Dead runway back to life

Master Sgt. Michael Mabe goes through a pre-trip inspection on his tractor trailer at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga. Mabe was a student in the tractor trailer training class at the Expeditionary Combat Support-Training Certification Center at Dobbins. The classes are conducted on a “dead runway” on base which is used for a multitude of various training courses. (U.S. Air Force Photo/Released)

Dead runway back to life

Explosive ordnance disposal technicians train to locate roadside bombs using special metal detectors during a training class at the Expeditionary Combat Support-Training Certification Center at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga. The course is taught on a “dead runway” that is now used for training courses in several different career fields. (U.S. Air Force Photo/Released)

Dead runway back to life

From left, Senior Airman Anthony Burgess, under the guidance of crane operator instructor Master Sgt. Alexes Abrams, works to make sure his crane is level before getting in the cab and beginning operations. Burgess was a student in the crane operator training program offered by the Expeditionary Combat Support-Training Certification Center at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga. The course is taught, along with several other career field courses, on a “dead runway.” (U.S. Air Force Photo/Released)

Dead runway gets a new life

Published Aug. 13, 2014
By Amy Ausley
AFCEC Public Affairs

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Educators are breathing new life into a dead runway at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga. The unused space is now a training site for several Air Force career fields.

Dobbins donated the runway and several acres of land to the Air Force Reserve Command's Expeditionary Combat Support Training Certification Center in 2001. Now, the ECS-TCC is putting the space to use with help from the Air Force Civil Engineer Center at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.

AFCEC manages some of the training programs offered by the ECS-TCC including tractor trailer, crane operator, explosive ordnance disposal, mobile aircraft arresting systems and use of the reverse osmosis water purification unit.

Development of the curriculum is a team effort between AFCEC and the ECS-TCC, said Tech. Sgt. Nate Claudson, a water and fuels instructor at the ECS-TCC.

"They develop our training programs and then we make suggestions," Claudson said. "We get together once or twice a year and go over ideas and make suggestions, then they work with us and develop the programs."

Even though Dobbins is an Air Reserve base, the programs are designed to meet total force training needs across the entire Air Force, said Master Sgt. Zach Fleming, a structure and heavy equipment instructor at the ECS-TCC.

"We're not as constrained as the formal school houses so we're able to flexibly respond to what the units need," Fleming said. "What you see on the runway here are programs we initially developed to meet needs in the Reserve and Guard communities, but now we've extended them out to the total force community."