Improved alert facility keeps McConnell ready

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Colby L. Hardin
  • 22nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. --  After four months of renovations, McConnell's new alert facility officially opened after a ribbon cutting ceremony, Sept. 10.

"The new facility provides a place to house the alert crews," said Stephen Yavornitzki, 22nd Air Refueling Wing combat operations officer. "It gives them enough access to the aircraft to take-off in a timely manner."

One of the major improvements included the addition of overnight rooms for alert crews to stay in during exercises or real world emergencies cutting down response times drastically.

The renovation was a high priority for the wing, and finishing the building within deadline was a big accomplishment for the 22nd and 931st Civil Engineer Squadrons and everyone else who had a hand in it, said Yavornitzki.

Bldg. 1219 was originally built in 1948. It stood here even before the Wichita Municipal Airport became McConnell Air Force Base.

Prior to being the alert facility, the building was used as a National Guard Amory, a hangar, a maintenance garage, non-destructive inspection lab, and before being renovated, it was the home of the 22nd Aerospace Medicine Squadron bioenvironmental shop.

The renovation was handled in-house as a hands-on training project for six different Air Force specialty codes.

"We removed the original concrete that was placed there in 1948," said Lt. Col. Clifford Theony, 22nd CES commander. "We were able to add 12 times the amount of plumbing that wasn't there before."

The construction of Bldg. 1219, took more than 10,000 man hours and more than 60 Airmen to complete.

"This project helped us fine tune our 22nd and 931st CES Airmen," said Theony. "They received knowledge about management, engineering, and trade skill that they would not have been able to get at our normal operations tempo."

A lot of hard work and late nights went into finishing up the facility on time, said Theony.

"Our goal was to preserve the historical aspects of the building," said Theony. "We did that, while meeting the wing's critical need for a modern facility capable of supporting U.S. Strategic Command's mission."

During the ceremony, all of the Airmen who had a hand in renovating this facility stood as the ribbon was cut and took a tour of the completed building afterwards.

"It was a real team effort," said Yavornitzki. "It was a total force integration effort to meet all required objectives."