Reservists' construction work at Osan adds up to big savings for Army
By Jim Lea, Osan bureau chief
OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — A New England Army reservist
company is on active-duty training in South Korea this summer, a tour that is saving the
Army a lot of money.
Capt. Dan Tranchemontagnb, A Company commander, 368th Engineer
Battalion from Rochester, N.H., said his troops are spending three weeks in South Korea,
pouring six concrete launch pads for Patriot Missiles assigned to Osan.
Officials say using the unit instead of contracting it out is saving
the Army a lot of hard cash.
“In labor costs alone, we’re saving upward of
$50,000,” said 1st Sgt. William Downs. “When you consider equipment, fuel and
maintenance costs a contractor would have, we’re saving the Army well over
$100,000.”
Downs added that the savings may be even more than that. There are
eight launch pads in all — two were laid earlier in the year by the reserve
battalion’s headquarters element — and Downs said each requires 500 yards of
concrete.
“I don’t know what concrete costs here, but back home,
it’s $63 a yard,” he said.
Reservists are also putting up a 40-foot-by-40-foot Butler building
at the firing range at nearby Camp Humphreys and are doing rehabilitation work on a
building that will become Humphreys’ public affairs office.
Tranchemontagnb — unit memebrs call him “Tranch”
— is a high school math teacher in Portland, Maine.
Downs, from Barington, N.H., is a nuclear waste technician at a
nuclear power plant.
First Lt. Rachelle Martinez, executive officer for Delta Battery, one
of two 43rd Air Defense Artillery batteries at Osan, said the Patriots wouldn’t have
the concrete launch pads if not for the reservists.
“We just wouldn’t have the time to get the pads if we
didn’t have these guys coming out to do the work,” she said.
Downs said the 20-foot-wide pads are 18 inches thick and require
about 500 yards of concrete.
“We’ve poured about 1,500 yards so far,” said Staff
Sgt. Matthew Plecinoga, in charge of the Osan work site. That, he added, “is a lot of
concrete.”
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