes.
The larger, or more intricate cooling systems take longer to repair, said Arellano. They have many more moving parts including a large amount of plumbing and difficult electrical systems.
Because of the high temperature, the day-shift consistently repairs systems in urgent or emergency status; while the night-shift performs routine and preventative maintenance.
A lot of the preventative maintenance is done on the war-ready material assets, which are used where no commercial power is available. These systems are typically very reliable and can be used anywhere, said Arellano. However, working preventative maintenance on these units and others requires working with almost every other civil engineer craft including plumbing and electrical work.
"My Airmen are able to fix almost anything," said Arellano. "From providing unique solutions to emergency issues to knocking out thousands of work-orders a week, they accomplish great tasks."